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Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:If ever there was a time when I felt that 'watcher-of-the-skies-when-a-new-planet' stuff, it was when I read the first Flashman."� P.G. Wodehouse Fraser revives Flashman, a caddish bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes, and relates Flashman�s adventures after he is expelled in drunken disgrace from Rugby school in the late 1830s. Flashy enlists in the Eleventh Light Dragoons and is promptly sent to India and Afghanistan, where despite his consistently cowardly behavior he always manages to come out on top. Flashman is an incorrigible anti-hero for the ages. This humorous adventure book will appeal to fans of historical fiction, military fiction, and British history as well as to fans of Clive Cussler, James Bond, and The Three Musketeers. Flashman is the first book of the famous �Flashman Papers� series.… (more)
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A satire of Victorian ideals and prejudices, it is painfully funny and takes no
Flashman is hilariously funny, wonderfully written, excitingly plotted and vividly characterized. And if one can't help wincing at his blatant racism, monstrous sexism and vicious violent streak, at least one can revel in the skewering of the hypocrisy of Victorian England. A romanticisation of Empire this is most assuredly not, even if it uses all the traditional tropes of the epoch.
As it was, it changed the rules for a rather staid genre practically overnight. From Edward Waverley to Horatio Hornblower, heroes of military historical fiction were almost invariably driven by duty, loyalty and morality. Flashman's only motivations are pleasure and self-preservation. He's a throwback to the anti-heroes of eighteenth-century novels, cunningly planted in an era when evangelical piety was becoming the new political correctness. Although Flashman clearly owes something to Lucky Jim and the rest of the angry young men, his closest predecessor in historical fiction is probably in Thackeray's spoof 18th century novel The luck of Barry Lyndon (which Kubrick borrowed as basis for a Flashmanesque film in 1975). Fraser adds authentic 1960s bawdiness (1969 was the year of Ken Russell's Women in Love, after all), and an attention to historical accuracy that would put even Scott to shame. His great trick, in this as in later books, was to mine the primary sources (contemporary memoirs, etc.) for nooks and crannies where Flashman could plausibly be fitted into the historical record, and show us great events in a new and discreditable light.
There's a more serious side to the books as well. This is also the era of Vietnam, Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse-Five. War is nasty, dangerous, and brings out the worst in all those affected by it: in Flashman's unsentimental gaze, the only sensible response to battle is flight. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool or a hypocrite. And it's perfectly clear to him that the only good reason for foreign travel is to collect loot. If the "lesser breeds without the law" happen to be well-armed and able to resist, we should leave them to run their own affairs, especially if they don't have anything worth nicking. It's probably this no-nonsense view of the world that makes Flashman as narrator a bearable companion over the long timescale of these books. His selfishness, bullying and womanising would soon get to be a bore, but he's always a wonderfully acute observer, disarmingly frank about his own human failings and merciless with the failings of his contemporaries.
If you haven't met him yet, it does make sense to start with this first book, which builds the link from the villain of Tom Brown's Schooldays to the "hero of Piper's Fort" and tells you things it's helpful to know before you come to the later books. But you should be aware that Fraser hasn't quite found Flashman's voice yet here - from the second book onwards there's a bit more depth to him, and a bit more complexity to the plots. The book advances in a fairly straightforward way through the chain of circumstances that land Flashman where he least wants to be (in the thick of the action), but there are plenty of little jokes and savage insights along the way.
I could probably cope with him being a liar and cheat and a disgraceful individual, as the story is told with a certain amount of flair and a sort of brutal honesty. The thing I can't cope with is that he (or his author, I can't decide which) is a dreadful misogynist. The women who feature are all 2D cutouts, placed purely for Flashman to bed (or worse) or to belittle, or both. And the language is derogatory throughout. He refers to riding his women, he thinks nothing of raping one of them and dismissing it as a non-event, he describes being kept in a cell without even "an Afghan bint" to keep him company. I try very much not to judge a book from an earlier time by the standards of today, but i find it impossible to accept the treatment of the female characters in this book. It could be a rip-roaring tale told by an anti-hero, and that would see it sitting at 3 to 4 stars. But I find myself unable to not take offence at the depiction of women, and so this one gets an OK (at best) 2 stars and a decision to not bother tackling the rest of the series.
