Flashman - George MacDonald Fraser

BossArky

I'm currently reading my first Flashman novel: Flashman in the Great Game.

Anyone read these? Quite funny at the moment, only on page 80.

wiki wrote:

The series is a classic use of false documents. The books describe the discovery of the nonagenarian General Flashman's memoirs in a Leicestershire saleroom in 1965. Posing as the editor of the papers, Fraser produces a series of historical novels that give a racy, colourful, mostly pragmatic (or arguably cynical) view of British and American history in the 19th century. Dozens of major and minor characters from history flit in and out of the books, often in an inglorious or hypocritical guise. Other fictional characters, such as Sherlock Holmes, can also be found in the tales, complementing Flashman and sundry figures from Tom Brown's Schooldays and Tom Brown at Oxford.

xebec

I've read 7 of the Flashman series and I love them! I started with the first one and have enjoyed every one of them since. They're great books about an anti-hero who is the biggest wimp and womaniser in the UK and still manages to come out of things in a good way. A must read for anyone who wants a good laugh and enjoys adventure stories...

randomguy

Read the first few and really enjoyed them.

It's funny though. I thought their basic message was really subversive. His point was that British nationalism is based on the idea that the values that made Britain great were the values of Tom Brown (honour and fair play and stiff upper lip and all that) while in reality what really drove the British Empire were the values of Flashman the bully (dishonourable, cheating lying and womanising). But I only found out when he died recently that the author got loads of flack for being sexist and racist. I had read it as anti-colonial and subversive, but seemingly the author got into lots of trouble for not being politically correct.