Flashman and the Dragon

Name: Flashman and the Dragon
Rating: 4.33 (4459 reviews)

by George MacDonald Fraser Book 8 in the The Flashman Papers series.

First published 1985

Amazon

4.3(4,459)

In Hong Kong in 1860, Flashman accepts money to escort what he believes is an opium shipment into Canton and discovers that he is carrying weapons for the Taiping rebels. British officials convert his attempt to escape blame into an intelligence mission, sending him through Shanghai and Nanjing to assess whether the Taiping armies threaten foreign interests.

Flashman then joins Lord Elgin’s expedition towards Beijing during the final campaign of the Second Opium War. Captured by Qing forces, he enters the orbit of the Xianfeng Emperor and the concubine who will become Empress Dowager Cixi before witnessing the allied occupation and destruction of the Old Summer Palace. The novel places civil war and foreign invasion inside the same collapsing imperial landscape.

Historical Periods

Opium Wars1839–1860 CE Taiping Rebellion1850–1864 CE British Hong Kong1841–1997 CE

Genres

Court & Political Fiction Exploration & Survival Fiction War Fiction

Historical people

Hong Xiuquan1814–1864 Xianfeng Emperor1831–1861 Empress Dowager Cixi1835–1908 James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin1811–1863 Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin1766–1841