Horatio Hornblower

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Horatio Hornblower , one of CS Forester created fictional character , a naval hero of the British Navy , who in the days of Napoleon Bonaparte at various naval battles participates. In eleven volumes, Forester describes the career of Hornblower, who climbed the career ladder of the Royal Navy from ensign to admiral through bravery, determination, intelligence and truthfulness .

Description of the figure

With the fictional character of Horatio Hornblower, CS Forester describes his central theme, the "men alone" extreme situations in which a person has to make a difficult decision on their own. Horatio Hornblower finds himself in situations like this time and again, and the burden of responsibility makes him difficult. Despite great self-doubt , he always succeeds in making the right decision after weighing up all the opportunities and risks.

Hornblower is described as an ambivalent figure. In addition to his strengths, which include great personal courage, seamanship and strategic skill, he shows weaknesses, such as his complete lack of understanding of music, his shyness and his fear of failure. In addition, he gets seasick at the beginning of every trip - a trait that, like his first name, he shares with the sea hero Horatio Nelson .

Historical background

Forester was inspired by the contemporary reports in the Naval Chronicle when creating the character and adventures of Hornblower. Hornblower's experiences could - apart from details - have happened as described by Forester, without getting into too great a conflict with the story. The naval historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson wrote a biography about Hornblower, which, however, differs in details from the information in the novels. The reason for this are certain inconsistencies in the novels, which are mainly attributed to the fact that Forester did not write them in chronological order. For example, in the first novel The Captain, set in 1808, Hornblower's age is given as 38. In the later published "Ensign Hornblower" the date of birth is July 4th 1776.

Hornblower's personal life

Hornblower's private and love life takes up only a small part of the novels that mostly tell of life at sea. He is the son of a country doctor (in the novel "Fähnrich Hornblower" the date of birth is July 4th, 1776) and joins the fleet in 1793. He was married twice, from 1803 to 1809 to the unattractive Maria Mason, who came from a humble background, and after her death to the elegant Lady Barbara Wellesley, sister of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington . With Maria he had three children, two of whom died early. In addition to his rank as admiral, Hornblower rose to peer , who was knighted by the Prince Regent to Knight of the Bath Order .

Books

The books were published in Germany in a translation by Eugen von Beulwitz between 1938 and 1940 and from 1945 by Verlag Wolfgang Krueger (Hamburg) and as a licensed edition around 1960 by Bertelsmann Lesering ; Paperback editions were later published by Ullstein (editions 1974 to 2007) and Scherz (cassette with eleven volumes, October 2004). The individual novels were not written in chronological order, so the biographical details are not always consistent.

The captain

The first published novel ( The Captain ) takes place in 1808, when Hornblower is the captain of the frigate HMS Lydia , which operates on its own in the Pacific Ocean . On the way he takes the elegant Lady Barbara Wellesley , the sister of the future Duke of Wellington, on board. The two fall in love, but Hornblower must not give in to his inclination because he is already married. After their happy return, the two go their separate ways for the time being. Lady Barbara marries Hornblower's superior, Sir Percy Leighton, a very inexperienced admiral.

On Spain's coasts

Hornblower takes part in the war of blockade against the Napoleonic forces as captain of the old liner Sutherland off the Spanish coast. The novel ends with a battle between the Sutherland and four French ships of the line off the Spanish Rosas . Hornblower puts the enemy squadron to fight, which can later destroy it, but loses his own ship and is captured.

Under a waving flag

The next novel, Under a Waving Flag , describes Hornblower's imprisonment in the fortress Rosas and his transport to Paris , where he is to be convicted as a war criminal . On the way he manages to escape together with his wounded first officer Lieutenant William Bush and the boatswain Brown. The three sailors are rescued by the Comte de Gracey, a representative of the Ancien Régime , and his widowed daughter-in-law Marie, who falls in love with Hornblower. After spending a winter at the Chateau de Gracey and after a brief but intense affair between Hornblower and Marie, the three Brits continue their escape in a small boat. They travel down the Loire to Nantes , where they retake a British warship, the cutter Witch of Endor , captured by the French navy and escape with a crew of galley convicts . At sea they are received by the British blockade fleet . Hornblower learns that his wife Maria died in childbed and that he has a son named Richard. He has to stand trial before the court martial for the loss of the Sutherland , but is acquitted, promoted and given the highest honors. Thanks to the prizes he captured in the Mediterranean, Hornblower is also without material worries for the first time in his life. Lady Barbara is now also widowed (Admiral Leighton was killed in that battle near Rosas, in which the French squadron, which had been badly damaged by Hornblower, was completely destroyed), so that there is no longer any obstacle to the marriage of the two.

