The Happy Return Quotes

“In June 1808 Hornblower is in command of the 36-gun frigate HMS Lydia, with secret orders to sail to the Pacific coast of Nicaragua and supply a local landowner, Don Julian Alvarado (“descendant” of Pedro de Alvarado by a fictional marriage to a daughter of Moctezuma), with muskets and powder.”

“Don Julian is ready to revolt against the Spanish. Upon meeting Don Julian, Hornblower discovers that he is a megalomaniac who calls himself “El Supremo” (which Forester translates as “the Almighty”).

“El Supremo claims to be a descendant of Moctezuma, the holy god-made-man of the Aztecs, and also of Pedro de Alvarado, one of the Spanish invaders of Mexico.”

“While Hornblower replenishes his supplies the 50-gun Spanish ship Natividad is sighted off the coast. Unwilling to risk fighting the much more powerful ship in a sea battle,..”

“Horatio is so human - young, intelligent, strategic, flawed yet without much time for remorse and self pity. He is a wonderful protagonist and has met his match ...”

“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.”

“Horatio cannot refuse the lady, but as a happily married man, he finds himself tortured by Barbara’s tempting nature and astounding beauty.”

“Unwilling to risk fighting the much more powerful ship in a sea battle, Hornblower hides nearby until it anchors and then captures it in a surprise nighttime boarding. El Supremo demands that it be turned over to him so that he may have a navy. ”