Product Description
A collection of twenty of the best swashbuckling short stories by the author of Scaramouche and Captain Blood includes a series of colorful tales about Casanova, told with the author's characteristic zest and wit. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Classic Sabatini
From a few motifs (the housebreaker overhearing something he shouldn't, the trickster tricked, etc), Sabatini works his usual magic and creates a collection of stories that keeps you happily reading, and sad (but not disappointed!) when you turn the last page--which in my mind are the best criteria for fiction. The first half presents a 'rogue's gallery' of various one or two-shot characters in historical dress with all the snazzy repartee and swashbuckling you could imagine.You have everything from a highwayman to a French revolutionary to a Muslim pirate. The second half is the 'fortunes of Casanova' proper--a connected sequence of tales fictionalizing (and Sabatini-izing) Casanova.Strangely absent from his Casanova is...well...the attractions of women.Sabatini, save for the last tale, which is a love affair gone horribly awry, focusses on more 'adventures'--escaping from a notorious and inescapable prison, exposing a false prince, and the like.Absolutely wonderful stuff, and a must-have if you're a Sabatini fan. If you're not, the only reason I can think is that you've never read him.If you like the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise but wished they bathed a bit more, you will LOVE this man!

Great Omnibus
An outstanding omnibus which collects eleven of Sabatini's "lost" short stories and nine stories which are based on events from the historical Casanova's memoirs. Sabatini's short stories aremasterful in their pace and ability to immediately immerse the reader in anadventure (invariably featuring a rascally hero) which ends in totalsatisfaction for the reader, if not the hero. The stories are all set fromthe 16th-18th centuries in various European locales and are shiningexamples of the craft of historical adventure writing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Huge fun
A dizzying, action-packed yarn that takes us from England to the Caribbean via Madagascar, with a cast of pirates, heroes, villains, lovable rogues, heroines and vixens. As the author cheerfully tells us, great liberties are taken with history (among other things). It's a wild blend of all the pirate stories the author devoured in his childhood, mixing historical figures and events with great dollops of deliberate anachronism.

A real romp, and definitely not to be taken seriously. I prefer Fraser's "Flashman" books, with their carefully rendered historical background to the anti-hero's misadventures, but this was great fun.

adventure
lady vanity of yorkeys knob and very victorian , kiwi and british, and indonisa and inda, burma also. traveling at the speed of light in words!Barbra Quixley_- lady vanity, told me id like it and it is funny for sure

Fraser's hilarious, epic paean to the pirate legend, wi' a curse!
George MacDonald Fraser's "Flashman" series, adored by all who read them, keep a tight balance between historical accuracy, cranking up adrenaline, and humor (erring more on the side of adrenaline and humor than accuracy, I grant you).If you've read Bernard Cornwell's occasionally grim Richard Sharpe series, you need to read Flashman for some yucks.

"The Pyrates," a stand-alone novel, is Fraser's epic farce.From the first sentence, which goes on for more than a page, that sets the scene to the climactic battle between the pyrates, the Dudley Doright hero Avery, and the condemned-to-lose Spanish, Fraser keeps the action moving and the laughs coming.Nary a sentence goes by without a perfectly-timed joke or witty aside, and while it gets the tiniest bit tiresome at well over 400 pages, "Pyrates" never wears out its welcome.

I'll spare the repeating of any of the jokes, as I could never do Fraser's work justice.Just read on for Heroes, Villains, Sultry Maidens, Virtuous Virgins, and other comic archetypes in full bloom.You'll be glad you did, even though you may get some odd stares as you burst out laughing if you dare read "Pyrates" in public.A hilarious work.

One of his best.
First something becomes a cornerstone of society then you parody it and that is when things start to get fun.Think of a book that you would write if you could jam every conceivable plot clique and character into 600 pages; Friaser did all that.

In typical buccaneer fashion there are damsels in distress, great escapes, sword fights, evil Spaniards, upright British officers, rouges a treasure, great men of the age and a whole lot more.There is also a handy 30 pages or so at the end to help the unwary separate fact from fiction.

A very good investment all round solid gold.

A tale that must be told
A brilliant book by one of my favorite authors.I stumbled on it by accident, while looking for Flashman.In a sense, this is even better:Flashie can sometimes get repetitive, but Fraser keeps this one moving.Virtually everyone and everything plays out in strict accordance with Pirate Cliche, with the exception of the cliffhanger ending.Walls between the narrator and the audience are broken down, so that Fraser can explain, for instance, what the background music or camera-eye view would be if this were a movie (and it should be-think of "Airplane","M.P. and the Holy Grail" and a solid Errol Flynn movie rolled into one.)I could say a lot more, but why bother?You should be reading the book.Trust me. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Flashman comes to America (unwillingly, of course)
Among series characters, I'd have to guess that there are few as unredeemably roguish as Harry Flashman.Unlike most fictional cads, Harry is unrepentant, and those who expect him to see the light and become a better person are sure to be disappointed.But for those who understand Harry for what he is - a coward with no scruples, as he'd be the first to admit - the Flashman Papers are wonderfully fun historical novels.

Flash for Freedom! is the third volume of the Flashman Papers, and though the events in these volumes are not fully in the same order as their chronological publication, in this case, the third volume does immediately follow the events in the second one (Royal Flash).As this novel begins (in 1848), Harry is again enjoying his life of idleness, but when he tries to run for Parliament, things go very wrong, and he is forced to go into temporary exile.Harry is put aboard one of his wealthy father-in-law's ships and forced to work, something he never likes to do.Moreover, he is more than a little disturbed to find out that he is on a slave ship.

Not that Harry has moral qualms about the slave trade, but he just doesn't like to be put in a position where he could be convicted of a hanging offense.He will wind up going from Africa to Cuba and eventually to New Orleans (and other places in America), and throughout, he will be exposed to all sorts of sides of the slavery issue:besides smuggling, he will act as a slave driver and as an agent of the underground railroad.Throughout, Harry takes no real side, merely trying to survive to make it home to England.

Even those who are used to Harry's natural villainy may be a little put off by his casual racism, but this is actually nothing new for him; he's always looked down on other races (as well as most other non-English people).But Harry Flashman is not supposed to be a role model, and for all his bad qualities, he also has a charm and humor that is endearing.It is Flashman's narrative that makes this a great set of offbeat historical novels (a genre that is usually on the serious side), and Flash for Freedom! is as good as its predecessors.

Challenging, brave and brilliant.
I can certainly see why some readers of this book have been put off by the difficult (and frought) subject matter; or rather by its treatment. Fraser's interpretation of these events, as revealed by his cynical and self-serving narrator can be challenging and unsettling. In FLASH FOR FREEDOM we are presented with a panoramic view of the slave trade both as an (horrific) economic process and as an expression of a deeply ingrained racism born out of what we now refer to as "Imperialist" attitudes.

But before you write this book off as a thinly veiled excuse for a misplaced and romantic nostalgia for an earlier age, take a moment and consider the not inconsiderable achievements in storytelling that the author has accomplished here. After all, something as fundamentally wrong as the slave trade required certain social and economic conditions to develop and to flourish. This, it seems to me, is one of Fraser's great strengths as a writer of so-called "historical fiction". More than most contemporary writers, he is able to divorce himself from the compulsive moralising that afflicts much of our public language today (not an offence in itself, except that most of it reeks of crowd pleasing "correctness" and insincerity), and recreate not only the events of an earlier age, but the attitudes that helped to foster them. We may find many of these repugnant by the standards of our own self-declared enlightenment, but it doesn't make them any the less true.

