Harry Paget Flashman
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"Flashman" redirects here. For the Japanese television series, see Choushinsei Flashman.
Brigadier-General Sir Harry Paget Flashman VC KCB KCIE is a fictional character originally created by the author Thomas Hughes in his semi-autobiographical work Tom Brown's Schooldays, first published in 1857. The book is set at Rugby School, where Flashman is a notorious bully who persecutes its eponymous hero, Tom Brown. In Hughes' book, Flashman is finally expelled for drunkenness.
20th century author George MacDonald Fraser had the conceit of writing a series of further fictional memoirs of the cowardly, bullying Flashman as he cuts a swathe through the Victorian wars and uproars (and the boudoirs and harems) of the 19th century, portraying Flashman as an antihero. Though Flashman - a self-described and unapologetic 'cad' - constantly betrays acquaintances, runs from danger or hides cowering in fear, he arrives at the end of each volume with medals, the praise of the mighty and the love of one or more beautiful and enthusiastic women. Flashman becomes one of the most notable and honoured figures of the Victorian era. Fraser gives Flashman's life as 1822 to 1915 and gives a birth date of 5 May.
In Tom Brown's Schooldays he is only ever called Flashman or Flashy and his forenames were wholly invented by Fraser. In the novel Flashman, the eponymous character mentions that his christian name of Henry and his middle name of Paget are from his father's former commanding officer, Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, a famous cavalry officer and general of the Napoleonic Wars. (This was done to curry favor with a powerful patron. The father was a bankrupt, dissolute drunkard who had to rely on favors and loans from friends to pay his debts and get young Harry into school and pay his expenses. The father would afterwards only visit him to borrow money).
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[edit] Style and layout of the stories
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. Because of this, he is a strong member of the Wold Newton family.
Fraser's research is extensive and the books illuminate the historical events they depict. The books are heavily annotated, with end notes and appendices, as Fraser (in accordance with the fictional existence of the memoirs) attempts to "confirm" (and in some cases "correct") the elderly Flashman's recollections of events; in many cases, the footnotes serve to aid the reader by indicating that a particularly outlandish character really existed or that an unlikely event actually occurred.
The half-scholarly tone has occasionally led to misunderstandings; when first released in the United States, ten of 34 reviews published took it to be a real, albeit obscure, memoir. Several of these were written by academics - to the delight of The New York Times, which published a selection of the more trusting reviews.[1]
For the purposes of American publication, Fraser created a fictional entry of the 1909 edition of Who's Who. This lists Flashman's laurels as: VC, KCB, KCIE; Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur; Congressional Medal of Honor; San Serafino Order of Purity and Truth, 4th Class.
[edit] Flashman the man
Harry Paget Flashman described himself as a large man, six feet tall and close to 13 stone (about 180 pounds). In Flashman and the Tiger, he mentions that one of his grandchildren has black hair and eyes, resembling him in his younger years. He describes his only two talents as a gift for horsemanship and languages. He also had the means to impress important people he met, usually with excessive toadying. His other gift was his success with women. The list of his sexual conquests (see below) is long and includes several famous women. Despite his natural abilities and imposing figure, Flashman was a coward, running from the danger he constantly found himself in. He was also a bully to his (supposed) inferiors and found joy in creating trouble for people he did not like.
After his expulsion from Rugby for drunkenness, (from the original novel by Hughes), Flashman looked for a way to an easy life. He joined the military, picking the fashinonable 11th Regiment of Light Dragoons commanded by Lord Cardigan, later of Light Brigade fame, because the 11th had just returned from India and were not likely to go back soon. Flashman threw himself into the social life that the 11th offered and became a leading light of Canterbury society.
A duel over a lady of questionable morals led to his being stationed in Scotland, where he met and deflowered his future wife, Elspeth Morrison. Blackmailed by her family into a shotgun wedding, their marriage caused his forced resignation from the 11th Lights, and he was sent East to make a career. This he did in Afghanistan, unwittingly becoming a hero by being known as the defender and surviving officer of Piper's Fort. When found by the relieving troops, he lay wrapped in the flag and surrounded by dead enemy troops. The fact that he had been trying to surrender the colours rather than defend them was lost to history.
