Product Description

Celebrated Victorian bounder, cad, and lecher, Sir Harry Flashman, V.C., returns to play his (reluctant) part in the Taiping Rebellion in the eighth volume of the critically acclaimed Flashman Papers. Unfortunately in China in 1860 a lot of people were depending on Flashman: the English vicar's daughter with her cargo of opium; Lord Elgin; the Emperor's ravishing concubine; and Szu-Zhan, the female bandit colossus, as practised in the arts of love as in the art of war. They were not to know that behind his Victoria Cross, Flashman was a base coward and charlatan. They took him at face value, and he took them for all he could, while China seethed through the bloodiest civil war in history, and the British and French armies hacked their way to the heart of the Forbidden City.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7088 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
'Thanks to Fraser's passion for history, his rare gift for rattling narrative and his infectious delight in robust, rollicking language, we can rejoice in a work of genius worthy of being ranked with -- there can be no higher accolade -- P.G. Wodehouse' Daily Telegraph 'Farcically outrageous and disgracefully entertaining' Sunday Times

About the Author
The author of the famous Flashman Papers and the Private McAuslan stories, George MacDonald Fraser has worked on newspapers in Britain and Canada. In addition to his novels he has also written numerous screenplays, most notably The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, and the James Bond film, Octopussy.

Customer Reviews

Flash Harry at his best
One of the best of the series, Flashman and the Dragon combines the usual sublime writing with a particularly fascinating, and not too-well known, military campaign. If you want to learn something new about Victorian history without realising you are making the effort there is no better way.
Highly recommended, and if you liked any of the other Flashman's you will be safe buying this book

Flashman conquers China
No sense in wasting any of your time: this is yet another great book in the incomparable Flashman-series.

Flashman, with his new knighthood and V.C., is idling away the time in Hong Kong before sailing for home, and damned if he doesn't get caught up with a woman! Before he (or you) are fully aware he's upriver smuggling guns, being caught by pirates and Taiping rebels, commandereed by Lord Elgin to accompany him to Peking, captured by the Imperial army, and sequestered by the Imperial Concubine as private barbarian pet... All in a day's work for Flashy ;-)

Having re-read the reviews I wrote on all previous Flashman-novels I should add (as I omitted perhaps in those) that, apart from the countless hilarious scenes, there are times when Flashman is dead serious (I'm thinking for instance of the final chapter where he discusses the destruction of the Summer Palace) and all in all this makes for a very entertaining read.

An informative read as well, because MacDonald Fraser not only has the historical facts correct, but knows how to make you want to know more about the particular place and time of Flashman's adventures, and that in itself is surely a good thing.

The only thing I regret is that there's now only one Flashman-novel left for me to read, because they must all surely rank amongst the finest historical novels one could wish for.

This time Flashman goes to China! Hurrah!
Yes, once again Flashy finds himself in the thick of things - a Chinese Civil War! GMF combines well-researched historical fact - stranger than a lot of fiction - with the tale of the ever-reluctant Colonel Flashman, who beds and connives his way through the Imperial and rebel courts and battlefields of China in 1860. From the very first sentence, when Flashman warns the reader that the time to beware of a pretty woman is not when you're flush, but broke - because what is she after, then? - you just know he is ging to be cajoled/ordered/kidnapped into another daring adventure... and you're not disappointed. Buy this book - and the whole series, if you can!