Flashman and the Angel of the Lord

by George MacDonald Fraser

Overview

“A jolly read.”—The Wall Street Journal

The tenth installment in The Flashman Papers finds Captain Harry Flashman of Her Majesty's Secret Service in the antebellum South, where the irrepressible, globe-trotting Victorian becomes the target of blackmailing beauties.
 
Evading danger, bedding women, and profiting from every opportunity, Flashman once again weasels his way into history, this time in John Brown’s raid of Harper’s Ferry, just before the Civil War. As a result of Flashy’s letching, lying, cheating, and stealing on land, on sea, and on the rails, not only did John Brown become a martyr, Lincoln became president, and the nation plunged into a bloodbath.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101633809
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/02/2013
Series:	Flashman
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	721 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

George MacDonald Fraser was a bestselling historical novelist, journalist and screenwriter. He is perhaps most famous for his series of Flashman novels, featuring his antihero Harry Flashman. In addition to his novels, he wrote numerous screenplays, most notably The Three Musketeers and the James Bond film Octopussy. George MacDonald Fraser died in 2008 at the age of 82.

Editorial Reviews

Roving British Army colonel Sir Harry Flashman, roisterous scoundrel and witty cynic, was a reluctant hero in exploits ranging from the Crimean War (Flashman at the Charge) to China's Taiping Rebellion (Flashman and the Dragon) in nine previous volumes of Fraser's Flashman Papers. In this latest installment, a mesmerizing mix of high adventure, outrageous humor and audacious drama, the cowardly Flashman is kidnapped in Cape Town, South Africa, and sails to Baltimore before being conscripted into abolitionist John Brown's doomed, bloody 1859 raid on a federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry, Va. U.S. government agents enlist Flashman as a spy to dissuade or forcibly prevent Brown from carrying out the raid, fearing that it might trigger civil war. Meanwhile, a band of hooded white supremacists abduct Flashman and order him to abet John Brown's attack, which they believe will unite the South and divide the North. Combining wild imagination, sardonic commentary on American mores and meticulous historical research, Fraser tells a masterful historical tale and presents a magnificent portrait of John Brown as a fearless, autocratic, murderous iron-willed zealot-"a fanatic, yes; a man driven by one burning idea... but never a madman."

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly

Roving British Army colonel Sir Harry Flashman, roisterous scoundrel and witty cynic, was a reluctant hero in exploits ranging from the Crimean War (Flashman at the Charge) to China's Taiping Rebellion (Flashman and the Dragon) in nine previous volumes of Fraser's Flashman Papers. In this latest installment, a mesmerizing mix of high adventure, outrageous humor and audacious drama, the cowardly Flashman is kidnapped in Cape Town, South Africa, and sails to Baltimore before being conscripted into abolitionist John Brown's doomed, bloody 1859 raid on a federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry, Va. U.S. government agents enlist Flashman as a spy to dissuade or forcibly prevent Brown from carrying out the raid, fearing that it might trigger civil war. Meanwhile, a band of hooded white supremacists abduct Flashman and order him to abet John Brown's attack, which they believe will unite the South and divide the North. Combining wild imagination, sardonic commentary on American mores and meticulous historical research, Fraser tells a masterful historical tale and presents a magnificent portrait of John Brown as a fearless, autocratic, murderous iron-willed zealot-``a fanatic, yes; a man driven by one burning idea... but never a madman.'' (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Flashman, the magnificent, debauched English soldier of fortune and misfortune, turns agent provocateur for a U.S. government on the brink of the American Civil War in this tenth volume of the Flashman Papers. With a grace equal to his character's smooth talking when under the gun of a cuckolded husband, Fraser does some intricate maneuvering to transport his hero from the Far East to the New World. Shanghaied to America by a vengeful acquaintance, Flashman plans to return to his beloved English wife to celebrate his newly acclaimed knighthood, but his past misadventures and enemies keep catching up with him. He becomes entangled with John Brown, under pressure from the Underground Railroad, then, with the KKK, and, finally, with the U.S. government as represented by Pinkerton. For Flashman, mingling with the famous (or soon to be famous) is nothing new, and the name-dropping throughout lends vivacity to a riotous plunge through history. The terrified Flashman is a reluctant eyewitness to the events at Harper's Ferry, and once again, his escape afterwards owes more to his sexual charm than his soldiering skills.

Denise Perry Donavin

Praise for the Flashman series
“Hilariously funny.”—The New York Times Book Review
 
“Great dirty fun!”—Grand Rapids Press
 
“The most entertaining anti-hero in a long time… Moves from one ribald and deliciously corrupt episode to the next… Wonderful and scandalous.”—Publishers Weekly
 
“Raises dastardliness to the level of an art… One of the most amusing and sardonic novels I have ever read!”—Omaha World
 
“As irreverent and picaresque as Tom Jones and always more dramatic… Flashman is a one-man demolition squad!”—Chicago Today
 
“Marvelously entertaining… A delight!”—Providence Journal

From the Publisher