Flashman at the Charge by George MacDonald Fraser
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Book Reviews of Flashman at the Charge
Book Review: Charge of the Light Brigade, Flashman style
Summary: 5 Stars
If you ever wondered what the opposite of James Bond might look like, George MacDonald Fraser's Harry Flashman might be a good character to look at: while superficially a heroic individual of great charm, Flashman is actually a coward and a cad and is unrepentant about these qualities. In the fourth volume of the series, Flashman at the Charge, Flashy is his same old self.
The title refers to the Charge of the Light Brigade, the famed fiasco for the British that was a highlight (or lowlight) of the Crimean War. As with the other Flashman books, this is a historical novel, and Flashman is right in the middle of history. As usual, as the book begins, he is trying to actually avoid fighting; with a clamor in England for a war with Russia, he knows that soon he will be pressed into battle due to his (undeserved) reputation as a military hero. Flashman doesn't mind being a coward; he just doesn't want other people to know it.
All his maneuvering actually just brings Flashman closer to the actual war and a series of wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time events will land him in the ill-fated Charge. It's no spoiler to say that he survives this battle (after all, he wouldn't be narrating the tale otherwise), but he does wind up a prisoner-of-war deep in Russia. This isn't so bad: as an officer, he is treated quite well at a palatial estate, and there's the owner's beautiful daughter to be considered. Unfortunately, he's not the only prisoner, and his fellow officer is intent on escape, especially after learning critical military intelligence. Of course, escape entails risk, putting Flashman in a pickle.
Going from England to Turkey to Russia to Afghanistan, Flashman at the Charge is another witty tale in a genre not known for its humor. Flashman may be a bad individual: cowardly, sexist and racist, but he is still a somehow likeable character, probably because he is not truly malicious. Indeed, compared to his military superiors, Flashman is almost a man of virtue. Almost. If you've enjoyed the other books in the series, this is another fine work to be enjoyed.
Book Review: SUPERB
Summary: 5 Stars
G. M. Fraser's Harry Flashman is a brilliant vehicle for examining Victorian social mores and military history. For the uninitiated, let me explain that Flashman, a rake, craven soldier, and toad-eater, survives and prospers-not without difficulties, mind you-while innocents and idealists are stomped beneath the boot of history.
This is my fourth Flashman novel. While the others-FLASHMAN, ROYAL FLASH, and FLASH FOR FREEDOM!-were exceptional, FLASHMAN AT THE CHARGE offers, word for word, more of Fraser's amazing action writing. YOU ARE THERE at the Battle of Balaclava (the Crimean War for you Yanks) as a petrified Flash holds his ground behind the Thin Red Line and participates reluctantly in Scarlett's Charge and the Charge of the Light Brigade. There are also sensational action sequences as Flash, a prisoner of war, escapes from Russia and supervises the bombardment in the bloody battle at Fort Raim. These spellbinding action sequences go on for thousands of words and their emotional power, in my opinion, exceeds that of any adventure movie.
This time, Flash is in mid-career and is an experienced man of the world. Occasionally, this Flash, a realist with a poetic bent, speaks completely in character and provides wonderful descriptions and insights. These are another great pleasure in this terrific novel. Here, for example, is Flash describing the Russian landscape (page 121 of my Plume edition):
"I've seen big countries before-the American plains on the old wagon-trails west of St. Louis, with the whispering grasses waving away and away to the very edge of the world, or the Saskatchewan prairies in grasshopper time, dun and empty under the biggest sky on earth. But Russia is bigger: there is no sky, only empty space overhead and no horizon, only a distant haze and endless miles of sun-scorched rank grass and emptiness. The few miserable hamlets, each with its rickety church, only seemed to emphasize the loneliness of that huge plain, imprisoning by its very emptiness...It appalled me as we rolled along."
Book Review: A wild ride, just like the Charge of the Light Brigade
Summary: 5 Stars
Frazer keeps his series alive with yet one more finely written installment in the Flashman series.
Our Flash Harry is a rotten sort of fellow, but amicably so. Keep him out of harm's way, give him some undeserved glory, warm him with a bottle and a trollop, and he's happy. But in this episode, he meets someone far more rotten, the chilling Count Nicholas Ignatieff in chilly Russia, where Flashman is held after being captured during the Charge of the Light Brigade. Ignatieff is merely the nastiest aspect of a nasty land. Even Flashman, appalled by serfdom's cruelty, sees no difference between it and slavery.
