The Flashman Papers

The series consists of twelve historical fiction books written by the journalist, author and screenwriter George MacDonald Fraser, that were published between 1969 and 2005. The series consists of eleven novels and one collection of short stories, spanning from 1839 to 1894; they are the memoirs of the fictional character General Sir Harry Paget Flashman, VC, KCB, KCIE. Although Flashman is fictional, the settings and history of the events, and the people with whom he interacts are all largely based around historical events and individuals, although three contain elements of other novels. Flashman first appeared in the 1857 semi-autobiographical novel ''Tom Brown's School Days'' by Thomas Hughes as a bully at Rugby School, who persecutes Tom Brown, and who is expelled for drunkenness: Fraser's series of novels starts with Flashman's expulsion from school. Based on a literary conceit, an explanatory note—itself also fictional—at the start of Flashman sets the context and explains that the memoirs had been found in an auction house in Ashby, Leicestershire, and had subsequently come into the possession of Fraser, who has acted in the role of editor. Fraser also included pages of notes and appendices at the end of each volume, providing the factual background for Flashman's endeavours. Fraser was working as a journalist on The Glasgow Herald when he wrote the first novel, Flashman; writing in the evenings, after work, he took 90 hours in total to write the story. After the book was published, he left journalism and took up writing novels. When a break from writing was forced upon him by a broken arm, he abandoned the book until his wife read the manuscript and urged him to finish. He did not find a publisher for the novel for two years, until Barrie & Jenkins published it in 1969. When the novel was published in the US the same year, of the 34 reviews read by Alden Whitman of The New York Times, ten of them considered the book to be a genuine autobiography. Fraser researched each novel at Trinity College Dublin. From their first publication, the books were a commercial success, and new editions appeared on the best-sellers' lists. ==Flashman==

Flashman is from a semi-aristocratic background; he recounted that his great-grandfather "made a fortune in America out of slaves and rum, and piracy, too, I shouldn't wonder". His father was "a dissolute former MP, living beyond the bounds of respectable society, and ... his mother [was] born of the self-promoting Paget family". Despite joining the army after expulsion from school, Flashman is a self-confessed coward with a false reputation for bravery, earned at the expense of others, and despite him trying to avoid danger at all costs. He is also "a scoundrel, a drunk, a liar, a cheat [and] a braggart", who was described by Fraser as "an unrepentant old cad" whose only positive features are "humour and shameless honesty as a memorialist". Flashman is tall, weighs (12½ stone in the first book, fourteen stone in the last), has broad shoulders and is attractive to women. He was forced into marriage in the first book, after he "caddishly deflowered" Elspeth Morrison, the daughter of a wealthy Scottish textile manufacturer with whom he had been billeted. Despite being married—and the fact he deeply loves his wife—Flashman is "a compulsive womaniser" who has bedded 480 women by the tenth book in the series, which was set in 1859. Elspeth is also probably unfaithful to him on several occasions. Flashman notes that he has three "prime talents, for horses, languages, and fornication"; he was also described by the master-at-arms of the 11th Hussars as a strong swordsman and was skilled with a lance, particularly at tent pegging. When it is necessary for him to control his fear, he will perform bravely, although is more adept at saving his own skin at the expense of others. In the course of the series, Flashman is promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, and decorated numerous times by different countries. While the books cover some of the awards—such as being given the Victoria Cross for his actions during the sieges of Cawnpore and Lucknow—some stories are not known, such as how and why he served on both sides of the American Civil War and how he won the Medal of Honor. During his travels Flashman meets people who took part in 19th-century events, including Queen Victoria, Abraham Lincoln, Otto von Bismarck, Oscar Wilde and Florence Nightingale, and he is involved as a participant in some of the century's most notable events, including the Indian Rebellion, the Taiping Rebellion, the charge of the Light Brigade, the Siege of Khartoum, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Flashman died in 1915, although the details are unknown. ==Publication sequence==

's 1857 novel ''Tom Brown's School Days'', the origin of the Flashman character ==Other references==

—Black Ajax—(fourth from the left) was financially backed by Flashman's father. Flashman also appears in another book by Fraser, Mr American, aged 88, while his father was one of the financial backers of the bare-knuckle boxer Tom Molineaux in Black Ajax. ==Notes and references==

Notes References Bibliography • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ==External links==