Flashman and the Angel of the Lord

I thought this Harry Flashman adventure was worth dusting off after a recent trip to Harpers Ferry, and I have to say that this is one of those series you keep up on the bookshelves as it never fails to disappoint you on a rainy day. The cadence of the text takes a little while to get used to, but once you get into the swing of things you realize Fraser has created one of the great characters in fiction with Flashman - bold, cunning, and resourceful, a rake who's always looking to save his own skin in the course of a series of difficult assignments, a fan of the ladies and they of him, and always willing to have another medal pinned on his chest in the course of his adventures. This is a wild swing that takes you to the simmering cauldron of the pre-Civil War United States, with conspirators on all sides talking big and looking to start trouble between North and South or head off the incipient conflict. Flashman gets caught up in things as he always does and finds himself at John Brown's right hand for the raid on Harper's Ferry, one the tightest scrapes he'll ever find himself in. It's a great read from beginning to end, just as shame that Fraser never finished the book where Flashman fights in the Civil War (for both sides). That would have been a great read. Couple of pieces of advice for the reader. 1) Read these books in the chronological order of Flashman's career, which is not necessarily the order they were written. You'll really need to be well versed in the earlier books (particularly in this case "Flash for Freedom!" where Flashman visits the United States previously as both a slave runner, plantation overseer, and Underground Railroad agent) so you can catch all of the references to his previous adventures. 2) Make sure you read the footnotes. Fraser does such an excellent job of weaving the history into these works, that it's well worth your time to flip to the back and get the full details on the person, place, or thing being referenced. Makes you feel like you've learned a little bit more about history in the reading!

Our intrepid hero, Harry Flashman, is back for volume ten of the Flashman Papers, a narrative of the life and times of one of the most ne'er-do-well wastrels to ever grace the pages of a published autobiography. The first five Flashman novels were presented in chronological order. Several installments thereafter acted to fill in gaps in the story. From a chronological standpoint, the adventures of this novel immediately follow those contained in Flashman in the Great Game, wherein we left Flashman on the heels of his wholly unintentional heroics displayed in the great Indian Mutiny of 1857. Harry decamps to South Africa, on the way home to England, where he is hijacked and kidnapped by his old nemesis, Captain John Charity Spring. Spring arranges for Flashman's transport to the United States, where he expects Flashman to be arrested and arraigned for his exploits which were covered in a previous installment, Flash For Freedom. As in the previous Flashman novels, our Harry is revealed as the premier coward and opportunist of his era; faults which he quite willingly admits and even boasts of. Much as a prior day Forrest Gump, he has a way of finding himself among the most powerful and famous personages of his era, as he takes part in the great events of the period, in this case, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. Aside from uproarious fun and games, the Flashman series is set against historical events and actually serves as an educational experience. On to volume eleven of the Flashman Papers.

