Sir Harry Paget Flashman (1822–1915)

[Irishtom29]

Tha Flashman books have a cleverness and humor the Sharpe books lack.

[rackensack]

Originally Posted by Grandstander

Did you not understand that Flashman's depraved character was a deliberate device employed so that the author might provide us with a cynical, less flowery perspective on the events?

Even more to the point than that is that Flashman's character had already been established by Thomas Hughes in Tom Brown's School Days, a moralistic and didactic novel in which Flashman is the bully and cad who serves as the foil to the honest, virtuous, and ultimately manly beaus ideal of Tom Brown, Scud East, Speedicut, and the others. This fatuous notion that the leadership of the British Empire was largely populated with and dominated by such paragons of virtue, acting always in accordance with the ideals of fair play and honor instilled in them at school, seems to have so conflicted with Fraser's experience of the world and in particular how armed conflict and historical events actually unfold that he struck on the notion of taking their antithesis, the wholly unredeemable Flashman whom they'd succeeded in expelling from their society at school, and putting him into the same situations in which they and their ilk had allegedly demonstrated their valor and worthiness, in order to demonstrate that Flashman's sort of cowardice, perfidy, self-interest, and blind dumb luck very often have as much or more to do with how things turn out as any sort of nobility. The genius in this is returning to one of the foundation texts of the high self-regard the upper-class Victorian British used to assert their virtues and to use it to undermine the whole notion, by asking a simple question: "what would have happened to a character like Flashman under that system", and finding a devastatingly subversive answer.

Fraser's point isn't so much that you have to be a Flashman to have the kind of success he does -- several inept but virtuous characters succeed as well in the pages of the Flashman novels, as do others who are shrewd and calculating but ultimately motivated by high ideals -- but rather that success and acclaim and a penchant for being in the right place at the right time are themselves proof of nothing about the character of of the figures who find them. They may do the right things for the wrong reasons, the wrong things for the right reasons, the wrong things for the wrong reasons, or the right things for the right reasons -- all are equally likely, and from the outside it's impossible to tell which is which at the time, or even afterward in many cases.

By being a thoroughly devious, cynical, and self-serving character, Flashman is often able to see through the pretense to virtue of others like him. Other times, he finds himself compelled to conclude that others are, in fact, motivated by honor or valor or compassion or whatever, finding no basis for thinking otherwise despite his keen eye for the main chance. His perspective on historical characters thus becomes particularly intense and persuasive, in a way that that of a character who thinks no evil of anyone else never could be. This gives Fraser a mechanism for offering up opinions (usually well-founded ones) on historical characters that may challenge orthodox views, or that amplify aspects of character that may not typically be evident.

[lucknow]

You know it's really funny how much we change as we grow older. I read all the Flashman books way back when I was about 20 or so. I really loved them and thought they were hilarious.
Recently I picked up a copy of "Flashman at the charge" at a used book store. I could barely finnish the book. I found it childish and poorly written. Now back when I had read them originally I had not read much of the masterpieces of writing that I now have. I think that once one has read some really good stuff, Flashman belongs right where I first saw it. In a playboy mag.

[noetsi]

I understand that its a plot device. My point was that a plot device taken to an extreme is counterproductive. Much as heros are more interesting if they are imperfect, Flashman would be more interesting if he on occasion did something useful or positive. It makes the character less absurd and, to me anyhow, more interesting.