[hildea]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

When he almost raped his dad's misttress I nearly pulled the rip cord.

I agree.

When we got to Scotland, this passage had me laughing out loud:

When we had finished, she lay in the grass, drowsy, like a contented kitten, and after a few pleased sighs she said:

‘Was that what the minister means when he talks of fornication?’

Astonished, I said, yes, it was.

‘Um-hm,’ said she. ‘Why has he such a down on it?’

Then he was posted to India, and, um. That was pretty ugly. Using the n-word as if it was punctuation, describing and treating Indian people as slaves. Fraser's comment in the foreword is even more disingenious than I expected, implying that Flashman is no more racist than humanity in general:

Originally Posted by How Did I Get the Idea of Flashman?, 2013

...complain that he’s a racist (of course he is; why should he be different from the rest of humanity?)

Then there's this passage (meeting a superior officer in Afghanistan):

This was too good a chance to miss, so I said: ‘I was expelled from Rugby, too, sir.’

‘Good God! You don’t say! What for, sir?’

‘Drunkenness, sir.’

‘No! Well, damme! Who’d have believed they would kick you out for that? They’ll be expellin’ for rape next.

The sentiment is horribly plausible.

I'm thinking again of that "left-wing journal which hailed it as a scathing attack on British imperialism". It's hard to believe that this wasn't the intention. Flashman is such a terrible person, as are most of the English people we meet.

I'm taking a break from it, not sure if I'll continue. It's well written, and the story is interesting. I want to see what happens next. I find it hard when the protagonist is so extremely unsympathetic, but it helps (somewhat) that he makes no attempt to justify himself to the reader.

Originally Posted by issybird

There’s a great pleasure in store for you; [not a spoiler] the second Flashman book, Royal Flash, also is a riff on The Prisoner of Zenda.

That sounds interesting! I might keep reading for that.