Customer Reviews
An Englishman Abroad (part 3 of 12) - By: Mr. William Oxley, 04 May 2007 
Flashman is somebody you will love. Not only does he travel the world, he shapes history. His adventures are every boys' dreams.
Relax & enjoy the ride of your life from cricket at Lords to human barbeques in Madagascar knowing that our non-PC, amoral, lovable-rogue, Flashman will somehow come out smelling of roses.
Buy it, read it, enjoy it.
Flash shows an uncharacteristic spark of selflessness - By: Joseph Haschka, 27 Dec 2005 In the 1966 screen adaptation of A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield) advises his daughter Meg (Susannah York):
"If (God) suffers us to come to such a case that there is no escaping, then we may stand to our tackle as best we can. And, yes Meg, then we can clamor like champions, if we have the spittle for it. But it's God's part, not our own, to bring ourselves to such a pass. Our natural business lies in escaping."
One of the most endearing qualities of author George MacDonald Fraser's anti-heroic protagonist, Harry Flashman, is his natural cowardice, which he freely admits with a certain degree of pride. Flashy is an expert at escaping; More would have been impressed.
In that volume of his memoirs entitled FLASHMAN'S LADY, Flashy is still young in the mid-1840s. His talent for a prudent & precipitous departure has yet to mature, as evidenced by his delayed response when beset by thugs in a dodgy section of Singapore:
"I'm not proud of what happened in the next moment. Of course, I was very young & thoughtless, & my great days of instant flight & evasion were still ahead of me, but even so, with ... my native cowardice to boot, my reaction was inexcusable ... in my youthful folly & ignorance, I absolutely stood there gaping ..."
The larger portion of this book's plot involves the kidnapping of Flashy's beautiful but scatterbrained wife, Elspeth, by a certain Don Solomon Haslam, a moneyed & mannered member of English high society who's not what he seems. Harry's determination to stay out of harm's way is severely taxed as he pursues Elspeth's rescue into the pirate-infested interior of Borneo, & later into Madagascar, where Flashy finds himself the slave of that island's mad & despotic queen, Ranavalona.
A chief attraction of Fraser's Flashman series is the knowledge it gives the reader about historical & factual, but arcane, events & places. In FLASHMAN'S LADY, the reader is apprised of the private war against the pirates of the East Indies by the eccentric English imperialist, James Brooke, & the reign of terror perpetuated by that female Caligula of the period, Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar. Indeed, the author's research into the latter has prompted me to place a non-fiction history of the subject on my Wish List.
Deep down, I think, Flashy's personal appeal is based on the realization that he's Everyman, whether one would wish to admit it or not. Our natural preference is to escape, & it's only through blundering circumstance, good luck, or an odd quirk of fate that any one of us might, like Harry himself, be perceived a hero by our fellows.
Mr & Mrs Flash make a great couple ! - By: Liam Murphy, 04 Jul 2005 I have come to the Flashman papers quite late (nearly 40 years after they first appeared). I am now working my way through them in chronological order of which Flashman's Lady is the 3rd book, but it was the 6th to be released. Put simply this is the best I have read yet, the writing has matured & so have the characters with Flashman more of himself & less constrained by the original portrait of him in Tom Brown's Schooldays. This adventure sees Flash attempting to counter the not-so subtle advances on his wife which lead to what is surely the funniest cricket match ever written & thereafter out to Singapore & Borneo before concluding in Madagascar. What is amazing is that the key characters are alll unbelievable & yet real historicial people faithfully recorded & they only reallly make sense in either Flashman's world or British colonial history. If you haven't read Flashman my honest advice is to start at the first book & then read alll of them because they follow a thread. In my experience though it is this book which brings together Flashman's cynicism & earthy view of the world & the Empire into a convincing view of his times. The Flashman books get better & better & if you have read Royal Flash & were disappointed then don't give up as things take off magnificently from here on in.
His greatest adventure? - By: Chris Hookham, 06 May 2005 This Installlment in the life of the British EMpire's most celebrated poltroon sees him playing criket with Pirates, having his wife kidnapped & him ending up as a slave in Madagascar.
Its also laugh-out-loud funny.
I delighted in Flashmans honesty in describing his cowardly, womanising adventures. His fondness for his wife & the way he describes her will have you in tears
Run, Elspeth, and be gone, please - By: , 30 Nov 2004 
Flashy's gorgeous wife is kidnapped by a lascivious Old Etonian who turns out to be the most fearsome pirate of south-east Asia!! Off goes Flashy, much against his true wishes, to do his duty (although, as ever, not too much!). Fraser gives us the usual asides we've come to expect with Flashy as he damns to the skies bravery, galllantry & any other virtue paraded before him.
The story's historical backdrop involves descriptions of the vigilante pirate-hunter James Brooke, scourge of the criminals of south-east Asia, who assists Flashy in his quest, damned if he'll alllow the calllous act of kidnapping an English rose to go unpunished. Flashman, as usual, is more than happy to let someone else do the dirty work and, as ever, the one most alert to his yellow behaviour is the arch-villain. Madagascar plays an important role too as the action moves to the island off eastern Africa & Fraser indulges himself with gory & colourful descriptions of the reign of Queen Ranavalona.
Still, not the most gripping of the Flashman books; to be honest, I was as uninterested in his rescuing Elspeth as he was at times. A good excuse for a little more history & plenty of the usual sardonic wit; rants against the fools who built the Empire; & so on, but not the most compelling nor the most funny in the series.
