Book Review: Mr. Midshipman Hornblower

[osprey_archer]

Ahoy there, mateys! In 2026, littlerhymes and I have embarked on a Year of Sail, starting with C. S. Forester’s Mr. Midshipman Hornblower!

(This was apparently not the first Hornblower published, but it is the first chronologically, so we decided to start there.)

In this book we meet Horatio Hornblower, a cool, logical, mathematically talented all-around doofus who gets seasick on his very first row out to his new ship as midshipman. The seasickness fades but the general awkwardness does not, as evidenced in the story where a woman offers to hide dispatches in her petticoats and Hornblower is like: discussing stays? and petticoats? with a woman???? and then there’s a glimpse of her thigh WHERE TO LOOK??????

He’s also almost madly brave, as evidenced in the story where he purposefully climbs aboard a fire ship (that is, a ship that has been purposefully set on fire in order to set other ships ablaze) in order to steer it out of the harbor. Absolute madman. But it’s the logical thing to do, so calmly he goes ahead and does it.

Over the years I’ve osmosed that the Hornblower movies starring Ioan Gruffud are good and also slashy, so I decided that I might as well give them a go too. I watched the first two, then commented to littlerhymes, “These are good but they AREN’T slashy, the internet lied to me.”

“Watch the next movie,” littlerhymes commanded.

HOLY COW.

So in the first movie, Hornblower and company are on their way to a surprise night attack on a French frigate when Hornblower’s friend Mr. Midshipman Kennedy has a seizure. Unable to think of any other way to keep him quiet, Hornblower knocks him over the head, which means that they have to leave him on the jolly boat as the rest of them attack the frigate, and the jolly boat is cast adrift with Kennedy still in it.

In the third movie, Kennedy returns! Specially, Hornblower is TAKEN CAPTIVE by the SPANISH and in his very cell in Spanish prison, he finds Kennedy, who greets him “GO AWAY.”

Then Kennedy turns his face to the wall. He just got out of the punishment cell which is so small that you can neither lie down nor stand up, and he can no longer straighten his legs, and he wants to die.

Naturally Hornblower tenderly nurses him back to health, which involves gently smoothing his lustrous hair from his brow. (The production team clearly threw realism to the winds with the lustrous hair, as I feel strongly that Mr. Midshipman “so depressed he’s trying to starve himself to death” Kennedy would probably not be bothering to comb his hair or indeed shave and would therefore have a beard like Santa Claus.) It does NOT involve climbing into bed with him to warm him with his own body heat, but I feel sure that fanfic has filled in this gap, and if it hasn’t (or even if it has) I might need to commit a little fic for the cause.

Comments

[philomytha]

Oh no, if you're going to be posting about Age of Sail books all year I am going to have to revisit Hornblower too! I recall enjoying the TV series years and years ago, and I bought the books but I'm not sure I ever read them, or maybe only the first one. But I do recall some of the scenes in the TV show with Kennedy!

[osprey_archer]

I apologize for my Age of Sail sins of potentially pulling other people into the Age of Sail. But otoh I'm sure there are many people (like me) who are in the position of having to read Age of Sail stuff for years without ever getting around to it, so perhaps it is actually virtuous to inspire us all to set sail?

[sanguinity]

Whee! He is such a doofus. And never really stops being one, either, no matter how old he gets.

I do hope you'll be continuing to the next (chronologically) Hornblower book, Lieutenant Hornblower, which is where Forester keeps the slash. Well, one of the places he kept the slash. ;-)

What else is on your agenda for your Year of Sail?

[osprey_archer]

Simply a born doofus. Cannot help it! Might get better at hiding it but then again might not.

Yes, we're definitely going on to the next Hornblower book! Not right away, however, as we have agreed to alternate Hornblower and Aubrey-Maturin until one series wins out (either permanently or just for the time being).

Hornblower and Aubrey-Maturin (and their respective movies) are the big Age of Sail plans, but for the more general Year of Sail, I've already started a recent nonfiction book about Captain Cook's last voyage. I may finally tackle Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast, and I've discussed doing a readalong with friends of Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey. (That may technically be rowing rather than sailing. Shhhhh. Year at Sea?) Otherwise, we'll see where the wind takes us.

[asakiyume]

Hahaha, I feel like Hornblower is indeed right up your line! I remember when people were watching the series, how swoonworthy the slash apparently was (as you can tell, I watched from the sidelines, but even the sidelines were fun).

[osprey_archer]

Yes, I had the extremely peripheral involvement in Hornblower of knowing that the slash was, apparently, swoonworthy, which is how the books and movies ended up on my list... probably about fifteen years ago... but it was peripheral enough that I'm not actually sure if people were mostly doing book canon or movie canon, even. Probably movie canon, as the movies would have been quite recent at that point?

[asakiyume]

Yeah, I think movie, but then some people went on to read the books.

[sartorias]

Hoo boy, yeah. Kennedy. I might just have to schedule a rewatch . . .

[osprey_archer]

If you must, you must! Kennedy's certainly worth a rewatch.

[duskpeterson]

"Naturally Hornblower tenderly nurses him back to health"

Having read Dorothy Dunnett's The Game of Kings, I now feel there needs to be a new Fanlore trope entry: Tortures Victim, Then Nurses Them Back To Health.

[osprey_archer]

Sometimes you just have no other choice!

[cyphomandra]

Yay Age of Sail! I am very fond of the TV series for the ridiculously slashy bits and also how pretty Hornblower and Kennedy are, but for the books I prefer the mid/later ones (I started reading with Flying Colours, which probably also biased me).

[sanguinity]

Flying Colours, my beloved!

[osprey_archer]

I will report my thoughts once I get there!

[littlerhymes]

Please, for the cause!!

Hornblower is so fun. I know I'll enjoy Master & Commander, but a part of me yearns to sail with Hornblower.

[osprey_archer]

Now that we've started Master and Commander I think we must see it through. But after we finish it, we could always pause to zip through a few Hornblowers before we start up with Aubrey-Maturin again...

[regshoe]

Hornblower! \o/ I am reading them in publication order, so it'll be fun to follow your posts and compare my experience to that of someone reading in internal chronological order.

a cool, logical, mathematically talented all-around doofus [...] also almost madly brave

I like this description of our Horatio :D

[osprey_archer]

Yeah, it should be interesting! At some point I should go back and read your posts... can't remember if you've done Mr. Midshipman Hornblower yet?

The poor boy IS such a doofus, even when he's also brilliant and heroic. I think he needs that doofus quality to counteract all the cool-headed bravery and ability to chart courses on the fly.

[regshoe]

I have, yes! Hornblower in the later-set books is still cool-headedly brave and mathsy and a doofus in sometimes painful and complicated ways, it's great.

[silverusagi]

I watched all of these movies once upon a time, though I couldn't now tell you a thing about them. I liked them, but it's just been sooooo long.

[osprey_archer]

They came out ages ago! I've meant to watch them for years but only now finally got around to it.