Therefore, the question becomes, "Does the author endorse or fail to codemn the brutailty that the novel graphically details?" The answer to this it seems to me is readily accessible in the text and in the working out of the plot. Without wanting to give anything away, as much of the fun is lies in its suspense, the final stages of Flashy's nightmare journey and his reaction to these events serve to personalise the full horror of the slave system and bring home the extent of its barbarity. If our narrator doesn't manage to summon up much sympathy for anyone but himself, well, Fraser is remaining true to Flashy's essential character - as he should. Anything else would be unconvincing.

What I really like about Fraser as a storyteller is his ability to spin a rattling good "yarn" that moves at a pace, his apparently effortless skill with language (and period language in particular), his ability to create lively and interesting characters and the depth of his research. So many recent attempts at historical fiction fail in one or more of these areas that I find myself to be immensely grateful to be in the hands of a master of the genre.

And Flashy remains, despite (or perhaps, because of) his apalling behaviour, a narrator of great interest. I couldn't help but feel sympathy for his plight and curiosity for his fate - although were he a personal acquaintance I wouldn't trust him with either my credit card or my girlfriend! What's more, Fraser has the rare skill of creating a varied cast of interesting and well drawn supporting players, from the monstrous to the heroic, and all shades in between. Even well known historical figures get their turn, and the author can throw a surprising light on them as well.

Highly recommended if you want your historical fiction to be more than just a grisly picture postcard of an earlier age. I look forward to many rereadings of the books in this wonderful series.

Filthy Groveling Narcissistic Swine!
Hard to take! Bundle 3 of the Flashman Papers exposes Harry at his nauseating worst - smug and cowardly, vile in thought and deed, and appallingly callous in his racism. Racism is a touchy subject for me. If Harry or his creator had been physically accessible, there might never have been a volume 4. Only the perception that Flashman wasn't Fraser, but just a 'fallible narrator' in literary terms, helped me keep my anger until control long enough to wonder where the book was going. Sure enough, in the end, despite his cowardice, Flashman partially redeems himself - in his own eyes by getting out of scrape after scrape once again, in my eyes by at least recognizing and paying grudging tribute to the humanity and courage of two others - one a runaway woman slave whom he rescues utterly by chance; the other a historical personage, a back-country congressman named Abraham Lincoln. A major part of what makes Flashman a tolerable rogue is that his cynicism about himself is matched and bested by his cynicism about everyone else, from his miserly father-in-law to Bismark, Gladstone, and Disraeli, a cynicism that usually hits the mark.

Harry's description of conditions on the slave ship Balliol College are nightmare material but entirely factual, as is the sadistic racism of the slave traders. I suppose that hearing and seeing such horrors through the eyes of a partcipant, however unwilling, delivers an emotional jolt that many people will prefer to avoid. This is not one of the "funny" Flashman books, and in the end it's not entirely satisfying to find Harry saving his own hind quarters by saving those of the villain who captains the slaver. I'm giving the book its five stars for literary accomplishment, but I'd strongly recommend to anyone with a shred of innocence and susceptibility remaining to skip it and hope for less beastliness in volume 4.

Histories greatest scoundrel rides again!!!
Given that my introduction to the Flashmen series almost coincided with the tragic (although not unexpected) death of George Macdonald Frasier I have made it my news years resolution to let people know about his wonderful books.

They wouldn't be good without the main character Sir Harry Flashman VC; who without ever really meaning to became the most highly decorated solider of the Victorian Era.This is all of course just a byproduct of his attempts to save his own worthless hide, with the reader cheering him all the while.They are also outstanding in their great attention to historical accuracy backed up with a large amount of footnotes.

This particular installment "Flash for Freedom" involves a particular set of circumstances whereby Flash is forced out of London and takes passage to America on a slave smuggler under the command of the dubious personage of one "John Charity Spring." He meets some notable figures of the time most famous of who is probably a young Mr. Lincoln.As always my powers of description can never fully explain how good these books are and I would hope that you would give this series your full attention.

One of the worst of the Flashman series
Fraser is at his best when Flashman is woven into intricate plots involving detailed historic events. Less interesting, boring, when involved in general history.This and "...Angel of the Lord" I find to be his two worst books. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Entertaining and Informative
This book looks at the way in which Hollywood films have accurately (or not) portrayed historical events. Since these are two of my favorite topics (films and history) I was immediately attracted to the book.

The book's best virtue is the plethora of pictures that give us side-by-side comparisons of the actual historical figures and the Hollywood people who portrayed them. Of course it's not necessary for the film character to resemble the real person, but it is interesting. Here are some good match-ups

- Olivier and Lord Dowling (Battle of Britain)
- Jack Hawkins and General Allenby (Lawrence of Arabia)
- Anthony Quinn and Audah Abu Taiyeh (Lawrence of Arabia)
- Glenda Jackson and Queen Elizabeth (Mary Queens of Scots)

Here are some terrible matchups -

- Steve McQueen and Tom Horm (Tom Horn)
- Jane Russell and Belle Star (Montana Belle)
- Burt Lancaster and Wyatt Earp (Gunfight at OK Corral)
- Genevieve Bujold and Anne Boleyn (Ann of 1000 Days)

Another virtue of this book is the large number of films it covers and the attempt to cover such a wide period of time, from prehistory (1 Million BC) to World War 2.

If the book has any fault, it is that the author does not really go into much detail about any of the films, and he often spends his time as a film critic rather than an historical fact checker. There are times when he simply tells us that there isn't much historical information about a certain subject, and one has to wonder why he includes that film since there isn't much to say.

These small criticisms aside, this is certainly a great idea for a book and it is executed very well and well illustrated and well written.

In the Days When Hollywood Tried to Get It Right
This was a very entertaining and unstuffy book to read comparing actual history and historical figures with Hollywood's interpretation of them. Surprisingly, Hollywood did a pretty good job of it, most of the time. It also contains over 200 pictorial comparisons of paintings of historical figures with photos of their Hollywood look-a-likes (or not), e.g. Charlton Heston as Cardinal Richelieu; Charles Boyer as Napoleon; Henry Fonda as a young Abraham Lincoln; and a truly remarkable photo of Ben Kingsley as Ghandi. (On the other hand, cute and perky Doris Day looked nothing like the coarse, drunken, manish Martha Jane Canarray - aka "Calamity Jane.") the author, George MacDonald Fraser, best known for his series of comic novels about the misadventures of the Victorian era rogue Harry Flashman, writes in his usual, easy going and humorous style that is guaranteed to keep the reader's interest high. This is a difficult book to put down. I recommend it to movie and history buffs alike.

