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Title: The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower, by Cyril Northcote, Parkinson ISBN: 0-316-69247-6 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: June, 1971 Format: Hardcover List Price(USD): $8.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.71 (14 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: "Must" reading for Hornblower fans
Comment: Of all the fictional characters in literature, only a handful have been compelling enough to be appropriated directly into stories by writers other than their original creators. Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is one such character. C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower is another. This work by C. Northcote Parkinson is just such a continuation story, but with a twist. Instead of an historical novel, Parkinson writes the book as if it were an actual biography complete with illustrated plates, footnote citations to other (probably fictional) sources, and extended quotes from letters supposedly written by the characters. The Hornblower enthusiast will appreciate the few extra episodes wedged into the chronology created by the original author, as well as a detailed account of Hornblower's ancestry, boyhood, and forty years of life after the period of active service originally chronicled by Forester. But the purist might take exception to one or two new characters that Parkinson takes the liberty of introducing. Parkinson is also quite knowledgeable about the period, and does an excellent job of framing a life such as Hornblower's within the society (both civilian and naval) in which the character is supposed to have lived.
Although written as a serious biography, the author is clearly a Hornblower fan having a bit of fun as his retirement project. Parkinson is best known as the originator of "Parkinson's Law" (work expands to occupy available time) and the author of a popular series of humorous but pointed commentaries on management practices written in the 1950's and 1960's. In these books, he often feigns being a sociologist discovering universal principles of human behavior. So it is no surprise that he should follow up with this story in which he pretends to be an historian researching an actual person. The same tongue in cheek humor is at work.
Rating: 4
Summary: Filling In The Gaps
Comment: I have this thing for biographies of fictional people - on my shelf I have Phillip Jose Farmer's excellent biographies of Tarzan and Doc Savage and I'm still trying to track down my own copy of James Bond's and W.S. Baring-Gould's Sherlock Holmes bio.
Parkinson's biography of the life and times of C.S. Forester's great naval hero Horatio Hornblower joins the others in a place of honour. Impeccably researched and serving to correct some of the inherent contradictions in Forester's novels with real history, Northcote creates a stirring complement to the books. In biographies like these there is often a temptation to either simply sypnosize the books or go off and create whole reams of "untold" adventures. Thankfully, Parkinson does neither. What he does try to do is fill in the gaps between what we've read and what is left unsaid - most of them through the clever device of letters written by our beloved Hornblower himself. What did exactly happen that fateful night on the HMS Renown when Captain Sawyer fell down that hatchway? After all these years, the truth is finally revealed.
Parkinson also goes on to tell the remainder of Hornblower's life where the novels stopped. Always reverent, and with a completely straight approach, this is one of those that people will find centuries from now and use as evidence that Hornblower, like Sherlock Holmes, was indeed a historical character. And well he should be.
Rating: 4
Summary: You'll buy this because you can't help it
Comment: If you are reading this you are a Hornblower addict, same as the rest of us. You need a fix.
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Title: The Hornblower Companion by C. S. Forester, Samuel H. Bryant ISBN: 1557503478 Publisher: United States Naval Inst. Pub. Date: 25 June, 1999 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester ISBN: 0316289124 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 30 September, 1984 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Hornblower During the Crisis by C.S. Forester ISBN: 0316289442 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 18 April, 1990 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies by C.S. Forester ISBN: 0316289418 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 02 November, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Hornblower and the Atropos by C.S. Forester ISBN: 0316289299 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 30 April, 1985 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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