#horatio hornblower by cs forester

[incorrect-hornblower]

My friend @otterfire made a comment about Archie and Horatio being sea-otters holding hands and then I blacked out and made these

Bonus

[juehs34]

Me: Mmm I’m gonna read this book series surely it’s written in chronological order or at least labelled as to which book is which

Fucking CS Forester: think again bitch

[lets-get-ready-to-ramble]

I have started reading horatio hornblower and i adore this poor miserable midshipman. He’s 17, he’s gangly, he’s shy, he gets seasick, he’s good at math, and he cries himself to sleep. He’s my son I love him

[macaron-n-cheese]

Horatio Hornblower every single episode

2/3 way through episode 8 and he's at a new low

[nixtheclause]

it turns out drawing big smiles can noticeably improve your mood 10/10

[ratuszarsenal]

between the "he exaggerated disparingly to himself," and the "The four elements of Aristotle, Hornblower thought, insanely" and of course wishing he was dead for half the page count, midshipman hornblower is a flawless representation of what it's like to be 17

[illustration-alcove]

Joe McLaren’s illustrations for the Folio Society editions of C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower series.

[brooklynislandgirl]

☕ cozy things tag game

comfort food(s): chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes with cream gravy and pepper, grilled cheese, or mac and cheese especially if the cheese is a little brown and crispy at the edges.

comfort drink(s): coffee with a splash of cream and two splenda packets. cocoa with whipped cream and sprinkled with cinnamon.

comfort movie(s): Starship Troopers, Tombstone, While You Were Sleeping

comfort show(s): Law & Order SVU, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr, Jack of All Trades

comfort clothing: my oversized bathrobe, especially paired with my Longhorns tee-shirt and grey leggings, my sea-turtle slippers.

comfort song(s): Alice's Restaurant and City of New Orleans by Arlo Guthrie, Donald McGillavry by Silly Wizard, literally any piobaireachd. Hunger Strike by Temple of the Dog.

comfort book(s): Night Watch, Maskerade, Reaper Man, {{really all the Discoworld novels}} by Sir Terry Pratchett, The Princess Bride by William Goldman, Mona Lisa Overdrive and Burning Chrome by William Gibson, The Jungle Book and the Just So stories by Rudyard Kipling, The Horatio Hornblower series by CS Forester, The Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell <goes on listing books for a solid two weeks>....

comfort game(s): American Football {{College is better than pro but I have teams in both brackets}}, Dragon Age, Pathfinder, World of Darkness, Texas Hold 'Em....I mean I think we need to define this catagory better.

~*~

Tagged by: my beloved C over @nightmarefuele Tagging: Seven incredibly tired hedgehogs in an inflatable dinosaur suit. Just tag me back.

[vera-dauriac]

understand the blogger (because @verdiesque said I should)

Emma (1815) by Jane Austen

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Casablanca (1943)

The Brother Karamazov (1880) Fyodor Dostoevsky

Tosca (1900) Puccini

The Marriage of Figaro (1786) Mozart

La Traviata (1853) Verdi

Lord of the Rings (books [1954-1955] and movies [2001-2003]) JRRT

Horatio Hornblower (books [1941-1967] and TV [1998-2003]) CS Forester

The First Law universe (2006-2021) Joe Abercrombie  

The Musketeers (2014-2016 A great show that ran 2 seasons)

The Borgias (2011-2013)

Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009 but only the first two seasons. This limitation says everything about me.)

[mercurygray]

Currently Reading - May 2023

Currently Reading

Spitfire Girls, by Giles Whittell - This is proving to be quite a slog because of the way it's written, which is more like a string of profiles rather than an overview of what these women did.

How to Pray, by Fr. James R. Martin - still working on this one, only because I seem to get very overcome any time I'm reading it.

Currently Watching

The Gilded Age (2020) - Decided I needed to rewatch this. It's still just frothy and fun but I enjoy the name-drops.

Quirke (2013) - crime procedural following a pathologist in 1950s Dublin, staring Gabriel Byrne.

