Horatio Hornblower
Horatio Hornblower is a fictional character created by C. S. Forester in a series of novels set during the Napoleonic Wars and their aftermath. The character has been used as the basis for other fictional characters which have followed. Star Trek Captains James Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard both draw elements from Hornblower, as do several other characters in science fiction. In Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Hornblower has his own column in London, similar to Nelson’s.
Hornblower himself was based on a real person, with aspects of other real persons, thus their character traits are shared through him with the characters drawn from him. In creating Hornblower, Forester had him interact with both fictional and real personages of the day. For example the Marquess Wellesley, a real British politician of the Napoleonic era, is Hornblower’s brother in law through the latter’s marriage to the fictional Barbara Wellesley.
Hornblower was based largely on Sir Sydney Smith, who performed many detached duties during the Napoleonic wars which can be compared to those of Forester’s hero. Throughout the novels, Hornblower, without a great fleet at his disposal, manages to act as a major irritant to Napoleon. In Russia Hornblower supports a siege on land using his small squadron, Smyth performed a similar action in the Mediterranean. Both Hornblower and Smyth spent time imprisoned by their enemies, Hornblower in Spain and later in France from where he escaped. Smyth too escaped French custody with the assistance of friendly French royalists.
As with Sherlock Holmes, with whom Hornblower shares a fondness for mathematics, many fans are surprised to learn that the character is entirely fictional. In Hornblower’s case this is compounded by a fictional biography of the character written by C. Northcote Parkinson in 1970. A noted naval historian, Parkinson presented Hornblower’s career and that of his descendants.
Parkinson included in his biography a family tree which linked to real persons of the name of Hornblower, living in the late eighteenth century in Cornwall, England. Parkinson’s status as a naval historian lends the book an air of credibility which some have found to be convincing.