Lieutenant Hornblower, by C.S. Forester

(Originally posted to Instagram on June 1st, 2024)

I managed to sneak an eighth book in before the end of May! Unexpected but very exciting. Just couldn’t put this one down. Very well written and perfectly paced adventure story that pulls some interesting tricks that I was not expecting, but which really delighted me.

The premise is: Lt. Bush is new to the HMS Renown. There, he meets the guarded and enigmatic Lt. Hornblower, whom he’s not sure is a good compatriot. Who can Lt. Bush trust on this boat? Surely the captain is an ally, right? But over the first third of the book, that gets called into question. Through a series of violent engagements, Hornblower, Bush, and the other Lieutenants are in command of the Renown, and they need to complete the mission and continue taking the war to Napoleon and his Spanish allies.

I don’t think I mentioned this when I posted about the first book in the series, but these books tell a Navy story that is very realistic, both the good and the bad. For example, the first book opened with Hornblower so massively depressed and miserable with Navy life, he doesn’t know how he can go on living. Very true to life, in my experience. Now in Lieutenant Hornblower, there’s a plot point where it’s very heavily implied that a terrible superior officer gets pushed down a ladderwell and injured terribly, to the betterment of the crew.

First, a lot of these olde timey sailing books make it seem like all captains are perfect saints, so it’s nice to see a Navy book where some are complete scumbags. Second, it’s nice seeing the ways in which subordinates can fix certain things themselves. I won’t say it’s right to push a superior officer down the stairs, but I will say it’s very satisfying to see it happen in this book.

The second trick Lieutenant Hornblower pulls is that Hornblower himself is not the pov character! We learn about him via a new character, Lieutenant Bush, who spends a lot of words trying to figure Hornblower out. Try to imagine Catching Fire told from the perspective of Finnick trying to figure out Katniss. It’s that jarring at first, but honestly it really works! We get to see what the Navy thinks of Hornblower, rather than what he thinks of himself.

Anyway, it’s a great book. Some antiquated terms to get past (this one is also very jingoistic against Spain!) but otherwise a definite recommendation. Even better than the first one.