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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Flashy's Strange Appeal, March 11, 2003
By A Customer
The Flashman papers - the memoirs of the fictional 19th century British officer Harry Paget Flashman - are the product of George MacDonald Fraser's fertile imagination. If they had really been found in a Leicester saleroom in 1965, as Fraser tells us in the preface of the first Flashman book, their discovery would have been as serendipitous as the discovery of the ruins of Pompeii. These books are really special, and it's a pity that more people don't know about them.
The first of eleven books in the series, Flashman: From the Flashman papers, 1839-1842 recounts Harry Paget Flashman's adventures as a young adult, primarily his participation in the First Afghan War. The book presents certain thematic elements that recur delightfully throughout the series: Flashman's propensity for finding himself at the center of major historical events, brushing shoulders with important historical figures like the Duke of Wellington and Queen Victoria; his uncanny luck in getting out of the stickiest situations imaginable while getting credit for heroic deeds not his own; and his unbridled hedonism. Flashman is a talented equestrian and linguist. His positive characteristics end there. By any objective measure he is a deplorable human being. Flashman is a coward, a lecher, and a libertine; and yet, oddly, most readers will wind up liking him. Some have compared him to James Bond, but that would be an insult to 007, who was after all a decent guy. This contradiction is hard to explain. How can we like a guy who has a deplorable character and yet always seems to come out on top? Perhaps he appeals to the irresponsible freedom-loving id in all of us. There is a part of us that envies someone who can sin often, get away with it, and never feel burdened by a guilty conscience. Flashman is a scoundrel and knows he's a scoundrel; it just doesn't bother him. We feel privileged to be let in on the secret, for while some of the book's characters recognize Flashman's true nature, most do not. And Fraser makes an art of killing off the characters that have the most damaging information on Flashman before they get a chance to expose his treachery. Near the end of the book, we can only chuckle when a young Queen Victoria, filled with emotion, gushes to Flashman, "You are a very gallant gentleman. God bless you," as she pins a medal on his coat in recognition of his "service" to England in the Afghan campaign. As you follow Flashman's every move, devouring this action-packed adventure like ice cream, reveling in its bawdy humor and ironic twists and turns, you'll realize that this is very high quality stuff. Flashman is an extremely well-written piece of historical fiction. The eloquent narration fits with what one might expect from a memoir by a 19th century officer in her Majesty's service. The British retreat from Kabul in early 1842, which is recounted in all its gruesome detail, really did happen as described in the book, with men, women, and children savagely hacked to pieces by Afghani tribes. And true to form, Fraser does justice to the book's many historical figures, who at least in spirit are similar to the real life personalities. Flashman is a great book that can be seen on many different levels: comic adventure story; commentary on Victorian life; or historical fiction. In the end, no matter how one chooses to view Flashman, there is no denying the entertainment value of this book, which is unparalleled, unless compared to some of the other books in the Flashman series (i.e. Flash at the Charge or Flash for Freedom). One word of caution: given Flashman's offensive views on race and gender, you can throw political correctness out the window with this one.
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by George MacDonald Fraser
by George MacDonald Fraser
by George MacDonald Fraser
by George MacDonald Fraser
by George MacDonald Fraser
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