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52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another Evil Masterpiece, November 14, 2005
This review is from: Flashman on the March from The Flashman Papers, 1867-8 (Hardcover)
I'm not supposed to like stuff like this. After all, I'm supposed to be a man of the cloth. I like it anyway. Like all of its predecessors, it is a guilty pleasure.
Harry Flashman is the creation of George MacDonald Fraser. He is a Victorian hero who seems to have been present at every great event of his age. He is hailed as the hero of Jallalabad, the Indian Mutiny, the American Underground Railroad, the charge of the Light Brigade, the charge of the Heavy Brigade and the stand of the thin red line among other. He was commissioned by the Confederate Army and the Union Army. He also fought with the French Foreign Legion under the Emperor Maximillian. He was hailed as a hero by all. What only the readers of the Flashman papers know is that he is a coward and a cad. He just manipulates those around him in order to build his reputation and get laid. He does both superbly and just manages get out of every scrape he finds himself in.
In this volume, Flashman takes part in the Abyssinian War. He doesn't do so willingly and gets from one bit of trouble to the next. He also gets from one bed to the next literally and metaphorically screwing everyone with whom he comes into contact and again comes out of it with an enhanced reputation.
One of the interesting things about Flashman books is the copious addition of footnotes. The stories are presented as if they are autobiographical and written to cause trouble after Flashman's death. The footnotes at historical details that are worth reading in their own right.
The war this volume covers is one of the strangest in British history. Most of the time when Britain goes to war it does so with great pomp and certainty of swift victory. After a few reverses, they ultimately win. This war was different. Everyone predicted disaster. Instead, the campaign was won without any loss of life to combat (by the British) and remarkably few casualties. They went in, did what they said they would and left.
This is not the best of the Flashman Papers but all of them are good. This one is no exception.
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sir Harry Joins Napier's March on Magdala, Abyssinia, December 2, 2005
This review is from: Flashman on the March from The Flashman Papers, 1867-8 (Hardcover)
Whatever you may think or feel when you read this latest release of The Flashman Papers, you will know that you are reading history. George MacDonald Fraser is an authentic military historian. Flip through the pages of The Steel Bonnets for proof. If all you learn about the Crimean War, the Schleswig-Holstein Affair, The Indian Mutiny, or the Opium Wars is what you've seen through the eyes of history's most self-effacing hero, then you are still very well informed. In Flashman on the March, Sir Harry, now fortyish, turns the tide in Sir Robert Napier's march on Magdala, in what is grandiosly known as The Abyssinian War of 1868. Though less well known as are the above-mentioned events, it stands as a stunning achievement in British colonial power. Sir Robert (Bughunter Bob, Flashy calls him) is dispatched to free some British captives held by a maniacal Abysinnian tyrant, King Theodore. Even those of us who are ardent students of The Flashman Papers must admit that the Flashman formula has now become, well, formulaic. But Frasier may rest assured that those of us who love his admirable protagonist would not have him change that formula one iota. You cannot be disappointed with this grand adventure at the upper reaches of the Blue Nile, in the mountainous jungle of what we now know as Ethiopia. Let me use Flashman's own words of reflection, "...I thought of that hellish beautiful land and its hellish beautiful people, of Yando's cage and the horrors of Gondar, of bandit treasure aswarm with scorpions, of the terrifying thunder of decent into a watery maelstrom, of a raving lunatic slaughtering helpless captives, of fighting women drunk on massacre, of a graceful she-devil aglow with love, and ice cold in hate..." In my view this book stands with the very best of the Flashman Papers. Sir Harry leaves no value unscorned, and he keeps us smiling throughout. Oh, and don't wait for it to come out in audio, or video; as usual, there's too much uncomfortable truth embedded in the fiction.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just Discovering Flashy? Lucky Duck!, November 16, 2005
This review is from: Flashman on the March from The Flashman Papers, 1867-8 (Hardcover)
The Flashman series is one of the unalloyed treasures of reading: hysterically funny, immensely informative, unfailingly entertaining, and even, at times, moving. These adventures of the 19th Century's greatest poltroon never fail to amuse-- and I've read them all many times. This new volume is a treat (though not in my top 6), and deserves your attention.
THAT SAID: don't start here. If you haven't read, at the very least, the first volume ("Flashman"), you'll be doing yourself a disservice. These should be read, and savored, either chronologically (in terms of Flashy's life and crimes) or in order of publication, as you prefer. Your appreciation of the character will be enriched by the proper introduction, and you'll get more out of this and all the others. Enjoy!
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