The Happy Return

By: C. S. Forester

Narrated by: Christian Rodska

Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Exclusively from Audible

The year is 1808 and somewhere off the coast of Nicaragua, C.S. Forester's hero returns, ready to embark on his next swashbuckling adventure.

The fifth instalment in the series, The Happy Return follows Captain Horatio Hornblower as he commands the thirty-six-gun frigate, HMS Lydia. Sent out on a mission to weaken the colonial Spanish government, Horatio must form an alliance with a narcissistic revolutionary leader with delusions of grandeur, who goes by the name of 'El Supremo'.

Simultaneously faced with an advancing Spanish fleet and their far superior fifty-gun ship, Natividad, Horatio must find a way to 'take, sink, burn or destroy' his enemies or fail and be made to face the British courts. Adding insult to injury, Horatio is furthermore challenged by the arrival of a singularly attractive passenger, the influential Lady Barbara Wellesley. Vulnerable, alone and seeking passage to England, Horatio cannot refuse the lady, but as a happily married man, he finds himself tortured by Barbara's tempting nature and astounding beauty.

An English novelist, C.S. Forester was highly praised by his contemporaries for his Napoleonic naval warfare series, and later for the publication of The African Queen.

Despite his natural ability and endless imagination, Forester came to writing much later than expected. Having originally studied medicine at Guy's Hospital, it was only after his travels with the Royal Navy that he was artistically inspired, developing in particular, a fervent love of story-telling. Sadly stricken with arteriosclerosis whilst voyaging to the Bering Sea, C.S. Forester was crippled in his later life, but his imagination and his skill with a pen survived for years to come.

Narrator Biography

Christian Rodska is an English television and voice actor best known for his role in the 1970s series Follyfoot.

From The Monuments Men and The Eagle of the Ninth to The Likely Lads, Z Cars, The Tomorrow People, Coronation Street, Bergerac and Casualty, his extensive and diverse acting career has led him to become a highly solicited radio and audiobook narrator.

He has now voiced over 150 unabridged audiobooks including Winston Churchill's biographies, Evelyn Waugh's Men at Arms and Sebastian Faulks' A Possible Life. He has been praised for his ability to vary in vocal pace and style and as such, Christian boasts 12 Earphone Awards from Audiofile Magazine.

©1937 Cassette Productions SA (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Fantastic book

One of my favorite books.

The battle scenes leave me as tired as Hornblower they are so realistic.

It is one of the best love stories I have ever read.

Horblower is Great!

Where does The Happy Return rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

As good as the best, maybe better.

What did you like best about this story?

Everything except that it ended. Fortunately, there is another in the series which takes up where this one leaves off.

Have you listened to any of Christian Rodska’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have listened to his other Hornblower narrations, and this is as good as the others, which are great.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

In the battle with the Natividad, when the crew cheered for "Hornie" as he berated and threatened them.

Any additional comments?

Lovers of historical adventure novels and just plain first class writing should start with Midshipman Horblower and get on board for one of the best reads in the English language. Churchill and Hemingway were big Hornblower fans. Find out why.

Hornblower at his Best

Quintessential Hornblower. This one's a movie, starring Gregory Peck, made in 1951: "Horatio Hornblower, RN." Unlike former books in the series, this one's a whole story, not a collection of stories. In this plot, the bad guy is a Panamanian named "El Supremo"--great sense of humor, that Forester. And, HH's ship blows up his nemesis ship and sinks him: the description is moving. Further, HH flubs a romance that will probably come back to bite him later. Our hero should have worked out some of his social foibles by his age, 37, in this book. But does not. Oh well, let's see what the next one brings?

Dramatic presentation

I loved all of it. I am a huge fan of British Naval Adventure stories

Wonderful book

I find the entire Hornblower series to be excellent. This book was no exception. I first read it years ago when I had the flu. Despite feeling awful, I couldn't put it down.

Marvelous

This was my favorite read for so many reasons. The sea battle, the wonderful descriptions of his thinking and the history behind the story.

Agh-hhmmm!!!

Get used to hearing that noise when listening to this story. It’s a noise Hornblower will make a lot. Makes it all the more entertaining though! The combination of Forester and Rodska again make this story a pleasure to listen to. We again are privy to see the inner workings of Hornblower’s thoughts, and privileged to see how Forester continues to evolve this fascinating character through his sea adventures.

AKA "Beat to Quarters"

"The Happy Return," also known as "Beat to Quarters," is the first-published (1937) adventure of Captain Horatio Hornblower, RN. It was followed in 1938 by "Ship of the Line" and "Flying Colours." Later books, published after WWII, went backward to cover Hornblower's early career, and forward to his rise to admiral and the peerage. "Midshipman Hornblower," chronologically the first story, was published in 1950.

Having listened to all the Aubrey/Maturin books and feeling bummed that there were no more left to hear, I decided to try this book, since I knew it sailed similar seas (British navy during the Napoleonic Wars). This first Hornblower adventure does not disappoint. The distant, all-powerful captain with extraordinary navigational skills and an almost uncanny connection to his ship (there's a reason ships are thought of as female), sailing under sealed orders to a dangerous assignment in a faraway and exotic (in this case the Pacific coasts of Nicaragua and Panama) locale; encounters with the enemy won sometimes by guile, sometimes by superior seamanship, and always by sheer guts; unimaginable pain and privation, encounters with stunning cruelty--it's all here, guys and gals! There's even a shipboard romance.

What is not here, unfortunately for his fans, is any character even remotely resembling Stephen Maturin. As it is, Hornblower is limited largely to conversations with himself, we don"t get to see the Central American volcanoes through Stephen's naturalist eyes, or get his spy's-eye view of the intrigue. This "criticism" is unfair to Forester, however, and shouldn't deter anyone from enjoying these earlier books, which undoubtedly influenced O'Brian.

I have enjoyed both Simon Vance's and Patrick Tull's approaches to narration of the O'Brian books. Christian Rodska never gets as ponderous as Tull or as exuberant as Vance, but reads with clarity and energy. I particularly enjoyed his Spanish accents. All in all, this one's worth the listen.

Finally the naval novel I've been waiting for...

If you could sum up The Happy Return in three words, what would they be?

Fast Paced Fun

Who was your favorite character and why?

Hornblower is my favorite character. He is so self critical he doesn't know he is an awesome sea captain.

What does Christian Rodska bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I like Rodska's reading style. He has an easy to understand British accent and read the book at a pace which matched the story.

If you could take any character from The Happy Return out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Hornblower of course. I guess I would have to do all the talking though since all he would do is harumph!

Any additional comments?

A lot of people compare Hornblower to Aubrey/Maturin. Hornblower is much more to my liking. The Happy Return has lots of action and moves at a brisk pace as opposed to the 3 Aubrey/Maturin novels I have listened to which I found to be long and slow reads.

Great reader!

the reader is perfect for the book!
It was a pleasure; if you want to know what it felt like to sail the high seas in the 1800s, this is it.