How does Hollywood do history?
In "The Hollywood History of the World", George MacDonald Fraser provides an enjoyable survey of Hollywood's treatment of historical subjects. This is no scholarly dissertation, enumerating all of the factual errors in each film and grading them on accuracy. Indeed, there's very little scholarship at all. Although there is some judgement on historical matters, most of Mr. MacDonald Fraser's commentary is made up observations about actors, sets, dialogue and drama. This book is really the reminiscences of a movie lover who happens to be a history buff. The author adeptly conveys the wonder one must have felt watching movies during Hollywood's Golden Age, and makes one realize how incredible it is that we are able to actually see history resurrected before our eyes, while all previous generations before the early 20th century had to resort to dusty manuscripts and pictures. The movies are the closest process we have to time travel and George MacDonald Fraser concludes that Hollywood has done a pretty job of it.

A Must for Lovers of Costume Drama
I bought this book when it first came out in the '80s, and it has gained that most honored spot for a book -- the bookcase right next to my bed.It's an old friend; I've read it over and over.It's hugely entertaining, and remarkably informative as well.I joined Netflix largely to get access to many of the wonderful old movies I'd read about in Fraser's book, and I've learned all sorts of tidbits of history.

Also fascinating are the many illustrations showing contemporary portraits of the historical characters portrayed and the actors who played them.Much of the casting and costuming has been remarkably good -- in particular, in The Private Life of Henry VIII, Merle Oberon's costume as Anne Boleyn is a dead-on copy of the clothes Anne wore in a portrait.Read this book and you'll have a new respect for how much history Hollywood has gotten right.

One of the best& drollest history books I have read
A brillantly conceived foundation with combines GMF love of history and Films. It also allows him to poniticated on all of the issues and ideas that claim his fancy. It was a very fun read for me! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

It's unlike anything else, but still fascinating
I don't know if there is an american equivalent, maybe you could consider it a bunch of short stories of British Military life post WWII. A military that is similar to MASH you could say, but only in a way that is distinctlyBritish

Govt Health Warning: you may laugh yourself to death
The sequel to "The General danced at Dawn"; further hilarious and touching adventures of a "one pipper" and his highland regiment. For me, this is Prozac in paperback; never fails to bring asmile. ... Read more

Product Description
After 25 years of chronicling the military misadventures of Flashman, the Victorian arch-cad, George MacDonald Fraser has temporarily deserted fiction to write this, his own personal account of the Burma War. In this book he describes life and death in Nine Section, a small group of hard-bitten and possibly eccentric Cumbrian borderers with whom the author, then 19, served in the last great land campaign of World War II. The book describes the experience when the 17th Black Cat Division captured a vital strongpoint deep in Japanese territory, held it against counter-attack and spearheaded the final assault in which the Japanese armies were torn apart. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (43)

Flashman in Burma
This is one of the few biographys of WWII that has had me laughing out loud - the carrot incident was all too credible, and the well incident just so unexpected. GMFs turn of phrase and timing makes these naturally funny incidents hilarious.

I especially appreciated the detailed descriptions of the details of daily life for a rifleman in the 1940s - too often those nuts and bolts details get glossed over, and without them it becomes increasingly difficult to really visualise the trials and tribulations of the frontline.

GMF is undoubtedly an iconoclast - his opinions are very strongly his own, from the worth of a Thompson vs a SMLE, or the atomic bombs, to the claggage a modern rifleman must lug about the place. While you may not agree with his opinions, they cannot be dismissed out of hand. I don't agree with, for example, his opinion on all the crud a rifleman has to carry now, but I really had to examine my own thoughts and reasons before I felt comfortable with that.

Overall this is an outstanding biography of the rifleman's lot. I strongly recommend it in conjunction with "The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby" and "And no Birds Sang".

Flashy's father goes to war
Outstanding story telling and first-person history lesson about the war in Burma - one of the most remote & overlooked battlefronts of WWII. This is NOT top-down history for the armchair generals corps. POV is a British infantryman. It is a simply told, modest, descriptive, and wonderfully non-PC war story. Would you expect anything less from the literary genius who gave us the Flashman Series? My favorite parts 1) sparring with Section 9 Troops about Jock's Brew shop and "taking the point". 2) The Piat mission with Capt Grief and3) an honest account of killing the enemy at close range.

Quartered Safe Out Here, MacDonald/Frazer
The author's recollections of his time in an obscure part of WWII are absolutely enthralling.His use of the Scotish/British brog in naration was at first difficult to read and understand requiring several re-reads of sentences.But that became the added charm and wit that almost unconsciously absorbs the reader. He captures the readers interest with not only the language, but his vivid description of events and his honest confessions of lapses in memory leading up to those events. For anyone interested in military history this description of the regimental fight Burma is a must.

Made Me Feel at Home
This is not your so called war stories.It is about a man and the men he served with without any liberal gibberish (see his references to more modern times)and the fact that wars happen and will happen, just or unjust depending on one's views.But, they won't go away like some Utopian dreamers think just because other "Utopians" weren't up to it.There were so many pages that hit me in the gut because one could so readily identify with things on the page.I never expected such a great book from a journalist / media person which proves that there is good in every crowd.I salute Fraser and I wish I could tell him so in person.

A pure delight
I read this entire book with a smile on my face, punctuated by frequent outbursts of laughter. George MacDonald Fraser's memories of his WWII service with the British Commonwealth Army in the Burma campaign was the first of his non-Flashman works I've read. Although it's impossible to really compare two completely different literary genres, I'll just say that "Quartered Safe Out Here" was-in its own unique way- as hilarious, if not more so, than the best of the Flashman novels. The difference is that in the Flashman novels, Fraser's obvious respect for the sacrifices and achievements of the British soldier had to be viewed as a backdrop to the foreground humor while the opposite is true in this work, where the humor plays a supporting role to his tribute, which is explicit.

Unlike his Flashman creation, Fraser was an honest-to-goodness war hero- courageous, honorable, and immensely proud of his country, regiment and platoon section. Like old Flashie though, Fraser cuts through the B.S. and shows no tolerance for armchair generals, civilian second guessing, and the nattering classes' politically correct sympathizing for Britain's enemies, so long as they were black, brown or yellow. It was amusing how Fraser's account of his argument with a bleeding-heart over the atomic bombing of Japan exactly echoes Flashman's dustup with a supercilious academic at the beginning of "Flashman and the Redskins". The alert reader will notice other such episodes in this memoir that seem to have found life in that series, but as Fraser noted, sometimes real life in Burma was so bizarre that he would have been laughed out of town if he had tried to slip some of those stories or dialogue into his fictional novels or screenplays. That's why I'm glad he finally got around to writing this book. It would have been a real shame if this story had not been told.

Fraser details his time as a 19 year old soldier in Burma during the last months of the war. His writing is brilliant, as usual, his stories engrossing, his attention to detail is fascinating, and the characters we meet, from the lovably obscene Cumbrians to the unbelievable Captain Grief, are unforgettable, the more so for being real. Apart from the entertainment value, which is considerable, Fraser's insights into the nature of war and the warrior are poignant and valuable as a historical record of, and paean to, a lost Britain. He bemoans the fact that that Britain (not to mention America) has been replaced by a therapeutic society of hypersensitive p.c. twits who have been severed from the warrior tradition and stoic ethos which made their existence possible in the first place. As with most of Fraser's books, it's not for someone who thinks that the world has improved much in the last 50 years. What else is there to say? This is simply a great book. Read it and love it. ... Read more

Product Description
This ninth volume of The Flashman Papers, faithfully edited and transcribed by Fraser, finds that Sir Harry Flashman is back in India, where his saga began. This time, our hero is sent by Her Majesty's Secret Service to spy on the corrupt court of Lahore, on India's Northwest Frontier. Flashy's most challenging exploit yet is as politically shrewd and thoroughly lewd as ever. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Funny, but not new...
I love Flashman. This series of books is the funniest saga ever. Bawdy in places, but laugh-out-loud funny.