Needless to say, Flashman arrived at the Fort by accident, tried to avoid all suggestions of involvement in the conflict, had to be bullied into holding a rifle by his sergeant and had been 'rumbled' for a complete coward. Happily for him, all inconvenient witnesses perished in the battle.
This incident set the tone for Flashman's life. He spent the next seventy-five years meeting the most famous people of his time and shirking his duty in the most historically important conflicts and events of the 19th century. Flashman died in 1915.
[edit] Flashman stories
To date, the following extracts (in publication order) from the Flashman Papers have been published:
- Flashman (1969) — the First Anglo-Afghan War, 1839-1842 - Retreat from Kabul, Last Stand at Gandamak and Siege of Jelalabad.
- Royal Flash (1970) — a pastiche of Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda set during the European Revolutions of 1848. The story features Lola Montez and Otto von Bismarck as major characters, and fictionalizes elements of the Schleswig-Holstein Question, 1843, 1847 and 1848. The episode is presented as if Hope fictionalized the "true" story he heard from Flashman.
- Flash for Freedom! (1971) — the pre-Civil War slave trade and the Underground Railroad in the United States, 1848 and 1849.
- Flashman at the Charge (1973) — the Crimean War's Charge of the Light Brigade and Tuva, 1854.
- Flashman in the Great Game (1975) — the Indian Mutiny, the Rani of Jhansi, Lord Palmerston. 1856-1858. At times, Flashman behaves heroically in this novel and is awarded the Victoria Cross, but the publishing of Tom Brown's Schooldays humiliates him and temporarily ruins his chances for a knighthood.
- Flashman's Lady (1977) — Bumps into Tom Brown again; scores the first "hat trick" in Cricket 1843, meets James Brooke in Borneo and Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar 1843-1845. Parts are written as if drawn from the writings of his wife, Elspeth Rennie Morrison Flashman, and edited by her spiteful sister, Grizel Morrison De Rothchild.
- Flashman and the Redskins (1982) — the American West: the Forty-niners 1849-1850, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1875-1876.
- Flashman and the Dragon (1986) — the Anglo-Chinese Second Opium War 1860 and Taiping Rebellion, 1900.
- Flashman and the Mountain of Light (1991) — Flashy returns to India for the Koh-i-Noor diamond and the First Sikh War, 1845 and 1846.
- Flashman and the Angel of the Lord (1996) — Flashy returns to the United States to encounter John Brown and the Harper's Ferry Raid, 1858 and 1859.
- Flashman and the Tiger (1999) incorporating:
- The Road to Charing Cross — the Congress of Berlin and the Emperor Franz Josef, 1877-1878.
- The Subleties of Baccarat — the Royal Baccarat Scandal, 1890 and 1891.
- Flashman and the Tiger — The defence of Rorke's Drift, 1879 and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story The Adventure of the Empty House 1894. Flashman meets the villainous Colonel Sebastian "Tiger Jack" Moran.
- Flashman on the March (2005) — Escape from Mexico at the end of the French occupation, invasion of Abyssinia, 1868 and rescue of British hostages.
Flashman also plays a small part in Fraser's novel Mr American (1970). His father, Harry Buckley Flashman, has a similar cameo appearance in Black Ajax. At one point, it is also mentioned that a member of the Flashman family was present at the Battle of Culloden, 1746. Fraser has confirmed that Flashman died in 1915 but the circumstances of his death have never been related.
In early 2006 Fraser confirmed that he plans to write another installment of the Flashman Papers. According to Fraser, he has chosen three possible subjects to write about, though what these are he was not willing to say. This will fuel speculation among fans that he will be writing about Flash's continuing escapades in the American Civil War, the French intervention in Mexico (from which Flashman escapes at the beginning of Flashman on the March), the Franco-Prussian War or the Australian Gold Rush, all of which are mentioned in the canon. However at the Oxford Literary festival in 2006, when asked if he ever planned to document Flashman's adventures in Australia, Fraser replied that "Australia is on Flashman's CV, but I don't think I will get around to writing about it." He estimated that it takes him roughly 3-5 months to research and write a Flashman novel.
