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Title:
Lord Hornblower
Series: Horatio Hornblower
#5
Author: Cecil Scott Forester
Rating:
3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages:
213
Words: 82K
Napoleon gets defeated and Hornblower and Lady Barbara are in France. Hornblower and Barbara split up and Hornblower falls in with the woman he fell in love with back when he was escaping France several years ago. Napoleon makes his comeback, lover lady dies and then Hornblower is rescued in the nick of time by Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo.
Yeah, Hornblower is a scoundrel and a cad. I’d like to take a whip to him until he bleeds into unconsciousness. He excuses and justifies his unfaithfulness to Lady Barbara on the flimsiest of reasoning. It was despicable and I must say, the name “Hornblower” will forever be tainted in my mind from here on out. He is not a hero, he is not someone of character, he is not someone to emulate. He is scum and someone I would spit upon if I met him in the streets. If he were a character in the tv show “Black’s Books”, I’d cut him and totally ignore him.
It was a great story and I really enjoyed that aspect of the book. Which is why this still gets 3stars. But I will NEVER recommend this series to anyone and if I hear of anyone considering it, I will strive mightily to dissuade them.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think this is a series that “shouldn’t” be read, but there are better things to spend your precious time on. Like a 3000 piece puzzle of yours truly! Now, doesn’t that sound like a real treat? And if you put it together backwards, you get to hear my secret message that I wrote especially just to you. Wowzers, doesn’t that sound intriguing? It sure does!
So choose wisely. Will you read about a lousy loser who sleeps around or listen to my secret message extolling the life extending properties of Bookstooge’s Special BBQ Sauce™? It goes with everything from your best Sunday Suit to your Sabbath Songbook to melted goats or even whole soccer teams. You just can’t go wrong with Bookstooge’s Special BBQ Sauce™. It’s guaranteed! Unlike this book, which is definitely not.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia.org
In 1814, Hornblower is delegated to deal with the Flame, a brig full of mutineers off the French coast, near the mouth of the Seine. It is a tricky situation because the mutineers' demands cannot be met, but they have threatened that if a Royal Navy force tries to force their hand, they will slip into a nearby French port.
Hornblower alters the appearance of his own vessel, the Porta Coeli, so it can masquerade as the mutinous vessel. As dusk falls, he follows a valuable blockade runner into port, pretending to be the Flame. Then, once the two vessels are moored, he captures it and takes it out to sea. He then pursues the Flame, which retreats to the French port. Believing the mutineers responsible, the French send four gunboats to take her. Hornblower manages to exploit the fighting to capture both the Flame and a gunboat.
Among the French prisoners is Lebrun, the young and ambitious assistant to the mayor of Le Havre. Lebrun asks to speak with Hornblower privately; he proposes to surrender Le Havre to the English fleet. Hornblower and Lebrun arrange a plan: Lebrun's role is to undermine those parties who would resist a British seizure of the city. Overcoming some tense moments with audacity, Hornblower is able to capture the city with a half battalion of Royal Marines and finds himself its military governor.
Hornblower finds his new duties different from that of commanding a naval vessel or squadron. He finds his role demanding, in part because he is such a demanding perfectionist. The Duke of Angoulême, one of the heirs to the Bourbon dynasty, is sent to assume control of the civil leadership.
Hornblower hears that Napoleon has been able to amass a strong force, to be transported by barge down the Seine to retake Le Havre. He sends a force, borne by half a dozen large ship's boats, to try to blow up the barges and ammunition. He puts his best friend, Captain William Bush, in command. The raid is a success and the French force is stopped, but an unexpected explosion kills most of the British, including Bush.
Hornblower is raised to the peerage, possibly in part to provide him with more dignity, gravitas, when dealing with the French heir's entourage, as well to reward him for his accomplishments.
During the following peace, Hornblower's wife Barbara accompanies her brother, the Duke of Wellington, to the Congress of Vienna, leaving Hornblower at loose ends. He decides to visit the Comte de Graçay, where he resumes his relationship with the Comte's widowed daughter-in-law, Marie. When Napoleon escapes from Elba and raises a new army, Hornblower, the Comte and Marie lead a guerrilla fight against the Imperial forces. They are eventually defeated, and Marie dies from a leg wound. Hornblower and the Comte are captured and condemned to death, but news of the Emperor's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo arrives just in time to save their lives.
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