For All Mankind (2018) - Have had this on my watchlist for forever and am just finally getting to it with my Apple TV subscription. I'm not a huge fan of the pacing, and I'd like to get to know the characters a little more, but it's fun so far!

Just Finished

Beat to Quarters, by CS Forester - Someone put Horatio Hornblower back on my radar in January, and finding the first book in the series at the library booksale was a good reason to re-read. I forgot how much Joan Warren (fictional woman with RL famous family) owes to Barbara Wellesley (fictional woman with RL famous family.)

The Good Shepherd, by CS Forester - While I was looking up the Hornblower books, it was brought to my attention that the new Tom Hanks film Greyhound was also based on a Forester novel, which I then of course had to read.

Greyhound (2022) - Another one I finally watched courtesy of new Apple TV subscription. This was an interesting book adaptation - the book itself is very...cerebral, and focused on the intense physicality of being in charge of a convoy in the North Atlantic. I don't feel the movie quite captured the spirit the book embodied.

Firelight (1998) - Watched this purely for the trope factor of 'arranged relationship ends with falling in love'.

Fire and Blood, by George RR Martin - I have to say, this was much easier to read once I'd seen the show in its entirety. I started it just after the show started and couldn't get into it until just now.

Perry Mason (2020) - Season 2 continued to entertain. Other people don't like the pacing and they're probably not wrong but I genuinely enjoyed watching this every week.

[mediamaven]

This year I’m reading the 11-book series about Horatio Hornblower. The books are by CS Forester. Very nautical. This is an education for me. I’m reading these with a small group on Booktube.

[incorrect-hornblower]

Pellew: I told Mr Hornblower he had a moth crawling on the back of his neck and he just said very plainly “Identify It”

[emilybeemartin]

Okay except that I'm still not done drawing Horatio Hornblower and Richard Sharpe together, and for that I'm... well, I'm not sorry, precisely, unless we use the word in it's archaic sense. I am sorry and infantile, and I'm not sorry.

[lets-get-ready-to-ramble]

Hornblower made a friend!!!!

[oochilka]

Hornblower and Archie with their hair down looking like some ridiculous 80s rockers

[fyeahmeninroyalnavy]

A Letter to the Forester Estate and the Writers of Horatio Hornblower, the TV Series

This is my letter from Horatio Hornblower and the fans of Archie Kennedy to the CS Forester Estate and also the Hornblower writers who killed off Archie Kennedy and then discarded him as if he meant nothing, particularly to Horatio. You may see their relationship as platonic or not. This is nothing against Lieutenant Bush who is a lovely man and a compelling character.

So, you think I’m such a heartless bastard that I could just move on without my best friend who gave up his good name for me to spare my “now purposeless” life? A life without my sun to my moon?

He’s probably still warm as he’s taken to a pauper’s grave or worse and I’m given a fucking promotion and a ship! I just lost my dearest friend, my brother in arms, my companion to whom I could

communicate without words, and he to me. The man I silently vowed to protect from that evil bastard Simpson. The man whose face I tenderly caressed as he writhed in fits, or nightmares, who I carried through the rain, begged to live, to drink. Whose bedside I sat vigil at, watching over him, feeding him, helping him to grow stronger. Because I said it myself. “I can’t do this without you. I won’t make it.”

Never mind that my men gave me hell, most of them anyway. We weren’t going anywhere without Archie and he would not be left behind. I would not, could not fail him again.

When I had to hit my friend in the head as he fitted, agony was clearly written on my face. And my heart broke as I saw the jolly boat drifting away taking a piece of my soul along with it.

And of course there’s more. Perhaps you didn’t notice how Archie and I called one another by our Christian names. And that he inspired courage, light, and greatness in me that I never knew I had. I was just a scared, awkward, seasick little boy that first day, thrust into the bowels of a Hell I never knew existed. And there was that bright faced animated ray of sunshine cheering me on. “Jump! You’ll be allright.” Then grinning at my no doubt green hue, “Welcome to Purgatory!”