[edit] Flashman's ladies
Flashman's stories are dominated by his numerous amorous encounters. The women he gets involved with are not window dressing against the backdrop of Flashy's life, but pivotal characters in the unpredictable twists and turns of the books. Several of them are prominent historical personages.
- Aphrodite, one of Miss Susie's "gels" in Flashman and the Redskins.
- Mrs Bomfomtabellilaba, a woman in Madagascar, in Flashman's Lady.
- Phoebe Carpenter, a missionary's wife in Hong Kong, Flashman and the Dragon.
- Cassy, a slave who Flashman escorts up the Mississippi in Flash for Freedom.
- Cleonie Grouard/Mrs Arthur B. Candy, another of "Miss Susie's gels" in Flashman and the Redskins.
- Fanny Duberly
- Elspeth Rennie Morrison, aka Mrs. Harry Paget Flashman.
- Fetnab, a dancing girl Flashy buys in Calcutta in The Flashman Papers.
- Lady Geraldine
- Duchess Irma of Strackenz in Royal Flash.
- Jind Kaur, Maharani of Punjab.
- Josette
- Judy, his father's mistress.
- Mrs. Leo Lade in Flashman's Lady.
- Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi in Flashman in the Great Game.
- Lady Caroline Lamb, an African slave on board the slaver Balliol College in Flash for Freedom!.
- Lily Langtry
- Mrs. Leslie, relative of Duff Mason, in Flashman in the Great Game.
- Kitchen staff of Duff Mason in Flashman in the Great Game.
- Mrs. Madison
- Mrs. Annette Mandeville, Flash for Freedom and Flashman and the Angel of the Lord.
- Mangla
- Lola Montez Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert in Royal Flash.
- Masteeat, Queen of the Abyssinian Wollo Gallas, in Flashman on the March.
- Nareeman, a dancing girl.
- Fanny Paget
- Mrs. Betty Parker
- Baroness Pechmann, German aristocrat in Royal Flash.
- Penny/Jenny
- Lady Plunkett in Flashman and the Angel of the Lord.
- Mrs Popplewell in Flashman and the Angel of the Lord.
- Ranavalona I, Queen of Madagascar in Flashman's Lady.
- Aunt Sara (not related to Flashman) in Flashman at the Charge.
- "The Silk One" (aka Ko Dali's daughter) in Flashman at the Charge.
- Sonsee-Array (aka Takes-Away-Clouds-Woman), an Apache princess, daughter of Mangas Coloradas (Red Sleeves) in Flashman and the Redskins.
- Miranda Spring, daughter of John Charity Spring, in Flashman and the Angel of the Lord.
- Szu-Zhan, Chinese bandit in Flashman and the Dragon.
- Uliba Wark, sister of the queen of the Abyssinian Wollo Gallas, in Flashman on the March.
- Valla Valentina, the daughter of Count Pencherchevsky in Flashman at the Charge
- White Tigress, one of Whampoa's beauties in Flashman's Lady.
- Honey and Milk, two of Whampoa's beauties in Flashman's Lady.
- Susie Willinck, New Orleans madam (aka "Miss Susie") in Flash for Freedom! and Flashman and the Redskins.
- Yehonala, Imperial Chinese concubine who later becomes the Dowager Empress Ci Xi of the Manchu Dynasty in Flashman and the Dragon.
- Gertrude (Austrian Admiral's Great Neice) in Flashman on the March.
[edit] Adaptations
A film version of Royal Flash was released in 1975. It was directed by Richard Lester and starred Malcolm McDowell as Flashman, Oliver Reed as Otto von Bismarck and Alan Bates as Rudi von Sternberg. It received moderate acclaim, though most Flashy fans avoid it, as Lester chose to focus on bawdy buffoonery and slapstick and gave short shrift to the historical context of the story.
