Am I the only one who really likes Hornblower's first wife, Maria? She seems to me more warm, an altogether more rounded character than Lady Barbara, who is presumably meant to be more sympathetic.

I read that she was just put in as an afterthought by Forester. Oddly enough, with her generosity towards Hornblower when he was impoverished, her maternal adoring of her children (that dreadfully sad bit about the two dying of smallpox!) her hero worship of him, her little snobberies and supposed vulgarities, she came so much to life that I think it very sad that Forester killed her off and in such a painful way, too, in childbirth and believing that he was dead. All very true of the 18th century, of course, but I think it a shame that Forerster didn't make Hornblower come to love her...