Flashman Papers

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Officer in the uniform of Flashman's regiment

The Flashman Papers are a series of adventure novels by George MacDonald Fraser . These are the fictional memoirs of Brigadier General Sir Harry Paget Flashman VC , KCB , KCIE (1822–1915), a retired British officer who looks back on his military career in the service of the British Empire and other adventures between 1840 and 1890 .

action

The first volume of the Flashman Papers appeared in 1969. In it, Fraser claimed to be only the editor of the memoirs of the authentic Harry Flashman, a character from Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes - a claim that was initially taken at face value by critics. The Flashman Papers begin with the Flashmans kicking out of rugby school . Flashman joins the British Army with the 11th Regiment of Dragoons . The Flashman Papers then take Harry Flashman to Afghanistan , India , Borneo , South Africa , Madagascar , North America , Germany and other trouble spots of the Victorian Age. The protagonist has a significant share in the historical events in which he is involved. He leads the death ride of the light brigade in the Crimea, is the second - unknown - survivor of Elphinstone's retreat from Afghanistan and witnessed the outbreak of the Sepoy uprising and the siege of Kanpur .

During his adventures, Flashman meets a number of historical figures in whose lives he plays a more or less important role. He has affairs with Lola Montez , Ranavalona I. and Lakshmibai , the Rani of Jhansi. He pulls u. a. the hostility of Otto von Bismarck , Nikolai Pawlowitsch Ignatjew , Mohammed Akbar and James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan , and is friends with Jakub Bek and James Brooke , the White Raja .

Considered a hero of unprecedented bravery by his contemporaries, Flashman enjoyed a brilliant military career and rose to become a famous and highly decorated general. He even received the Victoria Cross , the highest award in Great Britain for outstanding bravery in the face of the enemy . How this comes about is described in his memoirs with relentless openness.

In 2005 the twelfth volume of the Flashman Papers was published. The Flashman Papers is characterized on the one hand by its historical accuracy and on the other by its humor. Harry Flashman is the opposite of the usual military hero - a coward and slacker who, against his will, is repeatedly drawn into dramatic adventures and bloody battles, in which he usually only manages to save his skin through luck, unscrupulous selfishness and quick legs .

The Flashman novels

Lola Montez

The following were published in German:

  • Flashman: Careers of a Cavalier (1971, Hoffmann and Campe) or Flashman, In the Service of Her Majesty (1984, Ullstein, ISBN 3548210015 ); original Flashman 1969 , with William George Keith Elphinstone , Alexander Burnes , William Macnaghten and Robert Henry Sale ; Flashman's marriage to Elspeth Morrison and his experiences in the First Anglo-Afghan War from 1839 to 1842 , especially when Elphinstone withdrew
  • Flashman, Prince of Denmark (1972, Hoffmann and Campe); original Royal Flash 1970; In it he satirizes The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope , with Lola Montez, Bismarck, the Schleswig-Holstein question and the German Revolution 1848/49 (filmed as Royal Flash )
  • Flashman, Hero of Freedom (1977, Dtv); original Flash for Freedom 1971; the book is about the slave trade and slavery between Africa and the USA just before the civil war
  • Flashman in the Crimean War (1984, Ullstein); original Flashman at the charge 1973; plays in the Crimean War , u. a. during the famous death ride of the light brigade, and in Central Asia
  • Flashman in the Big Game (1984, Ullstein); original Flashman in the great game 1975; plays in India at the time of the Great Uprising of 1857 with the Rani Lakshmibai from Jhansi .
  • Flashman - The Pirates of Borneo (1986, Ullstein); original Flashmans Lady 1977; with James Brooke in Borneo, Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar
  • Flashman - The Chinese Dragon (1987, Ullstein); original Flashman and the Dragon 1985; Second Opium War and Taiping Rising
  • Flashman - Die Rothäute (1987, Ullstein); original Flashman and the Redskins 1982; Californian gold rush and with George Armstrong Custer on the Little Big Horn
  • Flashman and the Mountain of Light (2003, Strange Verlag); original Flashman and the Mountain of Light ; War on the Sikhs, Koh-i-Noor Diamond

Also published in English in the Flashman series:

  • Flashman and the Angel of the Lord 1994 (John Brown and Harpers Ferry)
  • Flashman and the Tiger 1999, with The road to Charing Cross (Berlin Congress 1877/8 and attempted assassination attempt on Emperor Franz Joseph), The Subleties of Baccarat ( Tranby Croft scandal , an English game scandal in which Edward VII was involved war), Flashman and the Tiger (with the fictional character from Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the empty House , Colonel Tiger Jack Moran, in the Zulu War)
  • Flashman on the March 2005 ( Foreign Legion and bandits in Mexico at the time of the French involvement 1862–1866, invasion of Abyssinia 1868)

filming

Royal Flash is a film directed by Richard Lester , starring Malcolm McDowell , based on the novel Flashman - Prince of Denmark .