The commodore

In the next novel, The Commodore , Hornblower is sent to the Baltic Sea as the Commodore of a British squadron to demonstrate British naval power and to draw the Russian Tsar into the alliance against Napoleon . This succeeds, and during the Napoleonic campaign against Russia , Hornblower's squadron is successfully used to defend the city of Riga against the French siege. Bush, meanwhile captain of Hornblower's flagship Nonsuch , and Brown, meanwhile Hornblower's steward, are also there again. During the war, Hornblower met Carl von Clausewitz , a Prussian officer in Russian service, and the later Prussian Field Marshal Yorck , whom he persuaded to sign an armistice between Prussian and Russian troops, the Tauroggen Convention .

Lord Hornblower

The following novel, Lord Hornblower , begins in France in 1814. Hornblower's diplomatic skills put an end to a mutiny on a British warship and, with a commando operation of his squadron, conquered the port of Le Havre . His old friend Bush falls in the process. Napoleon abdicates and goes into exile in Elba , Hornblower is appointed Peer of England . To distract himself from his guilty feelings over Bush's death, he travels to France, where he meets again his fatherly friend and protector of old, the Comte de Gracey, and his passionate daughter-in-law Marie. But Napoleon returns from exile , raises a new army and embroils Europe again in a war in which Hornblower takes part as the leader of a guerrilla . Marie dies, Hornblower is taken prisoner and escapes his execution by a hair's breadth when news of Napoleon's devastating defeat in the Battle of Waterloo arrives just in time .

The following novels describe the beginning of Hornblower's career.

Ensign Hornblower

Ensign Hornblower describes how Hornblower began his career. After initial harassment by his older comrades on the ship of the line Justinian , he is transferred to the frigate Indefatigable , where the awkward and inexperienced Hornblower under Captain Pellew earns respect through his courage in several skirmishes. During a command as a prize officer, he is taken prisoner in Spain. Forester used this episode to explain Hornblower's Spanish language skills while on the Lydia .

Lieutenant Hornblower

In the novel Lieutenant Hornblower , set between 1799 and 1803, Hornblower is the fifth and youngest officer on the ship of the line Renown , which is commanded by a brutal and paranoid captain. At the Renown , Hornblower met his future friend Bush, who was the third lieutenant and thus his superior. The novel is the only one of the Hornblower novels to be told not from Hornblower's perspective, but from Bush's. After a successful commando operation in the Caribbean, Hornblower is promoted to Commander . Before he was given his own command, however, the Amiens peace was signed. Hornblower and Bush are given temporary retirement with halved pay . The beggarly Hornblower has to earn a meager living as a professional whist player. He met Maria Mason, the daughter of his landlady. He marries her even though he doesn't love her. At the end of the novel, the brief peace ends. Hornblower is reactivated and appointed to command a sloop .

Hornblower becomes commandant

Forester initially skipped the period between 1803 and 1805. Only later did he add the novel Hornblower on the Hotspur and another, unfinished fragment of the novel . He continued the series of novels with the book Hornblower Becomes Commander . It begins in 1805. Hornblower is now the father of a son, Horatio junior. With his son and his pregnant wife Maria he travels on a canal to London , where he takes command of the ship 6th Ranges (small frigate) HMS Atropos . First he commands the funeral services in honor of the fallen Admiral Nelson . He is then sent to the eastern Mediterranean to recover treasure from a British ship that has sunk in Turkish waters. In the end, Hornblower returns home. He finds his wife and his two terminally ill children with smallpox .