Mountain of Light was no exception - comical, thrilling (Flashman's only ever one blink away from discovery, followed by a horrible death of which he is characteristically terrified) and very lewd.

Having said that, Mountain of Light was no exception. I feel like I've read most of it before, and the novelty of the series is wearing off. (However, I have read about 8 of these now - if you've only read one or two, read another!)

Flashman does it again!
Flashman and the Mountain of Light is one of Flashy's greatest adventures in the entire series.Dispatched to the city of Lahore as a diplomat of the East India Company on the eve of war, Flashman soon finds himself evading assassins, charming the beautiful Sikh Maharani, begging for mercy from his captors, and dishonouring himself wholeheartedly, which is hardly a problem for the greatest cad ever to don a red coat.Written by former British soldier George MacDonald Fraser, whose knack for historical research combined with comedic effect has been used time and again to create a remarkably unique character, whose voice and wit makes readers think they are reading an actually memoir.This is one of my favourite books in the series, not only for its gripping action and raunchy laughs, but for the fascination it has endowed in me in its subject.The First Sikh War, fought between the army of the East India Company and the Khalsa, the army of the Sikh Empire, in 1845 to 1846, was one of Britain's many colonial wars, and resulted ultimately in the Punjab coming under the control of the Company.Flashman and the Mountain of Light is a galloping good read, as Flashy would say, and is recommended to anyone who wants to laugh and learn at the same time.

Thunder and shot as Flashman ducks for cover
In this latest instalment of the saga, Flashman finds himself mixed up much more closely than he would like in the First Sikh War of 1845. Duck and dive though he will, his unconscious instinct for being in the wrong place at the wrong time never deserts him, and he gets into any number of scrapes, twice escaping from the Sikh's capital at Lahore, once breaking back in under disguise, and having to show his face at two of the bloodiest battles the British ever fought in India.

There is a great deal of action of all kinds going on, and a fair amount of machination is required to get Flashman, funking and whining as usual, at the centre of each scene, whether military or romantic. With his usual mix of bluster, robust charm, luck and deviousness, he obtains his usual dollop of credit from the adventure, plus a flesh wound to impress doubters. Not quite at the top of his form in this frenetic pot-boiler, Flashman still guarantees a thoroughly good read from both the historical and the entertainment perspectives.

"There Were Some Damned Odd Fellows About in the Earlies"
In George MacDonald Fraser's 'Flashman and the Mountain of Light', our man Flashy sees Queen Vicky holding the Koh-I-Noor diamond and flashes back to India - more precisely, the Punjab where he arrives just in time for the first Anglo Sikh War (1845-46), not to suggest that Flashman had a hand in the war or anything.

The reader meets some of the most colorful figures ever to occupy the historical stage - as Flashman says "there were some damned odd fellows about in the earlies" - many of whom have just about slipped into the obscuring mists of time before Frasser rescued them. There's the White Mughal Alexander Haughton Campbell Gardner, the Queen Mother Maharani Jeendan (ohh, what a mother!), British 'agent' George Broadfoot and more. Flashman even meets up with a couple of fellows who are bigger cowards than he - Lal Singh and Tej Singh.

Fraser also takes the reader through the war in some detail, especially the battles at Ferozeshah and Sobraon. If anything the battle scenes last too long, but that will be a matter of taste for the individual reader.

Along the way, Harry engages in some rather disturbing behavior, which other reviewers have suggested indicate a degree of bravery heretofore undetected. Bosh! While Flashy isn't always the quivering mass of jelly we have come to expect, any actions suggestive of courage are simply acts of self-preservation. And anyway, Flashy gets his just reward for such behavior in the end.

Highest Flashman recommendation.

Another great adventure of Flashman
After reading Royal Flash and Flashman's Lady, I was beginning to think that I as over Flashy, as those books didnt move me in quite the same way the Flashman Papers and the Dragon did.

However, this tale of debauchery and adventure redeemed good ole Flashy in my eyes.Actually, I have been beginning to suspect that Flashy isnt as big a coward as he plays himself to be.His aim appears steady and his sword arm sure when ever he is in a pinch.

The only draw back is that if you are not careful to remember the meanings of all the native lingo, you'll bound to get lost. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

A great writer on top form
This collection of fictionalised wartime reminiscences shows a truly great writer firing on all cylinders. With a draining six-year war just finished, the regiment is winding down in North Africa, and such is the way of the military that the men must be kept busy on a variety of more-or-less useless tasks. These they tackle in a hilariously bumbling way, aided to no small extent by the inexperience of their officer, who serves as the book's narrator.

They play football well, but let the side down with off-field brawls and gambling, cause havoc on a night exercise and have trouble with their kilts when presenting to royalty. The title story is a tour-de-force, when a crusty, whisky-mellowed General thinks he can redefine the Scottish dancing tradition by turning an eightsome into a hundred and twenty-eightsome, with the assistance of Arab cooks and drivers.

Fraser proves enormously clever in melding fiction with reminiscence and delivers a book that is essential reading matter for anyone with a sense of humour.

Guided Serendipity
After reading the fine reviews already posted by others, one doubts whether another review will add much, but out of habit - near compulsion by now - here goes another - with an emphasis on reading connections.

As did many, perhaps most readers of the McAuslan stories, I came to them by way of The Flashman series (My favorites so far: Flashman: A Novel (Flashman) and Flashman in the Great Game: A Novel (Flashman). I enjoyed the Flashman enough to give McAuslan a try. Both series are funny, relate to historical events, and display an ear for language and an eye for detail, but could otherwise be written by different authors. The McAuslan stories are told by the reasonable, sensible, compassionate voice of Lieut. Dand MacNeill and relate the trials of life in a Highland regiment immediately after WW II. In other words, MacNeill could hardly be more different from Harry Flashman. The stakes are lower than in Flashman. The McAuslan tales deal with the mundane life of a soldier waiting for demobe and not imperial crises. These stories read just like tales that actually happened - and something pretty close to them probably did.

McAuslan plays less of a role in the The General Danced at Dawn than McAuslan in the Rough, but the stories are still a delight to read.

The McAuslan stories lie at the outreaches of contemporary humor; pretty obscure stuff and the more fun because of it. A great kick in finding works like these is stumbling upon other works of equal merit and obscurity. It's sort of guided serendipity, if you will. Flashman led not only to McAuslan, but also to John Biggins'A Sailor of Austria: In Which, Without Really Intending to, Otto Prohaska Becomes Official War Hero No. 27 of the Habsburg Empire (The Otto Prohaska Novels) and to Artemus Ward, his book. With many comic illustrations. (not sure how the Ward connection occurred. Mark Twain called Ward the greatest American humorist of his day.).

Highest recommendation and climb out on these other branches.

