The Young Hornblower Omnibus: Mr. Midshipman Hornblower / Lieutenant Hornblower / Hornblower and the Hotspur Paperback – December 7, 1989

My father loved the Hornblower series. I tried reading them when I was a teenager, and couldn't connect with them. Since my father passed three years ago, I've been trying to commune with him a bit, by seeking out things he loved. Thus recently I've started working on the Hornblower series. I can see why he loved it.Hornblower is usually the smartest person in the room, not by a lot, but by enough. He isn't the strongest, nor necessarily the bravest. He is a bit socially awkward and unkept, so he has enough flaws to be believable. Things don't always turn out perfectly for Hornblower, also keeping the stories somewhat believable. The level of detail is perfect. The author takes you through the action task by task, giving the reader a vision of what day to day lives of these sailors would have been at that time period, without getting bogged down or obsessed with minutia.A small amount of the material in the books don't age well, but the text is still quite enlightened for its time. The author seems to be constantly conscious of the classism of the time, as well as the awkward and unjust outcomes of the classism of British society of the time. Highly recommended for those who love adventure stories.

I was first introduced to Horatio Hornblower in the Summer between 7th and 8th grade. We'd moved to a new town and I knew no one. The city library was within a (somewhat) moderate walking distance from our "new" home. A copy of this, the first book in the series was displayed near the door as I walked inside. I grabbed it, got set up with a Library Card, and took it home. I was caught up in the Napolianic War at sea from the very start. Having served twenty years in the Navy since then I must say that taking another turn through the series with my nautical experiences has been even more rewarding. Avast reading that dribble and plunge into a world of fire and shot, cannon and cutlass. Watch a young midshipmans journey from anonymity to Hero... Horatio Hornblower!

This is a great series. The digital copy is badly marred on my Kindle app with irregular substitutions for quote marks and other punctuation. Readable but annoying- worth it for this great series! Wonderful writing.

If you are interested in the sea, history, or the character of leaders you will enjoy Forester’s Hornblower books. Great stories with surprise endings, cliffhangers, and very human hero’s all are contained in his pages. Very accurate details of the seamanship and Napoleonic history. In short wonderful books

My son is homeschooled and he took a Literature Class last year with several other homeschooler in a Coop with included Latin, Greek and Literature Classes.... The class loved this set of three books about Hornblower and it was Historically acurate.... His class studied about the History of this time and ships and maps and played Wisk a card game of that time at a formal buffet (they dressed formally also, a mother's dream) after reading this series of books..... I chose to purchase the three books in one complete book, you can purchase them separately, however with boys it is easier to have it in all in one, they tend to loss things.... they all loved the books, I would suggest these books to anyone... Shipped quickly and from the UK.....

I would give it 0 stars if possible because the digital version (Kindle) is unreadable. Something went wrong with the copying into a digital format so that nearly every punctuation is a mess of gibberish. Would be great if Random House, a giant publisher with massive resources, would fix this. Unfortunately you can't return digital books for a refund because I would. I've read these books before and wanted to re-read them on my Kindle, the stories themselves are fantastic, 5/5. But this digital edition is borked beyond repair. I guess I'm going to get a physical copy from somebody other than friggin Random House.

I had read many of the Hornblower books when I was considerably younger. Recently I watched a few of the TV productions of the Hornblower adventures and they rekindled an interest in the series. I plan to read them to my young grandson this summer as I believe that they provide excellent role model material that will be helpful in forming such sound character traits as integrity, loyalty, responsibility, courage, and honor. I read this collection with great enthusiasm and know that this summer will bring hours of joyful times with my grandson. There is plenty of action interspersed with deep soul searching moments. Even though I had read these books before, many years ago, they came back to life as if I was reading them for the first time.

A great book for all readers. I could hardly put it down. The chapters move so quickly, there was never a dull moment