Hornblower in the West Indies

The cycle of the Hornblower novels was actually closed. Forester continued the series with the band Hornblower in the West Indies . It plays from May 1821 to October 1823, i.e. in times of peace, and describes the experiences of Lord Hornblower , who was promoted to Rear Admiral , as the commander of the West Indian station. Hornblower is captured by pirates, conquers a slave transport ship and pursues a wealthy English wool manufacturer on the coast of Venezuela , who supports Simón Bolívar's army in the war of liberation against the Spanish colonial power. He also outwits General Cambronne , the former commander of Napoleon's old guard , who wants to free the former emperor. Hornblower skillfully manages to avoid the British Navy becoming involved in a war with Spain. At the end of the novel, Hornblower travels home to England with his wife Barbara. The ship gets caught in a hurricane and the crew is shipwrecked. It is only in this emergency that Hornblower and Barbara really find each other and realize that they have never loved anyone else.

Hornblower on the hotspur

The last complete novel, Hornblower on the Hotspur , describes Hornblower's time as the commander of the sloop Hotspur between 1803 and 1805. The ship is assigned to the British Canal Fleet as a reconnaissance aircraft, which is supposed to prevent the French fleet from breaking out of Brest . Hornblower is promoted to captain by the retiring Admiral Cornwallis , and Hornblower returns to England. Forester chose this plot structure to give Hornblower the opportunity to take occasional home leave so that in the end he would have a young son and his wife would be pregnant again. Thus, after 25 years, the novel has come full circle.

Tattoo

Forester's last Hornblower book (published in German under the title Zapfenstreich ) remained unfinished. It contains a fragment of a novel set in 1805 after the loss of the Hotspur . Hornblower developed a plan to lure the French fleet out of the Spanish port of Ferrol to play in the hands of Admiral Nelson.

It also contains two short stories. Hornblower and the Widow McCool played on Renown in 1799 , before Volume 2.

The last tale takes place in 1848 at the Kent country estate , where the retired Grand Admiral Viscount Hornblower of Smallbridge spends his old age. This story tells how Hornblower unknowingly met Napoléon III, who suddenly knocked on Hornblower's door in the evening . assists in his return to France after the February Revolution . So the end of the novel series after Volume 11.

List of novels

The chronological plot (volumes 1 to 11) does not coincide with the year in which the volumes were published. Here is a sortable overview:

Sequence
of action		 Time
of action		 original Year of
Publ.		 German Remarks Ships
Volume 01 1793–… Mr. Midshipman Hornblower 1950 Ensign to the Sea Hornblower from several short stories Justinian, Indefatigable
Volume 02 1799-1803 Lieutenant Hornblower 1952 Lieutenant Hornblower Renown
Volume 03 1803-1805 Hornblower and the Hotspur 1962 Hornblower on the hotspur Hotspur
Volume 04 1799
1805
1848		 Hornblower and the Crisis 1967 Hornblower and the Widow McCool
.
Tattoo 		Short story in front of volume 2
novel fragment between volume 3 and 5
Short story from Volume 11		 Renown
.
(Kent country estate)
Volume 05 1805–… Hornblower and the Atropos 1953 Hornblower becomes commandant Atropos
Volume 06 1808–… The happy return 1937 The captain Lydia, Sutherland
Volume 07 1810 A ship of the line 1938 On Spain's coasts Sutherland
Volume 08 1811 Flying Colors 1938 Under a waving flag Witch of Endor
Volume 09 1812–… The Commodore 1945 The commodore Nonsuch
Volume 10 1814–… Lord Hornblower 1946 Lord Hornblower
Volume 11 1821-1823 Hornblower in the West Indies 1958 Hornblower in the West Indies

Forester and "Hornblower"

The Hornblower novels made CS Forester world famous. He is considered the founder of this genre, which was followed by numerous other authors. The first novel with Horatio Hornblower (German title "Der Kapitän") was published in 1937 (but not the chronologically first volume in Hornblower's life), the last (an unfinished text and two short stories, German title "Zapfenstreich") in 1967, shortly after his death . Forester never made a secret of how close he felt to his own character in a novel. He and Hornblower are good friends, he once said.

media

radio play
  • Captain Hornblower , CD, BMG Ariola Miller
Audio book
Film adaptations

The adventures of the young Horatio Hornblower were filmed for television in Great Britain from 1998 to 2003 as an eight-part mini-series starring Ioan Gruffudd in the lead role of Andrew Grieve :