How he still had such cheer and optimism after all he had been through on that hell ship is difficult to understand. After all, he was just a boy as well, only months older than me. And he had been on that ship far longer. Only later, after getting to know just what sort of person my dear Archie was would I understand.

Because there is, “was” no one else like him on this earth. I would have been entirely unmanned and crushed to bits had I endured what he had. I will never have that sort of courage, resilience and optimism, and I’ll never love anyone again now that he’s gone.

It is all I can do merely to get through a single hour, let alone a day. My soul is in agony without him and I look forward to my own death.

End of Part One.

Part Two

Did the writers not notice how very close Archie was to me? Because the viewers damned sure did! Any chance we had to gently touch or comfort one another, we took advantage of. When I returned from the hole in El Ferrol, Archie couldn’t get to me quickly enough. He was so loving, and concerned, and even stroked my chest. If the viewers took it as we couldn’t keep our hands to ourselves, then they would be right.

And my loyal Archie went back to the prison hell he had been in, not even fully recovered to show his faith in me, his respect, and his love.

Then there was the disaster that was Muzillac. I believe that’s when I realized there was no going back.

I was so proud of my new Lieutenant’s uniform. I actually began to feel worthy of my promotion. And Archie was obviously just as pleased. I saw that look in his warm blue eyes. The look of love and something more. He’d had a drink you see and as he began admiring my new uniform I realized he was flirting with me. And I flirted back!

Neither of us knew what was coming as we escorted Moncoutant and his men to Quiberon. But as always we would have one another’s back. And if one of us should falter, the other would be there for support.

As it came to pass, it was my dear still wounded Archie who held me up, indeed saved my life at the end. My brother in arms serving as acting Lieutenant in his Majesty’s Royal Navy, not truly recovered from El Ferrol or from the terrible abuse from that scab Simpson, would rise to the occasion for me. Indeed risked his very life without hesitation to save mine.

He was still bantering with me in the beginning as he always did, loving nothing more than to tease and annoy me. Knowing I wasn’t fond of horses, let alone using them as transportation, I saw the sparkle in his eye, the smirk of his lips as I struggled to mount the beast. Secretly I enjoyed the teasing and we both knew it. Anything to get that sunshine smile from him was always worth it to me.

Is it not evident to anyone with eyes and two brain cells how well the two of us understand and care for one another?

Then came the turning point. When Archie became what he was always meant to be. A hero.

After all Archie had been through so recently with being in prison and the events preceding it, he struggled with anxiety about the situation we found ourselves in. I tried to make light of things to reassure him but I don’t believe he was buying it. Still he remained with our men, doing the best he could while I was off playing the gallant hero. I‘m not sure what I was doing or why. Yes I had a crush on Mariette. Yes, I wanted information from her about our enemy. Maybe I was trying to find a ray of sunshine in a black cloud of misery; a failed mission of pain, grief, and loss of life. If not for Archie I would be among the losses.

Acting Lieutenant Archie Kennedy. The man was a true hero. He was there for his men and led them in spite of his fear and panic.

Then he came through for me in a big way. He saved my life.

Archie agonized about lighting the fuse to blow up the bridge in Muzillac. His voice had a slight break when speaking to Matthews about whether I was still alive or not. He kept delaying and hesitating, hoping I would show. Eventually Matthews offered to take on that burden, lighting the fuse himself.

When I suddenly appeared with Mariette over the hill, Archie sprung into action immediately. Holding fire of our marines and asking for protection of us both as Mariette was suddenly shot. As I fell to pieces and the fuse came closer to blowing up not just the bridge but me along with it, Archie bravely broke into a run, arriving to pull my weeping form away from Mariette and certain death. He put his arms about me, gently saying there was nothing more to be done for her, and pulling me away as we ran for our very lives, barely escaping. He provided comfort with an arm around me, empathetic looks and touches. As we made it back to the Indefatigable and I was called to brief Captain Pellew, my dearest friend looked at me and lovingly touched my arm. It will all be okay Horatio he said without words. End of Part Two

Part Three to follow