Arrant coward and unrepentant womanizer Harry Flashman, in the seven books of his 'memoirs' that I've read so far, expresses sincere respect (and even that respect is edged with cynicism) for only two of the many "great" men he's encountered: Abraham Lincoln and... John Brown! Considering Flashman's unapologetic racism, that's an unexpected observation. Here's what he says in the early pages of the Angel of the Lord: "Aye, if there's a company of saints up yonder, they'll be dressing by the right on J.B., for when the Recording Angel has racked up all his crimes and lies and thefts and follies and deceits and cold-blooded killings, he'll still be saved when better men are damned. Why? Cos if he wasn't, there'd be such an almighty roar of indiganation from the Heavenly Host it would bust the firmament; God would never live it down. That's the beauty of a martyr's crown, you see; it outshines everything, and they don't come any brighter than old J.B.'s." Even more meaningfully than Flashman's words, which are always to be doubted, is Flashman's self-reported action. At the most critical moment of the battle at Harper's Ferry, Flashman claims to have saved Brown's life, and thus "launched him on the path to immortal glory." And... Flashman's creator, George MacDonald Fraser, takes the unprecedented step of writing an appendix in his own authorial voice, saying of John Brown that "He is part of history and historic legend, and if what he tried to do was not heroic, then the word has no meaning." Wow! From Flash and Fraser, that's a testimonial. After being disappointed by the historical flim-flam of Flashman and the Redskins, and somewhat bored by the disjointed and repetitive narrative of that book, I had not intended to read another of the series for the foreseeable future. The clear recrudescence of North-South animosity during the 2008 presidential campaign, however, got me thinking about John Brown again. I read an amazingly fine biography -- John Brown, Abolitionist, by David S. Reynolds -- and then found myself unable to resist reading this fictional account of Harper's Ferry, just to see what a curmudgeonly Brit would make of it. As usual, Fraser's fictional history is full of mind-torquing wing-nuts of solid fact, and also of utter nonsense. The central nonsense is the invention of a master spy-ring of secession-seeking Southerners, the Kuclos, obvious prototypes for the post-war Ku Klux Klan. They're as improbable as any James Bond fantasy, but just as much fun. Their antagonists on the abolitionist side - the tightly organized (and utterly non-existent) leadership of the Underground Railroad, and the beginnings of the Pinkertons - are delightfully droll. In fact, the villains in this fairly long novel are largely there for comic relief. Flashman's "amorous" adventures in this novel are of a strange pattern, also. In three ludicrous encounters, Flashman displays his 'prowess' to his own immense satisfaction, only to discover that the woman involved has outsmarted and deceived him, set him up for trouble unscrupulously. The inveterate sexist hoisted on his own petard, as Shakespeare put it. The male spider witlessly copulating and being devoured. People who read Flashman to revel in the "political incorrectness" of the sordid hero's rhetoric will find their usual items in "The Angel of the Lord" but wrapped up in even more ambiguity than in other books. I've begun to understand from Flashman what "political incorrectness" really amounts to: it's the smirking delight you take in saying out loud what you suppose others really believe but are too hypocritical to say, and the smug certainty that everyone agrees with you secretly. In short, "political incorrectness" is a chronic inability to credit another person's integrity. It's a character failure that even Flashman transcends in his admiration for John Brown, America's greatest hero.

For fans of Flashman this is another 'must' read. If you're new to the Flashman stories, then I strongly recommend you start with the first "Flashman" book; you'll be hooked! Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, like the rest of the series, follows on from where our hero left off, finding himself yet again in all kinds of trouble back in the America of the late 19th Century, where one false move or sideways look at someone can get you killed! As only he can, Harry Flashman finds his way through with just enough brashness and dander to keep him one step ahead. Can't wait to get onto the next tale from our reluctant hero! Flashman and the Angel of the Lord (Flashman 09)

Excellent

The 10th installment, chronologically, of the Flashman chronicles, details his involvement with John Brown the anti-slavery campaigner as he prepares for a raid on Harpers Ferry, which he hopes will instigate a nationwide revolt against slavery. As ever, the novel shows an astonishing degree of historical accuracy. The plot is somewhat more convoluted than previous volumes, with perhaps a few too many twists and turns, but all the trademark Flashman tropes are there, including of course one of two hilarious seductions which also manage to get him out of tight spots. Some of the language might offend woker readers accustomed to having their literature cleansed of anachronistic terms - but this was the language of the times, and it feels right for it to be reflected as such in the book.

My predecessors have already written exhaustively about the content itself, which is always enjoyable. My edition however - printed by amazon fulfillment - came with traces of moist storage, slightly flappy pages etc. so one star is missing from full satisfaction.

This is one of the best of the later Flashman novels, and very much overlooked compared to the earlier ones. I picked this novel up for the second time after an 18 year gap. I had vague memories of Harper's Ferry and the USA again, after two previous adventures in that country. Happily, the pleasure of rediscovery was at work. MacDonald Fraser propels Flashman into the habitual misadventures we have so come to enjoy. My particular enjoyment of this novel is ignited by the quality of writing. GMF was always a fine etcher of people' their quirkiness, vitality, physical embodiment and extraordinary miscalculation of Flashman himself. In this novel, all these qualities are at their highest standard. Forget what some fans say about this novel belonging to the lesser tier of Flashman novels, it's right up there with the best.