Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Happy Return / Beat to Quarters | 1937 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 2 | Ship of the Line | 1938 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 3 | Flying Colours | 1938 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 4 | The Commodore / Commodore Hornblower | 1945 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 5 | Lord Hornblower | 1946 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 6 | Mr. Midshipman Hornblower | 1950 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 7 | Lieutenant Hornblower | 1952 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 8 | Hornblower and the Atropos | 1953 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 9 | Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies / Hornblower in the West Indies | 1957 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 10 | Hornblower and the Hotspur | 1962 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 11 | Hornblower During the Crisis / Hornblower and the Crisis | 1967 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 12 | Captain Hornblower R.N. | 1965 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
The Horatio Hornblower series is C.S. Forester’s defining achievement, twelve novels published between 1937 and 1967 that trace a naval officer’s career during the Napoleonic Wars. The series began with The Happy Return (published as Beat to Quarters in the US) in 1937, and Forester continued adding books both forward and backward in Hornblower’s timeline until his death in 1966, with the unfinished Hornblower During the Crisis published posthumously in 1967.
The internal chronology runs from Mr. Midshipman Hornblower through Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies, covering roughly twenty years of war, peace, and war again. Forester wrote Hornblower as a deeply human character — brilliant at tactics but prone to self-doubt, seasick throughout his career, and awkward in personal relationships. The combination of gripping naval action and psychological depth has kept the books in print for nearly a century.