A Farewell to the Gordons
These wonderful stories, written by Fraser when he was an officer in the Gordon Highlanders at the end of the Second World War are priceless. There is much sardonic humor and wit here. The characters come and go throughout the book. Each chapter is a self contained story in itself almost. By far the one character who appears most often is the unhygenic pvt. McAuslan. He seems to do for the Scots what some of the WW2 comic characters like Sad Sack did for the GI's. The author, who speaks through the voice of his nom-de-guerre relates many amusing episodes. Some are a little silly at times, and the constant unwashed antics of "Peking Man" McAuslan gets a bit tiring, but this does not take away from the quality or humor of the work.

I like best when Fraser talks about the regimental history and lore of the Gordons when he's taking a break from McAuslan. There are some truly wonderful characters and events related here, all factual enough and displaying the honors and traditions which existed in old Highland regiments like the Gordons. Fraser is at his best when he talks of these traditions and one can see that he relished his hectic years with this famous Highland regiment.

The downsizing of the British Empire and the changes this would wrought in the army as well as the world are the backdrop against which these stories are told. This is not a book about war, but about a time when national service was apart of nearly everyone's life. Some of Fraser's opinions may not be considered PC for today, but this in my opinion adds to the charm of these stories. The war and its aftermath left lasting impressions on those who took part. The Gordon Highlanders are sadly no more, having been downsized in 1994.In this book you will find many funny and amusing tales which made them the fine regiment they once were.Those who have followed Fraser in his Flashman series will find a different style here, but equally entertaining in its own right. The McAuslan stories form part of a number of works that were written about the post war years in Britain."Tunes of Glory" is another more serious example by Kenneth Kennaway.

The McAuslan stories have been recently gathered together into a triology which is not available from Amazon.com in the States.The book can be ordered from Amazon.com.co.uk and is well worth the extra pennies to do so.
Here's to the Gordons!Long may their memory live!

Defending King and Empire for 9 quid a week
George MacDonald Fraser served in the "other ranks" of the British Army in Burma late in WWII. Commissioned as a subaltern (2nd lieutenant) following the Japanese surrender, he served as a platoon leader in a Gordon Highlander battalion posted to the Middle East before being "demobbed", i.e. released from active duty. His experiences serve as the basis for THE GENERAL DANCED AT DAWN, initially published in 1970, a first person account by the fictional Dand MacNeill, subaltern of a platoon in an unspecified Highland battalion posted first to Libya, then to Edinburgh, during the period 1945-1947.

THE GENERAL DANCED AT DAWN is a work of wry humor, inasmuch as Lt. MacNeill describes the unintentionally comic situations encountered with his Jocks (men) during garrison life both in Scotland and abroad, mostly the latter. The book is actually a series of short stories, in which a common thread tying all together, besides Dand himself, is Pvt. McAuslan, the dirtiest, most slovenly soldier in His Majesty's service. As described by MacNeill:

" ... he lurched into my office (even in his best tunic and tartan he looked like a fugitive from Culloden who had been hiding in a peat bog) ..."

McAuslan may be the focus of a particular chapter, as when he is court-martialed for refusing an order to enter a pillow fight contest to be held during a gathering of the various Highland regiments. Or, he may make nothing more than a brief cameo appearance, as when he is upbraided by MacNeill for fighting one of the crewman aboard the coastal steamer ferrying the battalion's soccer team on a road-trip against the teams of neighboring British commands - a fight brought on by the sailor's comments regarding McAuslan's unsanitary appearance.

The squalid presence of McAuslan notwithstanding, the central character of the book is Dand MacNeill, whether he's coping with the unfathomable questions of the officer selection board, pressed into command of an overnight troop train from Cairo to Jerusalem through unruly Palestine, mounting the ceremonial guard at Edinburgh Castle, or taking lessons in regimental piping history from the god-like Regimental Sergeant Major. Dand's narrative of military service is of such good humor and wit that it's evident his alter ego, Fraser, remembers his own time in uniform as an enriching life experience, despite the hardships of WWII combat. This positive slant on the book's theme, and Fraser's/MacNeill's fine sense of the ludicrous, make the volume one that I couldn't put down. (I've encountered so-called "thrillers" that were less absorbing.)

Note: THE GENERAL DANCED AT DAWN is currently out of print in the US. However, it and Fraser's two sequels in the McAuslan series, MCAUSLAN IN THE ROUGH and THE SHEIKH AND THE DUSTBIN, are all contained in THE COMPLETE MCAUSLAN, available from Amazon.co.uk. This is a superb volume, worth to an Anglophile every pence spent in postage to deliver it across The Pond to The Colonies.

Chaos in a grungy kilt
It is time that you hear "the sub-muckin', the whole cheese, the hail clanjamfry, the lot' about the Scottish Highland Regiment that served in Africa after World War II.

George MacDonald Fraser has written the stories of this regiment and its most infamous soldier, Private McAuslan, in three collections: "The General Danced at Dawn", "McAuslan in the Rough", and "The Sheikh and the Dustbin".

Through the narration by platoon commander Dand McNeil, McAuslan comes alive as the dirtiest soldier in the world, "wan o' nature's blunders; he cannae help bein' horrible.It's a gift."

Yet McAuslan is one of the most loveable creatures in all of literature.He may be grungy, filthy, clumsy, and disreputable, but he tries to do his best.Through his many misadventures, McAuslan marches into the heart of the reader, right leg and right arm swinging in unison, of course.

McAuslan, outcast that he is, experiences some infamous moments in his career: court martial defendant, ghost-catcher, star-crossed lover, golf caddie, expert map reader, and champion of the regimental quiz game (!).His tales, and the tales of his comrades-in-arms, are poignant at times, hilarious at others. These tales are so memorable because they are based on true stories.

The reader basks in all things Scottish in the stories.The language of the soldiers is written in Scottish brogue, although Fraser says in his introduction, "Incidentally, most of this volume is, I hope, written in English." Don't fret - a glossary is provided.(Reading the glossary alone causes some serious belly laughs.

If you read only one book this year, read this one.And if you know any veterans, give them a copy.It's a volume that the reader will not soon forget. ... Read more

Product Description
Private McAuslan, J., the Dirtiest Soldier in the World (alias the Tartan Caliban, of the Highland Division's answer to the Pekin Man) first demonstrated his unfitness for the service in The General Danced at DawnHe continued his disorderly advance, losing, soiling, or destroying his equipment, through the pages of McAuslan in the Rough.The Sheikh and The Dustbin pursues the career of the great incompetent as he bauchles (see glossary) across North Africa and Scotland, swinging his right arm in time with his right leg and tripping over his untied laces.His admirers already know him as court-martial defendant, ghost-catcher, star-crossed lover and golf caddie extraordinary; here he appears as the unlikeliest of batmen to his long-suffering protector and persecutor, Lieutenant Dand MacNeill, as guardroom philosopher and adviser to the leader of the Riff rebellion and even as Lance-Corporal McAuslan, the Mad Tyrant of Three Section.Whether map-reading his erratic way thorugh the Sahara by night or confronting Arab rioters, McAuslan's talent for catastrophe is as sure as ever. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Scottish-American
I'll reread some of these selections often.
The Gordon Women reminds me of rascals I've known in the American South. Faulkneresque characters.
The homage to Frazer's grandmother reminded me of my own,it was a pleasure to visualize this woman.

