Book excerpt: Many know of Horatio Hornblower's exploits during the Napoleonic Wars through the novels of C. S. Forester, but how many know the true Hornblower—the man who rose from midshipman to admiral of the British Fleet? Using Hornblower family papers discovered in the 1970s, C. Northcote Parkinson sets the record straight in this authoritative biography. Drawn from the Hornblower series as well as from Parkinson's knowledge of the Royal Navy, this account of the popular fictional hero is as entertaining as the C. S. Forester novels themselves.