American military historian Raymond M. Saunders created an homage to the Flashman persona in a series of Fenwick Travers novels, set among the US military adventures in the Indian wars, Spanish-American war in Cuba, Boxer Rebellion in China, piracy and Muslim terrorism in the Philippines, and the creation of the Panama Canal. These novels never received the popularity or acclaim of the original Flashman.
The noisy, boastful and sexually insatiable Lord Flashheart in the Blackadder series may be named in homage to Flashman.
Eric Nicol's Dickens of the Mounted, a fictional biography of Francis Jeffrey Dickens, the real life third son of novelist Charles Dickens and who joined the North West Mounted Police in 1874, has an alternate and less than flattering take on Flashman - the book itself is something of an homage to the Flashman series.
Fraser has said that further film adaptations of the Flashman books have not been made because he "will not let anyone else have control of the script... and that simply does not happen in Hollywood." He also points to a lack of a suitable British actor to portray Flashman, Errol Flynn was always his favourite for the role: "It wasn't just his looks and his style. He had that shifty quality." However, Saul David's suggestion of Daniel Day-Lewis struck a chord with him and he says that although "He's probably getting on a bit," he "might make a Flashman... He's big, he's got presence and he's got style." [2]
[edit] Historical characters referenced in the Flashman novels
The Flashman books are littered with references to a vast number of notable historical figures. Although many have but a brief mention, some feature prominently and are portrayed "warts-and-all". They include the following:
- Flashman
- Thomas Hughes, Thomas Arnold, Lord Cardigan, Lord Auckland, Sir Robert Henry Sale, Paolo Di Avitabile, Alexander Burnes, General John Nicholson, William Hay Macnaghten, General Elphinstone, Akbar Khan, William Nott, Henry Havelock, Duke of Wellington, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Robert E. Lee
- Royal Flash
- Flash for Freedom!
- Flashman at the Charge
- Prince Albert, Lord Raglan, Lord Cardigan, Lord Palmerston, George Brown, Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud, William Howard Russell, Louis Edward Nolan, George de Lacy Evans, François Certain Canrobert, Richard Airey, Lord Lucan, Sir Colin Campbell, James Yorke Scarlett, Nicholas Pavlovich Ignatiev, Tsar Nicholas I, Yakub Beg
- Flashman in the Great Game
- Lord Cardigan, Florence Nightingale, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, Lord Palmerston, Lord Ellenborough, Charles Wood, Nicholas Pavlovich Ignatiev, General John Nicholson, Rani Lakshmi Bai, Nana Sahib, Tantya Tope, Azimullah Khan, Henry Havelock, James Outram, Thomas Henry Kavanagh, Robert Napier, Colin Campbell, Sam Browne, William Howard Russell, Fred Roberts, William Stephen Raikes Hodson, Hugh Rose, Harry Hammon Lyster, Clement Walker Heneage, James Hope Grant, Lord Canning, Thomas Hughes
- Flashman's Lady
- Flashman and the Redskins
- Helen Hunt Jackson, Jim Bridger, Alexander MacKenzie, Spotted Tail, Charley Reynolds, William Bent, Ceran St. Vrain, John Joel Glanton, Mangas Coloradas, Geronimo, Kit Carson, Philip Sheridan, William Tecumseh Sherman, John Pope, George Crook, Crazy Horse, Ulysses S. Grant, William B. Allison, Alfred Terry, Red Cloud, Hamilton Fish, George Armstrong Custer, Elizabeth Bacon Custer, Thomas Custer, Boston Custer, Lawrence Barrett, Sitting Bull, William W. Belknap, Rufus Ingalls, Marcus Reno, Frederick Benteen, Myles Keogh, James Calhoun, Henry Armstrong Reed, John Gibbon, George Yates, Chief Gall, Wild Bill Hickock, Frank Grouard
