Mr. Midshipman Hornblower

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (published 1950) is a Horatio Hornblower novel written by C. S. Forester. Although it may be considered as the first episode in the Hornblower saga, it was written as a prequel; the first Hornblower novel, The Happy Return, was published in 1937. Horatio Hornblower is a fictional Napoleonic Wars era Royal Navy officer who is the protagonist of a series of novels by C. S. Forester. The narrative time line ranges from January 1794 to November 1848. The Napoleonic Wars occurred from May 1803 to November 1815.