Flashman

by George MacDonald Fraser Book 1 in the The Flashman Papers series.

First published 1969

Amazon

4.1(19,890)

Expelled from Rugby School for drunkenness, Harry Flashman buys a commission in Lord Cardigan’s 11th Hussars and begins constructing the reputation that will conceal his cowardice. After a duel and an inconvenient marriage to Elspeth Morrison, he is sent to India and then Afghanistan, where his talent for languages and deception places him near the British occupation government in Kabul.

Flashman encounters Dost Mohammad Khan, Shah Shujah and Mohammad Akbar Khan as resistance to the occupation becomes open revolt. He survives imprisonment, espionage and the January 1842 retreat towards Jalalabad, repeatedly abandoning others while chance turns his flight into apparent heroism. The novel makes the destruction of Elphinstone’s army the foundation of Flashman’s public legend.

Historical Periods

Early Victorian Britain1837–1851 CE East India Company Rule1757–1858 CE

Genres

Exploration & Survival Fiction War Fiction

Historical people

Dost Mohammad Khan1793–1863 Shah Shujah Durrani1780–1842 Mohammad Akbar Khan1816–1845 William George Keith Elphinstone1782–1842 William Brydon1811–1873