- Flashman and the Dragon
- James Hope Grant, Richard Cobden, Lord Palmerston, Frederick Townsend Ward, Hong Xiuquan, Harry Smith Parkes, John Arbuthnot Fisher, Garnet Joseph Wolseley, Charles Montauban, Lord Elgin, Li Xiucheng, Chen Yucheng, Hong Rengan, Ch'en Yu-ch'eng, Charles George Gordon, Dighton MacNaghton Probyn, Henry Loch, John C Heenan, Thomas Sayers, Anthony Trollope, Charles Darwin, Felice Beato, George Bernard Shaw, Prince Yi, Sushun, Xianfeng Emperor, Empress Dowager Ci'an, Empress Dowager Cixi, Tongzhi Emperor, Prince Gong
- Flashman and the Mountain of Light
- Queen Victoria, Buffalo Bill, Abdul Karim, Ranjit Singh, Kharak Singh, Nau Nihal Singh, Sher Singh, Chand Kaur, Duleep Singh, Jind Kaur, Robert Henry Sale, Hugh Gough, Henry Hardinge, Henry Havelock, Harun al-Rashid, Josiah Harlan, Alexander Gardner, Thomas Love Peacock, Lars Porsena, Harry Smith, Henry Montgomery Lawrence, James Hope Grant, Herbert Benjamin Edwardes, Robert Napier, William Stephen Raikes Hodson, Koh-i-Noor
- Flashman and the Angel of the Lord
- Jack Johnson, Julia Ward Howe, John Brown, Benjamin Franklin, James Outram, George Edward Grey, Moshoeshoe I, Richard Francis Burton, John Brown (servant), David Rice Atchison, Charles Sumner, Hugh Forbes, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner, Stephen A. Douglas, Allan Pinkerton, Richard Lyons, William H. Seward, Franklin Sanborn, William Wilberforce, Robert Marcellus Stewart, Henry David Thoreau, Henry Wilson, Samuel Gridley Howe, George Luther Stearns, John Henrie Kagi, Dangerfield Newby, Barclay Coppock, Frederick Douglass, J.E.B. Stuart, Robert E. Lee, Henry A. Wise
- Flashman and the Tiger
- The Road to Charing Cross
- Henri Blowitz, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Disraeli, Patrice MacMahon, Otto von Bismarck, W. S. Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, Lord Salisbury, Gyula Andrássy, William Henry Waddington, Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov, Pyotr Andreyevich Shuvalov, Chlodwig, Prince Hohenlohe, William Tecumseh Sherman, Garnet Wolseley, Charles George Gordon, William Hicks, Muhammad Ahmad, Wilhelm I of Germany, Georges Nagelmackers, Valentine Baker, Franz Joseph I of Austria, Elisabeth of Bavaria, Maximilian I of Mexico, Lajos Kossuth, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, Alexander II of Russia, William Ewart Gladstone, Jules Grévy, Anthony Hope, H. H. Asquith, Johann Strauss II, Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, Lord Granville
- The Subtleties of Baccarat
- Flashman and the Tiger
- The Road to Charing Cross
- Flashman on the March
- Maximilian I of Mexico, Benito Juárez, Napoleon III of France, Franz Joseph I of Austria, James Bruce, Ali II of Yejju, Tewodros II of Ethiopia, Walter Plowden, Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Alexandra of Denmark, Hormuzd Rassam, Benjamin Disraeli, Prester John, G. A. Henty, Johann Ludwig Krapf, Henry Morton Stanley, Robert Napier, Yohannes IV of Ethiopia (King Kussai), Menelek II of Ethiopia, James Augustus St. John, Richard Francis Burton, Tekle Giyorgis II of Ethiopia (Gobayzy), Alexander Roberts Dunn, Charles Fraser, Queen Masteeat (Mastrat), Tristam Speedy
[edit] References
- ^ Gen. Sir Harry Flashman And Aide Con the Experts, by Alden Whitman, The New York Times, July 29, 1969
- ^ Flash man by Saul David, The Daily Telegraph, 16 April 2006
[edit] External links
- The Flashman Society
- The Flashman Papers Project - a companion to the Flashman Papers.
- Big George interviews George MacDonald Fraser
- Images from the Abyssinian Campaign
