Rear Admiral Lord Horatio Hornblower

Lord Horatio Hornblower is a rear admiral in the British Navy, serving as commander-in-chief of the West Indies station from about May, 1821, to about October, 1823. During the time of the novel, he is forty-four to forty-seven years old; he is very educated and joined the naval service fairly late at the age of about seventeen. During his three decades of naval service, he estimates he has spent only several months ashore. Hornblower is an exceptional navigator, admiral and seaman, though he is nervous and constantly plagued by internalized self-doubt. He regards himself as cowardly and dishonest, yet all who know him regard him in exactly the opposite way. His powerful drive to unqualified success masks his internal turmoil in icy reserve, and even his closest friends barely know him. An introspective and lonely man, Hornblower is married to Barbara and has one surviving child...