The Commodore by C. S. Forester
May. 8th, 2023 12:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regshoeI read The Commodore a few weeks ago, shortly before the Kidnapped play took over my entire fannish brain, hence the delay in writing it up. And to be honest Kidnapped is still taking up much of my brain right now, but I do want to get caught up on these book review posts, so: Hornblower! :D
The Commodore (1945; Commodore Hornblower in the US, the publisher apparently being afraid that American readers might forget who the main character was) is the fourth Hornblower novel in publication order and the ninth in chronological order. It opens memorably, with Hornblower established in his position as a fortunate gentleman, happily married to Barbara and being officially welcomed to his country estate by his neighbours and tenants there, and absolutely hating it. (He doesn't hate Barbara—there are some rather touching lines about how much he loves her, but he, er, doesn't seem to be very good at remembering it—more on that later). Events soon intervene, however, and Hornblower is appointed Commodore and sent to the Baltic to take a part in the delicate political situation unfolding there, where Russia and Sweden are deciding whether to side with or against Bonaparte. Hornblower picks his chief captain—you'll never guess which captain he chooses—and so he, Captain Bush and the various other captains in the squadron sail off northwards.
The rest of the book is the usual various but relatively fast-paced mix of naval manoeuvres, battles, political occasions (quite a lot of political ceremony, actually; Horatio is getting important these days) and so on, so I'll talk about some particular points that stood out to me rather than trying to summarise the whole thing.
This book doesn't have the amazing sustained Hornblower/Bush shippiness that Flying Colours had, but there are some very lovely moments between them, which I appreciated. Aww, look at them:
Unfortunately both Bush and Hornblower have some decidedly non-likeable moments in this book. Bush's unnerving bloodlust is on full display when he tries to insist on hanging a deserter who's already dying horribly from a gunshot wound to the head; despite all the absurd cuteness in other scenes I find I cannot quite like Bush. And Hornblower has another of his inexplicable heterosexual affairs, this one with a Russian Countess whom he meets at a state occasion. This time, of course, he is cheating on Barbara—whom he apparently does love and is happy to be married to, despite the difficulties of life as the sort of gentleman who can be Barbara's husband—and it apparently never occurs to him that he might be doing Barbara a wrong here. I was baffled by this, and it does not do much good for my sympathy for Hornblower in the meantime.
I did enjoy the political drama of this book, including Hornblower's foiling of an attempt to assassinate the Tsar of Russia and the Prince of Sweden. Hornblower is getting historically important now—something he does at the end seems to be a fairly major action in the real course of the war, and I (knowing very little about the course of the Napoleonic Wars) was curious about how Forester is actually fitting him into real history here. The book also has a lot of the usual clever naval tactics and dramatic sea battles—Hornblower enjoys being in charge of the squadron and being a role model for the younger captains under his command (one of whom gets a very sad tragic death)—and there's quite a bit of fighting on land too, including a somewhat implausible sequence where Hornblower heroically and dramatically leads a charge against Bonaparte's army more or less by accident and is dramatically lauded as a hero.
Forester remains irritatingly fond of the word 'grin' used to mean 'wide smile', which always jolts me out of the story for a moment (I'm not sure how old that sense actually is—the OED doesn't seem to list it separately—but in my experience older books only ever use the word in its various 'expression that bares the teeth, in a bad way' senses).
I say it was published in the US as Commodore Hornblower; in fact these are not quite the same book under two different titles, because an extra chapter was added to the end of the US version. I read a physical copy of the UK edition from the library, and then picked up the extra chapter from fadedpage.com, and having done so I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand the original ending is very abrupt; the main plot is more or less wrapped up but I wasn't at all sure that Hornblower wasn't about to die of exhaustion, and it was nice to get a bit more about what actually happens to him and confirm that he does recover. On the other hand the final part of the extra chapter is much weaker and felt pretty unnecessary, not saying anything you couldn't already have told was going to happen or including any particularly interesting details. I shall combine them for the ideal ending.
