FLYING COLOURS by C. S. Forester

Flying Colours (1938) is C. S. Forester’s eighth Hornblower novel by chronology, third by publication; it completes Forester’s original story arc. Having been forced to surrender to a French squadron at the end of Ship of the Line, Horatio Hornblower is imprisoned and sent with Lieutenant Bush and his coxswain to Paris to have an example made of him. Most of the novel deals with their attempts to escape France.

Most of Flying Colours takes place on land, making it a refreshing change from the innumerable sea battles that fill every other Hornblower novel. And Forester moves things a long at a fairly good pace. There are a few noticeable conveniences in the plot, but they are not sufficiently egregious as to ruin the story.

The problems Forester had in Ship of the Line with Hornblower being overly loathsome have been alleviated for the most part. Hornblower has escalated his philandering ways, however, but since it should be abundantly clear by now that he is a man of no principle beyond his duty to the Royal Navy, this should hardly come as a great shock to the reader. This fundamental lack of integrity most assuredly has quite a bit to do with his complete inability to be contented with his life, even with things wrapping up in a very tidy manner for him as they do here.

There is a great deal of drama here with Hornblower and his wife Maria, or there should be; Forester leaves it largely untapped. For those who read the Hornblower novels in the order Forester wrote them, Maria has never appeared “on camera,” as it were, to this point, and so this is not a big deal. But those who have read them in chronological order are considerably more invested in the character of Maria, and rightly hoped for more. Obviously Forester could not have gone back and changed things in his earlier works, but the end result is that the resolution here is hardly satisfactory. This is the price one pays when one writes out of chronology: the merit of the original works is diminished by later works, which reveal and even create flaws in them.

Flying Colours is a step up from Ship of the Line, and is a mostly satisfactory conclusion to the original Hornblower story arc, which is, on the whole, decent, and which would give way to subsequent superior novels.

RECOMMENDED

SHIP OF THE LINE by C. S. Forester

Ship of the Line (1938), also known as A Ship of the Line, is C. S. Forester’s seventh Hornblower novel by chronology, second by publication. Hornblower, who seemingly encounters ridiculous drama every time he gets a new command, takes charge of Sutherland, a ship of the line, then sails off to conduct various raids on the French.

Horatio Hornblower has never been as unsympathetic or unlikable as he is in Ship of the Line. Throughout the series, Forester has made Hornblower a particularly flawed character – that’s part of Hornblower’s charm. But here, Forester has gone too far – he’s made Hornblower a loathsome, pathetic individual. Hornblower is obtuse; he’s prone to paranoid inner monologues; he wallows in self-pity; he has no real moral values beyond his duty; he moons about, pining for Lady Barbara; he’s racist, law-breaking,

self-serving and dishonorable. Forester got a better handle on the character in later novels, but for the modern chronological reader it certainly appears that Hornblower is evolving into a despicable man of low character in his old age.

Most of Ship of the Line is action, but none of Hornblower’s adventures in this novel are particularly remarkable. Capture a ship, sink a ship, attack a fort, weather a storm – been there, done that. There’s no real plot here; it’s just attack, attack, attack. And is Hornblower the only man in the Royal Navy who speaks Spanish? Really? This isn’t the first time Forester’s given the reader that impression, either. And again, a careful reader who has gone through the series chronologically will notice more events that Forester later retconned.

Ship of the Line is a tremendous disappointment, especially given the superior Hornblower novels Forester wrote after it. It ends with a cliffhanger, so you really can’t skip it, but it’s easily the worst book in the series to this point in the chronology.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

BEAT TO QUARTERS by C. S. Forester

Beat to Quarters (1937), also known as The Happy Return, is C. S. Forester’s original Horatio Hornblower novel. It fits sixth in the chronology. In 1808, Hornblower, captain of the frigate Lydia, sails to Nicaragua to aid a mad warlord in his revolution against the French. Complications ensue, as usual, including the married Hornblower falling in love with another woman (which is rather unexpected).

Beat to Quarters has a fair mix of action and drama, although things drag along at times. The climax of the book is a fifty-page sea battle, during which Forester immerses the reader in naval warfare and at the same time overloads him with nautical details.

Beat to Quarters was written over ten years before any of the chronologically-previous novels, and there is a noticeable difference in style and tone. For one, the narrative here does not flow as well as it does in Forester’s later writing – he gets bogged down in details and he has a tendency to repeat himself. Hornblower is still fundamentally Hornblower – he is self-loathing, insecure, posturing and hypocritical, although his manner is not quite the same and he has manifested a bizarre habit of saying, “Ha – h’m,” all the time.

It will become clear to anyone who has read the Hornblower books that Forester did quite a bit of retconning when he went back to write the novels of Hornblower’s early career. Notable examples include Hornblower’s age and his relationship with Lieutenant Bush, and there are quite a few other small things.

On the whole, Beat to Quarters is a decent novel not with out its problems, although its flaws are easier to forgive knowing that Forester was still finding his way with Hornblower. New Hornblower readers would do better to start with Mr. Midshipman Hornblower.

RECOMMENDED

HORNBLOWER AND THE ATROPOS by C. S. Forester

Hornblower and the Atropos (1953) is C. S. Forester’s fifth Hornblower novel chronologically, eighth by publication. Captain Horatio Hornblower, age 29, takes command of the Atropos, the smallest ship in the navy suitable for a post-captain, but before he can sail for sunken treasure, he has to manage his pregnant wife, coordinate Admiral Nelson’s funeral procession, and meet the king.

Hornblower continues to be his own worst enemy – he does not know himself. He continues to be heroic and ingenious, but always ascribes to himself the basest of motives, and he is typically wrong in his self-analysis. It is clear to the reader by now that he genuinely loves his family, but when his ship is found to be unready to sail, he considers all the time he has spent with them “wasted.”

Much of this novel follows the pattern that Stan Lee used to make his Spider-Man comics so successful – there’s always something. Nothing ever goes smoothly, and problems and complications are added with regularity. At the same time, Hornblower is still larger than life. He could fall down the stairs and capture a French frigate.

Hornblower and the Atropos has more humor and more action than the chronologically preceding books; it is also more episodic. And, for a change, this one ends with some unresolved drama. The character spotlight is shined on Hornblower only – Lieutenant Bush is missed, although he can’t reasonably be expected to show up everywhere.

On the whole, Hornblower and the Atropos is an action-packed page-turner, and a solid entry in the Hornblower series.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED