Flashman: A Novel
by George MacDonald Fraser
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Book Summary Information
Author: George MacDonald FraserEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1984-08-01
ISBN: 0452259614
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Plume
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780452259614
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Flashman: A Novel
Book Review: The Secret of My Success
Summary: 5 Stars
"Flashman" by George MacDonald Fraser is based on a very simple but brilliant concept. Harry Paget Flashman is the Rugby School bully from the 19th century novel "Tom Brown's School Days". The book is about our upright English lad and his experiences at the Rugby School. About two-thirds through the book, Harry Flashman is expelled for public drunkenness.
Anyway Mr. Fraser took this character (the literary rights have long since passed into public domain) and has written a whole series of comic historical novels based on what happened to Harry Flashman after his expulsion from Rugby. The book begins with Brigadier Sir Harry Paget Flashman's citation in Who's Who.
Harry Flashman, the craven coward and bully became one of the greatest and most popular heroes of Victorian England. The series are his secret memoirs of what really happened. One thing he makes clear. His success was based on the very character flaws that made him feared, despised and ultimately expelled from Rugby.
What's also clear is Sir Harry had the unfortunate experience of being present at most of the British military disasters of Victoria's reign as well as the American Civil War.
Harry Flashman is an unrepentant liar, cheat, coward and roué. He has no conscience and he doesn't want one. His rotten core is hidden behind a handsome, martial and very manly exterior. He is a polyglot, a savant with languages. In a month he can learn any language well enough to pass as a native.
This comes in handy when he has to talk his way out of a jam.
He can also ride anything on four legs. This uncommon skill with horses is an excellent skill for the fast getaway.
As for this book, Harry is home in disgrace after his expulsion. His alcoholic father reluctantly agrees to buy his avaricious offspring a commission in Victoria's Army. This was a common practice at this time. The aristocracy bought officer commissions in the British Army. As in Harry's case, the officer's family generously supplemented his low salary so that he could live as a proper gentleman. Harry's plan is to join a fashionable regiment stationed in England where he strut around and engage his lusts, whoring, drinking and gambling combined with occasional rounds of wenching.
Well his significant character flaws propel him into a sequence of events that lead to him winding up in Afghanistan at the time of the First Afghan War. This sequence of events and how Harry survived to become a `hero' is the story.
The central theme of the series is a question. If great things are accomplished, does the motivation of the purported 'hero' matter?
At this point some background about this novel and its gestation is necessary. George MacDonald Fraser is the son of a doctor and a veteran of WWII. After giving up his commission in a Highland Regiment, he became a reporter. His lack of university education ultimately caught up with him. He found himself in his later thirties trapped in a dead end job with no hope of promotion.
He decided to do something about it. While he was a poor student, he still is extremely gifted in the arenas of history, literature, writing and dialects of the English language. He decided to write "Flashman". He worked on it at every opportunity but gave the novel up when he was hurt in an accident.
Eventually he through away the manuscript in frustration. However his wife retrieved the book and began to read her husbands project. Well God bless her! She realized immediately what her husband had created and encouraged him to complete it.
(Stephen King's wife, Tabitha, was doing the same favor for him ironically at about the same on the other side of the ocean.)
Writing a novel and selling it are two different things. Despite the fact everyone that read it liked it, no one knew how to market a comic historical novel. Eventually a publisher was found after the manuscript had literally traveled around the world. It became a European best seller and his books have sold steadily in the US. GMF left his dead-end job to write full time.
Every book in the series is dedicated the wife who made it possible.
Earlier the word `gifted' was used to describe GMF's talents. That is too weak of a term. A much better word is `genius'. Mr. Fraser took a fictitious character and wove him character into actual historical events. His depth of knowledge of history and its events are extraordinary. He accurately retains the minutiae of the period. Probably the finest statement of this is the New York Times review of Flashman. It was given a rave review by a history professor who believed it was a non-fiction memoir of a true historic character.
Read the Flashman. You won't regret it.
Summary of Flashman: A Novel
The story of what happened to Flashman, the caddish bully of "Tom Brown's Schooldays", after he was expelled in drunken disgrace from Rugby school in the late 1830s. The author has written several books about Flashman, and books of short stories, including "The General Danced at Dawn".Literary Books
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