The Commodore (1945; Commodore Hornblower in the US, the publisher apparently being afraid that American readers might forget who the main character was) is the fourth Hornblower novel in publication order and the ninth in chronological order. It opens memorably, with Hornblower established in his position as a fortunate gentleman, happily married to Barbara and being officially welcomed to his country estate by his neighbours and tenants there, and absolutely hating it. (He doesn't hate Barbara—there are some rather touching lines about how much he loves her, but he, er, doesn't seem to be very good at remembering it—more on that later). Events soon intervene, however, and Hornblower is appointed Commodore and sent to the Baltic to take a part in the delicate political situation unfolding there, where Russia and Sweden are deciding whether to side with or against Bonaparte. Hornblower picks his chief captain—you'll never guess which captain he chooses—and so he, Captain Bush and the various other captains in the squadron sail off northwards.
The rest of the book is the usual various but relatively fast-paced mix of naval manoeuvres, battles, political occasions (quite a lot of political ceremony, actually; Horatio is getting important these days) and so on, so I'll talk about some particular points that stood out to me rather than trying to summarise the whole thing.
This book doesn't have the amazing sustained Hornblower/Bush shippiness that Flying Colours had, but there are some very lovely moments between them, which I appreciated. Aww, look at them:
Bush brought down his hand from the salute and grasped Hornblower’s, trying hard to act his part, as if there were no friendship in this handshake, but mere professional esteem. Hornblower noted that his hand was as hard as ever—promotion to captain’s rank had not softened it. And try as he would Bush could not keep his face expressionless. The blue eyes were alight with pleasure, and the craggy features kept softening into a smile as they escaped from his control. It made it harder than ever for Hornblower to remain dignified.
Unfortunately both Bush and Hornblower have some decidedly non-likeable moments in this book. Bush's unnerving bloodlust is on full display when he tries to insist on hanging a deserter who's already dying horribly from a gunshot wound to the head; despite all the absurd cuteness in other scenes I find I cannot quite like Bush. And Hornblower has another of his inexplicable heterosexual affairs, this one with a Russian Countess whom he meets at a state occasion. This time, of course, he is cheating on Barbara—whom he apparently does love and is happy to be married to, despite the difficulties of life as the sort of gentleman who can be Barbara's husband—and it apparently never occurs to him that he might be doing Barbara a wrong here. I was baffled by this, and it does not do much good for my sympathy for Hornblower in the meantime.
I did enjoy the political drama of this book, including Hornblower's foiling of an attempt to assassinate the Tsar of Russia and the Prince of Sweden. Hornblower is getting historically important now—something he does at the end seems to be a fairly major action in the real course of the war, and I (knowing very little about the course of the Napoleonic Wars) was curious about how Forester is actually fitting him into real history here. The book also has a lot of the usual clever naval tactics and dramatic sea battles—Hornblower enjoys being in charge of the squadron and being a role model for the younger captains under his command (one of whom gets a very sad tragic death)—and there's quite a bit of fighting on land too, including a somewhat implausible sequence where Hornblower heroically and dramatically leads a charge against Bonaparte's army more or less by accident and is dramatically lauded as a hero.
Forester remains irritatingly fond of the word 'grin' used to mean 'wide smile', which always jolts me out of the story for a moment (I'm not sure how old that sense actually is—the OED doesn't seem to list it separately—but in my experience older books only ever use the word in its various 'expression that bares the teeth, in a bad way' senses).
I say it was published in the US as Commodore Hornblower; in fact these are not quite the same book under two different titles, because an extra chapter was added to the end of the US version. I read a physical copy of the UK edition from the library, and then picked up the extra chapter from fadedpage.com, and having done so I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand the original ending is very abrupt; the main plot is more or less wrapped up but I wasn't at all sure that Hornblower wasn't about to die of exhaustion, and it was nice to get a bit more about what actually happens to him and confirm that he does recover. On the other hand the final part of the extra chapter is much weaker and felt pretty unnecessary, not saying anything you couldn't already have told was going to happen or including any particularly interesting details. I shall combine them for the ideal ending.
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Date: May. 9th, 2023 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: May. 10th, 2023 06:45 pm (UTC)