Flashy maneuvers to avoid service during the Crimean War, but has the misfortune to be assigned as mentor to Queen Victoria's German cousin who can't wait to go to the front. Flashman somehow stumbles into three major actions on the same day. After capture, he is held in genteel captivity by a medieval Cossack lord who alternately fascinates and repels Flashy - and who details Flashman to impregnate his married-to-a-weakling daughter. He escapes during a serf rising in a thrilling nighttime sleigh ride, accompanied by his lover clad in nothing but furs, and the priggish Scud East, a fellow officer, prisoner and former classmate obsessed with notions of duty. Flashman is recaptured and watches in horror as Ignatieff has a random prisoner beaten to death with the horrifying knout, merely to intimidate Flashman. After being hauled off to Central Asia in chains to aid in Russia's planned invasion of India, he busts out with local rebels who draft him into yet one more life-risking but glory-generating escapade. He meets another notable babe, the Asian rebels' half-Chinese princess known only as Ko Dali's daughter, a chilling manipulator whose seduction has a deeper motivation.
Book Review: Flashman and the Charge of the Light Brigade
Summary: 5 Stars
In this fourth packet of the Flashman Papers, our man Flash finds himself in the thick of the Crimean War, including the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. Flash endures the regettable Lord Haw-Haw, the Earl of Cardigan, who led the Charge (although Lord Raglan deserves at least some of the blame for that fiasco). The reader is introduced to William Howard Russell, the famous Times of London who invented modern war reporting (the generals didn't like having a reporter around then either).
Harry also spends some not altogether unpleasant time in captivity in Russia - although a near encounter with the Russian knout leaves him with severe dyspepsia. Later Flash escapes, but ends up in in a Russian dungeon with Central Asian chieftain Yakub Beg and the warrior Izzat Kutebar. Rescued by Beg's people, Flashy shows some shocking signs of acting entirely honorably and contrary to his self-interest, but his odd behavior is soon explained.
If you are unfamiliar with the Flashman series, each book is a packet from the supposedly historical Flashman Papers. Flashman is a character of fictional history twice over, first in 'Tom Brown's Schooldays' published in 1857 and now in the George MacDonald Fraser's rediscovery. Fraser makes Flashman not only a cad, but also a reluctant and serial war hero. If you ever start to think Flashman has turned over a new leaf, just keep reading. If this kind of thing interests you I do suggest that you start with the first book in the series, 'Flashman', although each book stands on its own.
The Flashman series weave historical detail together with spell-binding stories told with frequent hilarity. Highly recommended for fans of British historical fiction or a good ribald tale of any kind.
Book Review: Russian Flash
Summary: 5 Stars
The most surprising thing about this installment of adventures of Harry Flashman (most famous officer, gentleman (well, quite doubtfully) and hero (well, not exactly) of Victorian England) set in Russia, that it is not even popular there, it is absolutely unknown. The Crimean War, together with serfdom, is quite an embarrassment for the Russians and George MacDonald Fraser spares none of his literary talents describing the 'beauty' and 'excitement' of Russian life in the middle of 19 century. Well, Flashman definitely enjoys certain aspects of it (you can easily imagine which ones). What catapults him into the Land of Tsars was, first of all, the Crimean War (which he skillfully tried to avoid but as usual getting himself into the pickle) and, as it happened, an unfortunate Charge of the Light Brigade, where he earns hard a status of a POW through his yet again outstanding cowardice. His life on the estate in a beautifully described southern rural Russia (or Ukraine to be precise) turns into yet another amorous affair with a beautiful daughter of a Cossack noble (with another surprise there too, mind you). Such fabulous captivity is abruptly interrupted by this foul Russian institution -serfdom- which catapults him into another adventure now in Central Asia (which was fighting not to be Russian at that time) where Flashy meets East again with more shocks and surprises for a reader (and Flashman). Prepare yourself for a Russian steambath, eavesdrop on the enemy's secrets after a passionate date and think how to make your sled lighter when you are on the run with a beauty because the chase is on and Cossacks are on the way!