The tale is told from the long lost Flashman Papers written when Flashy is 80 years old. He is shamelessly honest about his youthful dishonesty, cowardice, treachery, and womanizing. Sometimes I would begin to think 'well, Flashy is really just giving voice to the same fears that every soldier feels in the face of imminent battle and likely death', but then he'll do something dreadfully base, contemptible, detestable, dirty, dishonorable, low, mean, sordid, vile, and wretched and then I remember just what a despicable character he has - funny, magnetic, and almost loveable, but despicable nonetheless!
Absolutely hilarious. Highest recommendation.
The Flashman novels could be dismissed as sensationalized light reading , but Fraser cleverly tied his character into most of the major events of the last sixty years of the nineteenth century, a Victorian Zelig or Forrest Gump. Flashman casually mentions this minor detail or that simple observation, then Fraser in his assumed role as editor of the Flashman papers meticulously explains in the endnotes how these mentions by Flashman confirm the truth of his narrative, since only if Flashman was there could he have known about this fact or that. Fraser's endnotes also round out the historic details of the narrative, giving background and elaboration to the history-as-I-lived-it tales told by Flashman. It all works wonderfully, even if you somewhat suspect that some details are being outrageously fabricated.
I very strongly recommend these books to anyone who has an interest in history and is willing to keep an open mind towards the womanizing and the language (the n-word appears quite a bit, but completely in character for Flashman). I would suggest the best way to read them is in order of publication. This doesn't follow Flashman's own life chronology, but the books published later often make reference to previous editions of the "Flashman Papers" and so is more fun for the reader to follow.
Gladly my original expectations were overturned in a ... um, flash.
Fraser's voice is pitch-perfect, and he sets the anti-hero on the romantic mid-19th century world with cynical abandon. Flashman is a cad, and early on in the book we cheer to see him caught out by a future in-law (my pealing laughter at his comeuppance did startle my fellow commuters!).
When later on we clasp our hands to our heads hoping that this very same cad escapes from the terrible fate which surely awaits him it is Fraser's writing which makes our volte-face possible.
Flashman's role in the First Afghan War is writ large. We do not believe Flashman's part in it to be because he is especially competent or deserving, but that he is simply (if astoundingly) lucky, and we are only slightly embarassed (no less than he is) by the plaudits and honours he receives at journey's end.
Fraser’s skills as a novelist and historian is such that he created a character who remains ultimately likeable, despite his treatment of women. Indeed, there have been many such men in life – why not in art? Admittedly, had I leapt into
Best of all, Flashy’s account of his service in Afghanistan and the grim retreat from Kabul is fabulous, gripping writing.
In this, the original Flashman novel, we are introduced to
From a comfortable home office posting with the Dragoons, Flashman is relegated to the colony of India after a brief, disastrous stint in Scotland. Destined for a miserable position with the company troops of the East India Company, Flashman uses his charm and wiles to attach himself to a high ranking British officer, only to discover he is bound for Kabul, Afghanistan. What follows is one of the most humiliating chapters in British military history, and Flashman is in the center of the debacle.
Never before have I encountered such a likeable cad. At every juncture, Flashman seeks fame, pleasure and riches at the least risk to him, and is not above larceny to acquire them. Most refreshing is his candor and self recognition, expressing scorn and disbelief at those willing to risk life and fortune for noble or selfless causes. A rollicking good read.
Flashman could be called an anti-hero I suppose; he certainly describes himself that way, as a coward & scoundrel. His actions, particularly in regard to women, are awful but the reader can't help liking him. Perhaps it is because he is so open about all his weaknesses that one prefers him to the braver but stupider (or hypocritical) soldiers around him. In any case, as in Far Pavilions, the reader is left shaking his/her head at the incredible incompetence and arrogance of the leaders in the British army.
I get it . . . and I'll even grant that Fraser pulls off the satire without a single misstep. The historical background is immaculate, the details of Victorian life are meticulously handled, and Flashman (as a character) is pitch-perfect on every page. He never wavers . . . never softens . . . never turns and winks to show the reader that it's all just good fun.
I get it . . . but I find Harry Flashman such a thoroughly loathsome character -- cruel, violent, racist, misogynistic, and the rest -- that I found the book (much as I admired Fraser's level of craft) actively unpleasant and disturbing to read. So I stopped.
***
"I would if I could, you know. But whatever my back looks like, I can't do much just yet. I think there's something
He stood looking down at me. "Yes sir," says he at length, "I think there is."
***
"As to the excellence of the match," said he, "I'd sooner see her marry a Barbary ape."
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series: #01 flashman