Flash for Freedom! (Audible Audio Edition) George MacDonald Fraser Rupert PenryJones HarperCollins Publishers Limited Books
Download As PDF : Flash for Freedom! (Audible Audio Edition) George MacDonald Fraser Rupert PenryJones HarperCollins Publishers Limited Books
A game of cards leads Flashman from the jungle death-house of Dahomey to the slave state of Mississippi as he dabbles in the slave trade in Volume III of the Flashman Papers.
When Flashman was inveigled into a game of pontoon with Disraeli and Lord George Bentinck, he was making an unconscious choice about his own future - would it lie in the House of Commons or the West African slave trade? Was there, for that matter, very much difference? Once again Flashman's charm, cowardice, treachery, lechery, and fleetness of foot see the lovable rogue triumph by the skin of his chattering teeth.
Flash for Freedom! (Audible Audio Edition) George MacDonald Fraser Rupert PenryJones HarperCollins Publishers Limited Books
This was my third Flashman book after getting hipped to the series thanks to Ben Fountain's reference to it in Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, which if you haven't read is one of the best books of the past decade. Of the Flashman books I've read so far, this is my favorite. I'm glad I started with the first to get a feel for the series, but I felt like the first book started to drag and get redundant about halfway through. This one was great reading all the time. A note of warning for sensitive readers: If you can't understand that this is brilliant satire, you will (hopefully) be thoroughly offended.Product details
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Flash for Freedom! (Audible Audio Edition) George MacDonald Fraser Rupert PenryJones HarperCollins Publishers Limited Books Reviews
Among series characters, I'd have to guess that there are few as unredeemably roguish as Harry Flashman. Unlike most fictional cads, Harry is unrepentant, and those who expect him to see the light and become a better person are sure to be disappointed. But for those who understand Harry for what he is - a coward with no scruples, as he'd be the first to admit - the Flashman Papers are wonderfully fun historical novels.
Flash for Freedom! is the third volume of the Flashman Papers, and though the events in these volumes are not fully in the same order as their chronological publication, in this case, the third volume does immediately follow the events in the second one (Royal Flash). As this novel begins (in 1848), Harry is again enjoying his life of idleness, but when he tries to run for Parliament, things go very wrong, and he is forced to go into temporary exile. Harry is put aboard one of his wealthy father-in-law's ships and forced to work, something he never likes to do. Moreover, he is more than a little disturbed to find out that he is on a slave ship.
Not that Harry has moral qualms about the slave trade, but he just doesn't like to be put in a position where he could be convicted of a hanging offense. He will wind up going from Africa to Cuba and eventually to New Orleans (and other places in America), and throughout, he will be exposed to all sorts of sides of the slavery issue besides smuggling, he will act as a slave driver and as an agent of the underground railroad. Throughout, Harry takes no real side, merely trying to survive to make it home to England.
Even those who are used to Harry's natural villainy may be a little put off by his casual racism, but this is actually nothing new for him; he's always looked down on other races (as well as most other non-English people). But Harry Flashman is not supposed to be a role model, and for all his bad qualities, he also has a charm and humor that is endearing. It is Flashman's narrative that makes this a great set of offbeat historical novels (a genre that is usually on the serious side), and Flash for Freedom! is as good as its predecessors.
Unbelievably funny. From the first brilliant sentence, we have the pleasure of being witness to a series of non-stop, hilariously horrendous mishaps visited upon poor, despicable Harry Flashman. The plot is as tight and the writing as crisp and witty as any book in the series.
In "Flash for Freedom", MacDonald Fraser puts old Flashie through a wringer as incredible as it is unbelievably harsh. From a high-powered political house party, during which he puts the moves on Fanny Duberly and makes mildly anti-Semitic comments to future PM Disraeli, Flashman is politically ruined when he almost murders a man, is then forced by his malicious Scotch father-in-law to lay low on what Flash later discovers is a slave ship, goes on a slaving expedition in Africa, fights the American Navy, is coerced by the Underground Railroad into running a supercilious slave to freedom up the Mississipi, then becomes a slave driver on a Southern plantation, eventually being forced into slavery himself, subsequently escaping to freedom with an attractive octoroon, inspiring "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and running into Abe Lincoln along the way. MacDonald Fraser somehow makes it all seem plausible. Phew! As usual, we learn a good deal about history. Although Flashman couldn't give two pence about slavery, GMF paints a vivid picture of the brutality and corruption of the institution, while pointing out the necessary complicity of the Africans themselves and the naive romanticsm of the Abolitionists towards the slaves. John Charity Spring, one of the best characters in the Flashman series, is introduced in this novel. As with all of these books, you'll learn something through your laughter.
Our intrepid hero, Harry Flashman, is back for volume three 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.
This installment picks up where the second volume left off; Harry returns from his Continental adventures, having matched wits with one of the greatest statesmen of the 19th century, Otto von Bismarck, and changed the course of European history as a result. Soon, however, Flashman once again finds himself in a pickle, as a result of his roguish behavior. Forced to flee polite society until the resulting scandal blows over, Flash is relegated to crewing aboard a slaver, as it plies its trade on the African subcontinent and into Caribbean waters.
Following capture by the U. S. Navy, his adventures continue in the American South, where he is constantly on the move, just one step ahead of his presumptive captors. As has become the custom in Harry's autobiographies, well known historical events pepper his experiences, as Abraham Lincoln plays a starring role in this adventure.
As in the previous two 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. In one of his numerous, desperate scrapes, his self directed exhortation captures the true Flashman spirit
"...-bristle up the courage of the cornered rat, put on the bold front, and to hell with them. Bluff, my boy- bluff, shift and lie for the sake of your neck and the honour of Old England."
Uproariously funny and entertaining, this installment is every bit the equal of its predecessors.
This was my third Flashman book after getting hipped to the series thanks to Ben Fountain's reference to it in Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, which if you haven't read is one of the best books of the past decade. Of the Flashman books I've read so far, this is my favorite. I'm glad I started with the first to get a feel for the series, but I felt like the first book started to drag and get redundant about halfway through. This one was great reading all the time. A note of warning for sensitive readers If you can't understand that this is brilliant satire, you will (hopefully) be thoroughly offended.
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