Hornblower

Where to start with Hornblower

Read in story order, and start with Mr Midshipman Hornblower. That sounds obvious and it is the opposite of the usual advice for a series written out of order, so it is worth saying why. Forester wrote the middle of the man's life first, in 1937, and only went back thirteen years later to write his youth. Unlike Sharpe, where the late prequels assume you already love the character, Forester's Midshipman was written deliberately as a beginning, and it works as one.

Seen some of these already? Tap the circles to tick them off. The full list below fills in as you go.

1. 1
   Mr Midshipman Hornblower Mr Midshipman Hornblower

   First in the story and the best way in. Ten linked episodes covering 1793 to 1797, a seventeen year old who is seasick, friendless and close to suicide in the opening pages, and a book written specifically to explain where the man in the earlier novels came from.

2. 2
   The Happy Return, if you want it the way 1937 got it The Happy Return

   The first novel Forester wrote and the sixth in the story. Published in the United States as Beat to Quarters, which is why you will find the same book under two names. It drops you in mid-career with no introduction, exactly as its original readers got it, and that is either the appeal or the problem.

3. 3
   The Even Chance, from 1998, if you want the screen version Hornblower: The Even Chance

   Eight feature length films with Ioan Gruffudd, and the one adaptation people actually remember. Watch them in broadcast order. They cover only the first three novels, so finishing them leaves eight books still ahead of you.

4. 4
   Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N., from 1951, for the curiosity Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.

   Gregory Peck, made while Forester was still writing the series, compressing three novels into two hours. It is not where to start, but it is the only place to see the middle books on screen at all.

Then what? Publication order is the real alternative and it has serious defenders, because you watch a writer discover his own character in real time and because the 1937 to 1946 books are tighter than the later ones. What it costs you is that the story opens in 1808 with a captain nobody has introduced, jumps back fifteen years thirteen books later, and puts the unfinished one at the very end. There is also a hybrid that a lot of readers land on: the original trilogy first, The Happy Return, A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours, then go back to Midshipman and run the chronology straight through. Two practical notes. Hornblower During the Crisis is unfinished, ends mid-story and comes with Forester's notes for how it would have gone, so some readers skip it and lose nothing. And several books have two titles: The Happy Return is Beat to Quarters in the United States, The Commodore is Commodore Hornblower, and Hornblower in the West Indies is Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies.

A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below: tick anything off in either place.