The Flashman Series (01-12) by George MacDonald Fraser
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Overview: George MacDonald Fraser, OBE FRSL (2 April 1925 – 2 January 2008) was an English-born author of Scottish descent, who wrote historical novels, non-fiction books and several screenplays. He is best known for a series of works that featured the character Flashman. The Flashman series of books is written by George Macdonald Fraser, and details the life of fictional Victorian soldier, Sir Harry Flashman. Flashman first appeared as the bully in Tom Brown’s Schooldays, and over the course of these books, Flashman recounts tales of his service at numerous major military disasters, from the Charge of the Light Brigade to Rorke’s Drift. Flashman is a coward, a scoundrel and a self-confessed poltroon, and yet somehow manages to get promoted through the ranks of the British army to brigadier-general over the course of the books. Each book has been meticulously researched by Macdonald Fraser, and includes a series of footnotes to accompany the story, providing corroborating details on Flashman’s commentary, based on historical accounts. The series is very well written, and forms a lively account of the major events of the Victorian era from the unique perspective of Sir Harry Flashman.
Genre: Historical fiction
Flashman (1969)
Afghanistan (1839–42) Flashman’s expulsion from Rugby School for drunkenness leads him to join the British Army. He joins the 11th Regiment of Light Dragoons commanded by Lord Cardigan. After an affair with a fellow-officer’s lover, he fights a duel, but cheats. He is posted to Scotland because of the affair, and is billeted with the Morrison family; he takes advantage of one of the daughters, Elspeth. After a forced marriage, Flashman is required to resign his position in the Hussars and instead is gazetted into a position with the East India Company. After revealing his language and riding skills, Flashman is assigned to Afghanistan, where he is present at the retreat from Kabul, the last stand at Gandamak and the Siege of Jalalabad.
Royal Flash (1970)
(1842–43 and 1847–48) Fleeing from a police raid on a brothel he was visiting, Flashman meets Lola Montez and Otto von Bismarck. Some years later Flashman is tempted to Munich, where Bismarck has him abducted; he is blackmailed into imitating Prince Carl Gustaf, a fictional member of the Danish royal family. Gustaf is to be married to Duchess Irma, the ruler of the fictional Duchy of Strackenz; according to Bismarck the prince has contracted a sexually transmitted disease, which would be embarrassing if uncovered by his future wife. This turns out to be a lie and the prince has been imprisoned in Jotunberg Castle. Flashman is a doppelgänger of the Prince and is trained to take his place until the Prince is cured. Flashman is accompanied to Strackenz by Bismarck’s accomplices, Rudi von Starnberg, Detchard and de Gautet, and is married to the Duchess. Shortly afterwards, while out hunting, Flashman finds out that Bismarck meant to double-cross him and kill him, but he turns the tables on his attacker and tortures the information out of him and kills him instead. He is then captured by Strackenzian nationalists and forced to help them storm the Jotunberg Castle. They are successful, but Flashman and von Starnberg fight in the dungeon, with Flashman narrowly escaping death before escaping back to England, with the help of Montez, who robs him along the way.
Flash for Freedom! (1971)
(1848–49) Flashman is falsely accused of cheating at cards, and runs away from disgrace by accepting an offer of a berth on the slaving ship part owned by his father-in-law; the ship is captained by John Charity Spring, an ex-fellow of Oriel College, Oxford who quotes Latin and Greek at length. After sailing to Dahomey, Spring buys slaves from King Ghezo; the deal goes wrong and the crew are attacked by Gezo’s Amazons, resulting in the mortal wounding of the third mate, Mr Comber. Comber dies, but admits to Flashman that he is a spy for the navy, giving Flashman his papers to prove his identity. The ship makes its way to America but is captured by the United States Navy. Flashman assumes the identity of Comber and escapes, hiding in the brothel of Susie Willinck. He is abducted by the Underground Railroad and forced to assist in transporting a slave to freedom in Canada. He is accused of being an abolitionist and escapes, ending up employed as a slave driver on a plantation. Caught having sex with the owner’s wife, he is himself sold into slavery, but escapes with a slave, before being assisted to freedom by junior congressman Abraham Lincoln. He returns to New Orleans and demands passage to Britain from Spring.