Good, But Not As Good As Its Predecessors
Perhaps I have just come to expect too much of George MacDonald Fraser based on the excellence of his Flashman novels, his first two collections of stories, and his autobiographical Quartered Safe Out Here, but I found this collection of stories to be short of Fraser's usual standard.They aren't bad; I don't think Fraser is capable of producing a bad story or novel.They just don't merit the praise that The General Danced at Dawn and McAuslan In the Rough do.

There are a few excellent stories here:The Gordon Women is plotted with a skill worthy of Wodehouse, The Constipation of O'Brien shows McAuslan at his comic best, and Extraduction (not really a story, but one of the offerings here) is a touching remembrance of the battalion's colonel.On the other hand, Captain Errol relies in large part on a "surprise" ending which I was anticipating an entire page (in a thirty-one-page story) earlier than it was revealed.Ye Mind Jie Dee, Fletcher? is not about Fraser's outfit in northern Africa circa 1945, but, rather, Scotland's 1978 national soccer team.McAuslan narrates it in his usual dialect - for eight unbroken pages, and McAuslan isn't nearly as funny out of uniform.

Those who have enjoyed The General Danced at Dawn and McAuslan In the Rough (two of my very favorite collections of stories) will most probably find this worth the read, as I did.They may also find, as I did, that it suffers by comparison with the two earlier collections.

Chaos in a grungy kilt
It is time that you hear "the sub-muckin', the whole cheese, the hail clanjamfry, the lot' about the Scottish Highland Regiment that served in Africa after World War II.

George MacDonald Fraser has written the stories of this regiment and its most infamous soldier, Private McAuslan, in three collections: The General Danced at Dawn, McAuslan in the Rough, and The Sheikh and the Dustbin.

Through the narration by platoon commander Dand McNeil, McAuslan comes alive as the dirtiest soldier in the world, "wan o' nature's blunders; he cannae help bein' horrible.It's a gift."

Yet McAuslan is one of the most loveable creatures in all of literature.He may be grungy, filthy, clumsy, and disreputable, but he tries to do his best.Through his many misadventures, McAuslan marches into the heart of the reader, right leg and right arm swinging in unison, of course.

McAuslan, outcast that he is, experiences some infamous moments in his career: court martial defendant, ghost-catcher, star-crossed lover, golf caddie, expert map reader, and champion of the regimental quiz game (!).His tales, and the tales of his comrades-in-arms, are poignant at times, hilarious at others. These tales are so memorable because they are based on true stories.

The reader basks in all things Scottish in the stories.The language of the soldiers is written in Scottish brogue, although Fraser says in his introduction, "Incidentally, most of this volume is, I hope, written in English." Don't fret - a glossary is provided.(Reading the glossary alone causes some serious belly laughs.

If you read only one book this year, read this one.And if you know any veterans, give them a copy.It's a volume that the reader will not soon forget.

"Peace" in Egypt as experienced by a British Army subaltern
Young Dan'd MacNiell trys to keep his copybook clean and his upper lipstiff while dealing with the absurdities and dangers of being an occupyingpower in postwar Egypt. He and his men muddle through bravely, sometimeshilariously.One of their biggest muddles, of course, being the notoriousPrivate MacAuslan, "The Dirtiest Soldier in the Army."The namesand some facts were changed (probably on legal advice), but the storiesring true as a sword blade. Hilarious, sometimes touching.

A great Read!
This book should "hit home" with any Army veteran, young or old, British or American, that was ever garrisoned overseas in peacetime. ... Read more

Product Description
McAuslan in the Rough, the second volume of GeorgeMacDonald Fraser's stories featuring "Old Private Piltdown" (as thecourt-martial defence called him), includes such episodes as thedesert mystery of Fort Yarhuna, the Great Regimental Quiz, the searchfor a deserter in a native town threatened by epidemic, McAuslan inlove, and his finest and funniest hour - as a caddy to that ruggedCaledonian eminence, the Regimental Sergeant-Major, in a golf gamewhose importance makes the Open Championship look like a seasideputting competition.As his chronicler reminds us: "McAuslan isalways with us. He was probably at Cannae and Pharsalia, and hasn'twashed since.And you can bet that he'll be there, more or less atattention, with his rusty rifle and his buttons undone, when the ranksfall in for Armageddon." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A perfect round
This collection of semi-autobiographical stories shows Fraser at his best, freed from the need to construct fiction around his Flashman character and hence allowed to bring on a rich cast of well-remembered characters from his youth. The camaraderie of an Army regiment is beautifully drawn, as are the tensions which exist inside any closely-knit group of people.

But the stories dominate this book, from the tense inter-regimental quiz to the chaotic attempts to prevent a smallpox outbreak and the tour-de-force in which all of the main characters find themselves involved in a golf match, the tension increased by the smallness of the stakes for which they are playing.

All the characters, from mystical-thinking padres from the Western Isles, to Glaswegian ruffians and Sandhurst-trained exquisites, play their part in one of the most enjoyable and amusing collections of short stories it is possible to imagine.

"Not that he was a bad sort, in his leprous way..."
'McAuslan in the Rough', a collection of seven short stories, recounts tales of service in a Scottish Highland regiment after WW II in North Africa and later back home awaiting demobilization.

The narrator is a young subaltern by the name of Dand MacNeill who has the dread luck to suffer McAuslan's presence in his platoon. To explain the extent of this misfortune, I can do no better than offer three short excerpts that paint the picture. Turning up to caddy in a match against a set of English officers, McAuslan's "grey-white shirt was open to the waist, revealing what was either his skin or an old vest, you couldn't tell which. His hair was tangled and his mouth hung open; altogether he looked as though he'd just completed a bell-ringing stint at Notre dame." (McAuslan in the Rough).

Later McAuslan "demonstrated yet again his carelessness, negligence, and indiscipline, and at the same time his fine adherence to principle." (His Majesty says good-day).

"Not that he was a bad sort, in his leprous way, but he was sure disaster in any enterprise to which he set his grimy hand." (Bo Geesty).

The McAuslan stories appear to be at least semi-autobiographical both with regard to MacNeill and McAuslan. According to Wikipedia, Fraser was busted back to private from Lance Corporal on three occasions, once for losing a tea urn, but later achieved a commission and served as a lieutenant in the Gordon Highlanders. Fraser also wrote an actual autobiography, Quartered Safe Out Here: A Recollection of the War in Burma.

Fans of Flashman (Flashman: A Novel (Flashman)) will be thrilled to learn that there are more Fraser's works to be read. Mawe no mistake, McAuslan is no Harry Flashman. Nonetheless, McAuslan does grow on the reader, but MacNeill would probably say it's a fungus that may not be easily cured and should be looked after right away.

Highly recommended.

"There's the wee boys!"
MCAUSLAN IN THE ROUGH is George MacDonald Fraser's 1974 sequel to THE GENERAL DANCED AT DAWN. In the former, Dand MacNeill continues to reminisce about his time spent as a subaltern commanding a platoon of tartan-kilted Scottish Highlanders during the period 1945-1947 while the battalion is posted to both Libya and Edinburgh. One of MacNeill's Jocks is Pvt. John McAuslan, by consensus the filthiest, most unkempt soldier in the British Army. As Dand records:

"... (his) grey-white shirt was open to the waist, revealing what was either his skin or an old vest, you couldn't tell which. His hair was tangled and his mouth hung open; altogether he looked as though he'd just completed a bell-ringing stint at Notre Dame."

