MR. MIDSHIPMAN HORNBLOWER

Turn back the leaves to the first stumbling months in His Majesty's Navy, as experienced by Horatio Hornblower, beloved hero of the series that bears his name. We meet him as a very green and homesick and frightened boy. Through a series of episodes he grows into the man we already know, -- hard headed, soft hearted, fully aware of his own shortcomings, modest as to his attainments. The story is told -- as were the first Hornblower tales, episodically, with broken sequence, as he serves his country in the French Wars, the Spanish Wars, and under two captains. Characteristically Forester are the superb sea battles and the redolence of the life on board ship. The main interest lies in one's sense of meeting again a valued friend, of tying in some of the threads of remembered narrative with happenings that explain and expand. Not as vigorous story-telling as the other Hornblower yarns, but good reading for armchair naval strategists.