For any Hornblower fan, I think these two books (along with the last few chapters of Flying Colours) written in 1945 and 1946 are the pinnacle of the story, where Hornblower is at his best, decorated, wealthy, married to Barbara, and in command of the scene during wartime, first as a commodore in the Baltic, and second as commodore and later governor of the captured port of Le Havre.
I have been collecting Horblower books for right at thirty years now, and I have dust-jacketed hardback editions of both of these, neither of which I had actually read, so when I was shocked at the higher prices for the audiobooks of these two, I decided to just read the actual books.
The former I got a lot more out of this time - it seemed a little dreary when I read it before, but made more sense this time. Hornblower's bad temper was more amusing now that it had so little to be based on, and the entire palace scene at Peterhof made more sense since Jamie and I were there last July, so I could envision the scene a little better. How Forester could I am not certain - this book came out in 1945 and in 1945 Peterhof was a blasted, burned-out wreck after German occupation during the siege of Leningrad.
In the latter it is remarkable the tension that Forester keeps between Hornblower and happiness, with Hornblower making a number of bad decisions (Horatio, pay a little attention to Barbara, would you, and how could you not have realized what was going to happen with Marie?) but as always, we enjoy the ride.
I am now looking forward to Admiral Hornblower and the West Indies, assuming I can talk myself out of Midshipman/Lieutenant. But I usually can.