Each of Fraser's books is a collection of short stories relating to events experienced by Dand and his battalion, and particularly his platoon, and which are based on Fraser's own service in the Gordon Highlanders during the same time period. So, in this volume, the lieutenant and his comrades-in-arms garrison an isolated desert outpost for a month, face the controversial inclusion of a black piper in the regimental band (it is, after all, 1946), compete in a general knowledge quiz contest with the Fusiliers regiment, contemplate McAuslan's dubious success with the ladies, mount a nighttime raid on the local Souk to apprehend two deserters, and engage the Royals regiment in a golf tournament. And, lastly, what happens when Dand and McAuslan are released from active duty ("demobbed") on the same day. Whereas in GENERAL McAuslan's contribution to events was erratic and usually of brief duration, in ROUGH his role is expanded to the point where he's a key player in four of the seven chapters.As always, MacNeill's first person narration, both witty and good-natured, ties it all together.

Note: MCAUSLAN IN THE ROUGH is currently out of print in the US. However, it and Fraser's two other books in the McAuslan series, THE GENERAL DANCED AT DAWN and THE SHEIKH AND THE DUSTBIN, are all contained in THE COMPLETE MCAUSLAN. I found this to be a captivating and entertaining volume, which I heartily recommend to anyone who is a student of the British military's former role in establishing and policing the Empire. One notable characteristic of Fraser's writing is his ability to quote Dand's Jocks, and put their heavily accented Scottish dialect on paper. By the end of the book, I could actually understand what was being "said".

Chaos in a grungy kilt
It is time that you hear "the sub-muckin', the whole cheese, the hail clanjamfry, the lot' about the Scottish Highland Regiment that served in Africa after World War II.

George MacDonald Fraser has written the stories of this regiment and its most infamous soldier, Private McAuslan, in three collections: The General Danced at Dawn, McAuslan in the Rough, and The Sheikh and the Dustbin.

Through the narration by platoon commander Dand McNeil, McAuslan comes alive as the dirtiest soldier in the world, "wan o' nature's blunders; he cannae help bein' horrible.It's a gift."

Yet McAuslan is one of the most loveable creatures in all of literature.He may be grungy, filthy, clumsy, and disreputable, but he tries to do his best.Through his many misadventures, McAuslan marches into the heart of the reader, right leg and right arm swinging in unison, of course.

McAuslan, outcast that he is, experiences some infamous moments in his career: court martial defendant, ghost-catcher, star-crossed lover, golf caddie, expert map reader, and champion of the regimental quiz game (!).His tales, and the tales of his comrades-in-arms, are poignant at times, hilarious at others. These tales are so memorable because they are based on true stories.

The reader basks in all things Scottish in the stories.The language of the soldiers is written in Scottish brogue, although Fraser says in his introduction, "Incidentally, most of this volume is, I hope, written in English." Don't fret - a glossary is provided.(Reading the glossary alone causes some serious belly laughs.

If you read only one book this year, read this one.And if you know any veterans, give them a copy.It's a volume that the reader will not soon forget.

Lt. McNeil remains cool under fire...
In this book and the previous The General Danced at Dawn, the gallant Lieutenant McNeil remains cool under fire.... Even when it's his spooren that's on fire. He cooly changes diapers on a terrorist threatened trainthrough Palestine (where that arab soldier isstill trapped in the toiletwith his rifle). He guards the hottest soccer team in the army from amodern Blackbeard. He even survives being caddied by that noted golfexpert, McAuslan, not only the dirtiest soldier in the world, but the onlyone who marches swinging his left arm and leg together.

Very, very funnyand sometimes touching. ... Read more

Product Description
George MacDonald Fraser's famous Flashman series appearing for the first time in B-format with an exciting new series style, ready to please his legions of old fans and attract armies of new ones.The Flashman Papers 1856--58, Volume FiveWhat caused the Indian Mutiny? The greased cartridge, religious fanaticism, political blundering, yes -- but one hitherto unsuspected factor is now revealed in the furtive figure which fled across the Indian scene in 1857 with such frantic haste: Flashman.For Flashman, plumbing new depths of anxious knavery in his role as secret agent extraordinary, saw far more of the Great Mutiny than he wanted to. How he survived his adventures and inevitable flights from Thugs and Tsarist agents, Eastern beauties and Cabinet ministers, and kept his skin intact, is a mystery as remarkable as The Flashman Papers themselves. This chapter sees him passing through his most harrowing ordeal to his supreme triumph, with Courage, Duty and Honour toiling dispiritedly in his wake. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Rousing, historically-based tale of English in India
Wonderful, rousing, and educational - you have to read this with abookmark in the footnotes section, and you'll probably enjoy doing so - thehistorical research Fraser does is astounding, and exposes much of thehypocrisy of John Company's stay in "Indja". ... Read more

Product Description
The tenth installment in The Flashman Papers finds Captain Harry Flashman of Her Majesty's Secret Service in the antebellum South, where the irrepressible, globe-trotting Victorian becomes the target of blackmailing beauties. Reprint. NYT. PW. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Flashman reluctantly enlists with the half-mad, half-visionary John Brown
This solid installment in the Flashman saga ought to be used to teach history. One would, of course, be professionally lynched for political incorrectness, but still.

Flashman would like nothing better than to return to life's simple pleasures after harrowing adventures during the Sepoy Mutiny in India. The Victoria Cross and a probable knighthood await him in England, as well as his willing and wanton wife. But he is shanghaied instead to America, where he is wanted under a pseudonym for crimes committed (mostly against slavery in "Flash for Freedom") a decade before. And he is dragged into multiple conspiracies. Each, for completely different reasons, wants to insert him as a lieutenant into the entourage of abolitionist John Brown, who is plotting an unlikely slave uprising as the nation approaches civil war. (He buys a thousand pikes to arm escaped slaves. Pikes?)

Some conspirators have more than one game going, including the tiny, mean, delectable Annette Mandeville, who Flashman enjoyed in an earlier book; and Joe Simmons, slave to Annette's new husband, a pro-Southern conspirator and proto-Klansman. Flashman encounters Allan Pinkerton and William Seward as he reluctantly enlists with the mesmerizing but half-mad Brown. Brown can't admit the slave revolt is doomed, but history nevertheless proves him correct in adjudging its impact, even failed, as major.

Fraser's research makes this book, as it does the entire series, along with the strong writing and his great ear for period dialogue. He gives you a Twain-like sense of being there in 19th century America, amidst Americans seen by an Englishman as variously refreshing, backwoodsy, straightforward or racist. His passage on the women of New York owes something to Henry James.

Fraser is wise to allow even the craven Flashman to recognize the occasional noble moment, as Flashman does here in recounting the wounded Brown's dignified and inspirational demeanor after his capture. Despite the general thrust of the books - English imperialists were awful but the objects of it were often worse - slavery is one historical evil Fraser has no desire to minimize.

I did tire a bit, in this ninth novel, of the Flashman formula: he's caught in honey traps by seductive women and shanghaied, twice, taking more than half the book to get to John Brown. Still a good read.

