Posted by Peter Ceresole on September 26, 2008 at 17:26:35 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: Aubrey-Maturin novels posted by Adam Quinan on September 26, 2008 at 16:21:24:
Hornblower's gloomy introspective one-note character always doubting himself is a major part of why I have lost my liking for those books.
There you are; it takes all sorts to make a readership. Even a square rigged one...
Hornblower's introspection is what saves the novels from being yet another salt opera. And the sales of the books show that there is an audience (of which I was once a member) for that kind of mood. Equally, the success of 'Master and Commander' (which I have neither read nor seen) shows that there's also an audience for something quite different.
In the mean time, I shall read BS once again. Freshwater opera?.
Isn't it wonderful that we have a publishing industry that has given us all these variegated pleasures?