Flashman At The Charge (1973)
Crimean War (Charge of the Light Brigade), 1854; Central Asia, Battle at Fort Raim 1855. As the British cavalry prepared to launch itself against the Russian guns, Flashman was not so much dismayed as terrified. But the Crimea was only the start: beyond lay the Great Russian slave-empire, torture and death from relentless enemies, headlong escapes, and savage tribal hordes.
Flashman In The Great Game (1975)
Sepoy Indian Mutiny 1856-58. What caused the Indian Mutiny? The greased cartridge, religious fanaticism, political blundering, yes – but one hitherto unsuspected factor is now revealed in the figure which fled across the Indian scene in 1857 with frantic haste: Flashman.
Flashman’s Lady (1977)
Borneo Piracy, Madagascar 1842-45. When Flashman accepted an invitation to join in a friendly cricket match, he little knew that he was letting himself in for a desperate game that would see him from the wicket at Lord’s to the jungle lairs of Borneo pirates, from a Newgate hanging to the torture pits of Madagascar.
Flashman And The Redskins (1982)
The 1849 Gold Rush 1849-50; Battle of Little Big Horn, 1876. What was Harry Flashman doing at Little Bighorn, caught between the gallant remnant of Custer’s 7th Cavalry and the withering attack of Sitting Bull’s Braves? He was trying to get out of the line of fire and escape yet again with his life after setting the American West by its ears.
Flashman And The Dragon (1985)
Taiping Rebellion, 1860. China, 1860, and Flashman wins the trust of the English vicar’s daughter with her cargo of opium, Lord Elgin in search of an intelligence chief, the Emperor’s concubine, and the female bandit colossus Szu-Zhan. They take him at face value and he takes them for all he can.
Flashman And The Mountain Of Light (1990)
Indian Punjab, Sikh Rebellion 1845-46. Avoiding the defence of the Indian frontier against the Sikh Khalsa army, Flashman finds himself in the secret service of the Court of the Punjab, where he copes well with the attentions of the beautiful Maharani, but also has to face the torture chamber and the baleful Mountain of Light.
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Flashman And The Angel Of The Lord (1994)
John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry 1858-59. The tenth in the "Flashman Papers" series, this adventure sees Flashman leaving Calcutta in a hurry, and arriving in Virginia – where John Brown and his gang of rugged fanatics were to fire the first shot in the great war against slavery.
Flashman and the Tiger (1999)
(1878–94) "The Road to Charing Cross"— Flashman goes to Berlin with Henri Blowitz to help get a copy of the Treaty of Berlin and publish it in The Times. Five years later, he is trying to avoid being sent to Sudan with Charles George Gordon when a letter from Blowitz arrives inviting him to Paris. He rides the maiden journey of the Orient Express and is blackmailed by Bismarck into joining Rupert Willem von Starnberg (the son of the villain from Royal Flash). Flashman and Starnberg are instructed by Bismarck to save Emperor Franz Josef from assassination by Magyar nationalists, but Flashman is in turn tricked by Starnberg, who is one of the assassins.
"The Subtleties of Baccarat"—Flashman is an observer of the Tranby Croft affair, which he discovers was caused by his wife.
"Flashman and the Tiger"—Flashman meets "Tiger Jack" Moran in the aftermath of the Battle of Isandlwana; the pair escape to Rorke’s Drift. Years later Moran reveals he was the cabin boy on Captain John Charity Spring’s ship, the Balliol College (see Flash for Freedom!); he has been seeking revenge against the ship’s crew and was blackmailing Flashman’s granddaughter in order to sleep with her. While trying to kill him, Flashman is mistaken for a tramp by Sherlock Holmes, while the police arrest Moran for trying to kill Holmes (see "The Adventure of the Empty House").
Flashman on the March (2005)
(1867–68) While in Trieste, Flashman meets an old school friend, Jack Speedicut who enlists him to escort a shipment of Maria Theresa thalers to General Robert Napier. Napier is based in Abyssinia, on a military expedition against King Tewodros II. On Flashman’s arrival in Abyssinia, Napier enlists him and despatches him on a secret undercover mission to recruit Queen Masteeat and her Galla people, who are opposed to Tewodros. Flashman succeeds in enlisting the assistance of Queen Masteeat, but is then captured by Tewodros’ forces. Flashman is held captive while Napier’s forces advance and then storm the capital Magdala, and is present when the king commits suicide.
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