  • Hornblower: The Even Chance (October 7, 1998) - German: The same chance (2010).
  • Hornblower: The Examination for Lieutenant (November 18, 1998) - German: Die Leutnantprüfung (2010).
  • Hornblower: The Duchess and the Devil (February 24, 1999) - German: The Duchess and the Devil (2010).
  • Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters (April 2, 1999) - German: Froschfresser und Rotrocken (2010).
  • Hornblower: Mutiny (August 21, 2001) - German: Meuterei (2010).
  • Hornblower: Retribution (August 28, 2001) - German: Retaliation (2010).
  • Hornblower: Loyalty (January 5, 2003) - German: Loyalty (2010).
  • Hornblower: Duty (January 6, 2003) - German: Obligations (2010).
Further editions
  • CS Forester: Hornblower Cassette (contains all 11 novels in the translation by Eugen von Beulwitz), 2004, Scherz - ISBN 3-502-10011-X .
  • CS Forester: Captain Hornblower on All Seas . Edition edited by the author for the youth [from Hornblower becomes commanding officer , 2nd part]. Tosa Verlag: Vienna 1960, linen, 8 °, 512 pages
  • CS Forester: Captain Hornblower's Adventure . Edition edited by the author for the youth [which volume?] Ueberreuter: Vienna, Heidelberg 1956, 410 pages
  • CS Forester: The Adventurous Life of Horatio Hornblower. Hornblower in the West Indies - an adventurous cruise in the Caribbean Sea . Wolfgang Krüger Verlag: Hamburg 1961. Linen, 8 °, 342 pages
  • CS Forester: The King's Admiral Hornblower . Novel in two books [namely The Commodore and Lord Hornblower ]. Popular edition. Wolfgang Krüger Verlag: Hamburg 1961. Linen, 8 °, 519 pages.
  • CS Forester: The captain . Novel in three books [namely The Captain , On Spain's Coasts and Under Waving Flag ]. Popular edition. Wolfgang Krüger Publisher: Hamburg 1960. Linen, 8 °, 569 pages
  • CS Forester: The young Hornblower . Novel in three books [ Ensign Hornblower , Lieutenant Hornblower and Hornblower becomes commandant ]. Popular edition. Wolfgang Krüger Verlag: Hamburg 1959. Linen, 8 °, 511 pages
  • CS Forester: Hornblower on a war trip . Gutenberg Book Guild: Zurich 1957. Linen, 8 °, 312 pages.
  • CS Forester: Ensign to the Sea Hornblower (translation by Hanns-Georg Sommerwerck). German first edition by Mardicke: Hamburg-Poppenbüttel 1950, linen, 8 °, 318 pages.

literature

  • CS Forester and Samuel H. Bryant: Hornblower Pilot (contains the biography My Books and I and nautical charts for all 11 volumes). German first edition by Wolfgang Krüger Verlag: Hamburg 1965. Licensed edition: Bertelsmann Lesering 1966, book no. 189/7.
  • Karlheinz Ingenkamp (alias: Frank Adam): Hornblower, Bolitho & Co .: War under sail in novels and history . Ullstein, Frankfurt M./Berlin 1992, ISBN 978-3-548-22809-9 .
  • Cyril Northcote Parkinson : Horatio Hornblower. His life and his time; a fictional biography . Ullstein, Frankfurt / M 1980, ISBN 3-548-22207-2 (English: The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower .).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A leather-bound edition by Eduard Kaiser and a paperback edition by Heyne cannot be traced back to the antiquarian
  2. ↑ The last book, Zapfenstreich , was not published until a year after the author's death. It contains a fragment of a novel that is located between Hornblower on the Hotspur (Volume 3) and Hornblower Becomes Commandant (Volume 5) and now forms Volume 4, as well as two short stories that set at the beginning and at the end of his career.
  3. ↑ Hornblower: The Even Chance in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  4. ↑ Hornblower: The Examination for Lieutenant in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  5. ↑ Hornblower: The Duchess and the Devil in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  6. ↑ Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  7. ↑ Hornblower: Mutiny in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  8. ↑ Hornblower: Retribution in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  9. ↑ Hornblower: Loyalty in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  10. ↑ Hornblower: Duty in the Internet Movie Database (English)