Flashman on the Side of the Angels
Arrant coward and unrepentant womanizer Harry Flashman, in the seven books of his 'memoirs' that I've read so far, expresses sincere respect (and even that respect is edged with cynicism) for only two of the many "great" men he's encountered: Abraham Lincoln and... John Brown! Considering Flashman's unapologetic racism, that's an unexpected observation. Here's what he says in the early pages of the Angel of the Lord:

"Aye, if there's a company of saints up yonder, they'll be dressing by the right on J.B., for when the Recording Angel has racked up all his crimes and lies and thefts and follies and deceits and cold-blooded killings, he'll still be saved when better men are damned. Why? Cos if he wasn't, there'd be such an almighty roar of indiganation from the Heavenly Host it would bust the firmament; God would never live it down. That's the beauty of a martyr's crown, you see; it outshines everything, and they don't come any brighter than old J.B.'s."

Even more meaningfully than Flashman's words, which are always to be doubted, is Flashman's self-reported action. At the most critical moment of the battle at Harper's Ferry, Flashman claims to have saved Brown's life, and thus "launched him on the path to immortal glory."

And... Flashman's creator, George MacDonald Fraser, takes the unprecedented step of writing an appendix in his own authorial voice, saying of John Brown that "He is part of history and historic legend, and if what he tried to do was not heroic, then the word has no meaning." Wow! From Flash and Fraser, that's a testimonial.

After being disappointed by the historical flim-flam of Flashman and the Redskins, and somewhat bored by the disjointed and repetitive narrative of that book, I had not intended to read another of the series for the foreseeable future. The clear recrudescence of North-South animosity during the 2008 presidential campaign, however, got me thinking about John Brown again. I read an amazingly fine biography -- John Brown, Abolitionist, by David S. Reynolds -- and then found myself unable to resist reading this fictional account of Harper's Ferry, just to see what a curmudgeonly Brit would make of it. As usual, Fraser's fictional history is full of mind-torquingwing-nuts of solid fact, and also of utter nonsense. The central nonsense is the invention of a master spy-ring of secession-seeking Southerners, the Kuclos, obvious prototypes for the post-war Ku Klux Klan. They're as improbable as any James Bond fantasy, but just as much fun. Their antagonists on the abolitionist side - the tightly organized (and utterly non-existent) leadership of the Underground Railroad, and the beginnings of the Pinkertons - are delightfully droll. In fact, the villains in this fairly long novel are largely there for comic relief.

Flashman's "amorous" adventures in this novel are of a strange pattern, also. In three ludicrous encounters, Flashman displays his 'prowess' to his own immense satisfaction, only to discover that the woman involved has outsmarted and deceived him, set him up for trouble unscrupulously. The inveterate sexist hoisted on his own petard, as Shakespeare put it. The male spider witlessly copulating and being devoured.

People who read Flashman to revel in the "political incorrectness" of the sordid hero's rhetoric will find their usual items in "The Angel of the Lord" but wrapped up in even more ambiguity than in other books. I've begun to understand from Flashman what "political incorrectness" really amounts to: it's the smirking delight you take in saying out loud what you suppose others really believe but are too hypocritical to say, and the smug certainty that everyone agrees with you secretly. In short, "political incorrectness" is a chronic inability to credit another person's integrity. It's a character failure that even Flashman transcends in his admiration for John Brown, America's greatest hero.

Slower-paced but still absorbing
Flashman is in cracking form again, this time avoiding the big campaigns, instead getting mixed up in a minor yet significant skirmish -- the attempt by abolitionist John Brown to launch a raid into the slave territory of the southern U.S.

As with the best Flashman tales, the narrative is perfectly convincing, historically meticulous, funny, bawdy and thoughtful in turn. With less action of the military kind in this instalment of the Flashman Papers, we are treated to rather more introspection, which works well, since the central theme of the book is the difficult one of slavery and exploitation. There is a slower pace, more intrigue, and less randy cavorting than in some other works in the canon, but that doesn't detract from another brilliantly written and absorbing tale.

A Worthy Installment in a Great Series
George MacDonald Fraser is a superb action writer who never loses his sense of humor as he moves his readers through great historical events. And in FLASHMAN AND THE ANGEL OF THE LORD, Fraser takes you into the moment as Flashman takes the lead in John Brown's assault on Harper's Ferry, witnesses the drunken and angry siege of the engine house, and is on hand for the final bloody attack by the marines. This is my sixth Flashman novel. And throughout, Fraser's work as an action writer is absolutely first-rate.

Fraser also has a knack for developing his narrative so that Flashman exposes the reader to all sides of an issue--in this case, the abolitionist, pro-slavery, and government's perspective on John Brown. And, he is adept at moving Flashman in and out of the historical event so that the reader has the best possible view.

In ANGEL OF THE LORD, this skill is most apparent as Fraser moves Flashman out of Brown's raiding party, into the body of siege, and back to Brown's beleaguered band for its final futile defense. On reflection, Flashman's movements during the raid are improbable. But Fraser makes them seem plausible, and even character-driven, as he presents a complete historical tableau to his readers. With this talent, Fraser becomes a fine historical novelist as well.

In ANGEL OF THE LORD, Fraser also provides a thoughtful essay in the first appendix where he wrestles with the character and exploits of John Brown, who he elsewhere calls "the most violent and ruthless abolitionist in the country."In this appendix, Fraser acknowledges that Brown was "devious, foolish, vain, unscrupulous, and irresolute in crisis." But he concludes: "He is part of history and historic legend, and if what he tried to do was not heroic, then the word has no meaning." For me, this appendix added a lot.

At the same time, there are two negatives in ANGEL OF THE LORD. First, Fraser takes 50 pages to insert Flashman into ante-bellum America. This section works but I found it slow and creaky and very self-referential. The section might not work for readers who have missed Flash for Freedom! (Flashman).

Second, there are many references to details in other Flashman books, which this fan of the series often found obscure. This, I suppose, is a byproduct of Fraser's intentions. Certainly, Fraser intends, and is successful, in his effort to entertain. But, he also intends to explore great historical events and their personages. But, what happens when Flashy makes a reference to his own fictional interaction with a historical figure, such as Bismarck? Well, I remember Bismarck in history from Royal Flash (Flashman). But I've often lost the fictional context that makes Flash's comment witty.

Likewise, I'm befuddled when Flash refers to many of Fraser's secondary characters, probably because Fraser has created them to move Flashman in and out of events, not really to live beyond the narrative. Admittedly, there are a few memorable characters in the series, such as Captain Springs.But many of his fictional characters, even the prurient Elsbeth, are a little gray. (Of course, I haven't yet read Flashman's Lady (Flashman).) Still, these references do cloud the work.

Regardless, FLASHMAN AND THE ANGEL OF THE LORD is a worthy installment in this terrific series and a great pick-me-up for anyone caught in the doldrums.

Confusing title
When I first saw this book in the store, I thought it was about Flash Gordon. It wasn't until half-way through the book, that I realized this book had nothing to do with the eighties film I saw as a kid. So uh, I dunno, it's not that bad. Flashman is not very nice, but he scores a lot with the ladies, and that's pretty cool.
... Read more