Recent reading

[luzula]

Armadale by Wilkie Collins (1866)
I read what regshoe tells me to, apparently! It was a great choice to listen to this as an audiobook rather than read it with my eyes; the reader doing Lydia Gwilt was particularly good. I enjoyed this dramatic ride, but I won't attempt a proper write-up when such good ones already exist. Currently I am reading this Lydia Gwilt fic, with a delightful narrative voice.

Hornblower and the Hotspur by C S Forester (1962)
I am really appreciating these books now, and greatly enjoyed this! It has some good Hornblower-and-Bush interaction, along with some exciting naval adventure. And some peak Hornblower passages such as They had not done this as a joke, or in a silly attempt to win his favour. He had to believe the unbelievable, and accept the fact that they had done it because they liked him. That showed their poor judgement; gratification warred with guilt in his mind, yet the fact that they had dared to do such a thing was a strange but undeniable confirmation that the Hotspur was welding herself into a fighting entity. Wow. And then there’s the bit where he goes through with a wedding to someone he doesn’t love because he can’t say no and feels guilty about disappointing her...

Am reading various Hornblower fic now, and enjoying that, too!

Comments

[sanguinity]

Hooray!

That is such a choice Hornblower quote. I swear, it's impossible for that man to let himself have nice things. But I am also ENDLESSLY amused that Forester wrote literal curtain-fic. :-D

Maria deserves so much better. At least Hornblower tries to be a good husband in Hotspur, which he doesn't really in the original trilogy much.

If you're looking to continue, Hornblower and the Crisis (which Forester never finished, and was published posthumously), picks up immediately after Hotspur and has some nice Hornblower-and-Bush stuff at the beginning before it wanders off Trafalgar-ward. After that, it depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for Bush-and-Hornblower stuff, your probable next best bet is Commodore, which is set immediately after Flying Colours. But if you're okay with not having Bush around, I think Midshipman and West Indies are the next two strongest novels, representing the extreme opposite ends of Hornblower's career.

I don't have a fic rec list for Hotspur, but Queer Fancies by shiplizard and binz is a great porn series that is mostly Hotspur-era. Various pairings, various kinks, and the characterizations are influenced by the TV series, so you might find that some stories in the series speak more to you than others. (A lot of Hotspur-era fic is strongly influenced by the TV series, you'll find...)

And I'm of course happy to throw you a list of my own Hotspur-era stuff, if you would enjoy that.

[luzula]

Aww, it was very nice of them to make him curtains!

Yes, I appreciate his attempts, even as they also make me cringe. Also, it's nice to see an 19th century character for whom flowery letter-writing does not come naturally and he has to really work at it. I expect that was really the case for a lot of people, who used letter-writing manuals and copied phrases from other people's letters.

Thanks for the guidance on what book to read next! Are your Hotspur-era fics labeled as such? In that case I can find them myself--otherwise please share. : ) Just a linkdump is fine.

[sanguinity]

A rec I should have made in the previous post! tgarnsl's Across the Line (only one bed)

And then my stuff, some of which is easily identifiable as Hotspur-era, and some of which isn't:

A Well-Rooted Briar (fantasy series)

His Majesty's Kraken (fantasy series, first three works are Hotspur-era)

The Hornblowers' to Command (OT3 series, first four stories are Hotspur-era, then a Flying Colours-era story)

The Adventures of Goatratio Hornblower (humour, with podfic by ljm)

Christmas on the Hotspur (fluff, with podfic by ljm)

The Only Comfort (missing scene, I've recorded a podfic I still need to edit, I'll try to get that up soonish)

[luzula]

Oh, thank you! : )