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The Commodore
The Commodore
CS Forester | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Fourth published but chronologically the ninth of CS Forester's Hornblower series of novels, this is the one that is set mainly in and around the Baltic, starting with Hornblower's investiture as Lord of the Manor alongside his second wife, lady Barbara (nee) Wellesley - yes, of that Wellesley name - and with his sole surviving toddler son from his first marriage.

Finding shore life stifling, dull and tedious, Hornblower is (secretly) relieved when he receives a summons from the Admiralty, and is sent off to the Baltic to shore up Britain's interests and (hopefully) stop further French incursion into Sweden and Russia.

As such, this is thus set before Napoleon's disastrous (for the French!) Russian campaign, with the starts of that campaign occurring in the latter pars of this novel: a novel which takes in court intrigue (even meeting the Russian Tsar), sea battles, unusual sailing vessels (the bomb ketches) and land battles before its denouement - a denouement that will see Hornblower return back to Blighty before his next mission.