Flashman Audiobook By George MacDonald Fraser cover art

Flashman

The Flashman Papers, Book 1

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Flashman

By: George MacDonald Fraser
Narrated by: Colin Mace
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About this listen

Harry Flashman: the unrepentant bully of Tom Brown’s schooldays, now with a Victoria Cross, has three main talents – horsemanship, facility with foreign languages and fornication. A reluctant military hero, Flashman plays a key part in most of the defining military campaigns of the 19th century, despite trying his utmost to escape them all.

Flashman, soldier, duellist, lover, imposter, coward, cad and hero, triumphs in this first instalment of The Flashman Papers. His adventures as the reluctant secret agent in Afghanistan and his entry into the exclusive company of Lord Cardigan’s Hussars culminate in his foulest hour – his part in the historic disaster of the Retreat from Kabul.

This is the story of a blackguard who enjoyed villainy for its own sake. Shameless, exciting and funny, Flashman’s deplorable odyssey is observed with the cynical eye of a scoundrel who was honest only in reporting what he saw. He makes all other black sheep look respectable grey.

©2015 George MacDonald Fraser (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Espionage Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literature & Fiction Spies & Politics Sports Thriller & Suspense War & Military
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The Flashman papers, of which this is the first pack is a good satire with a very good interpretation.

Good satire.

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The book is very, very well written, the story gripping and interesting and the reading performance is easily one of the best I've heard in the platform for certain.

That said, Flashman is a coward, a liar and a cheat all at once and I think that's the best I can say about him without putting off potential listeners. There's really no good thing I can say about him but that he can cut a good figure when he puts his mind to it and think fast when no one is trying to kill him. If you want a good story told about a villain in all the sense of the word, who gets away with it despite being altogether the most incompetent character on the page just because he can see an oportunity whenever it crops up and make the most of it, this may be for you.

The author's so good in his writing that I listened aaaaall the way to the end, hoping he'd get what was coming to him (or at least show ONE redeeming quality) despite his telling me outright in the first couple pages that there wouldn't be any of that anywhere in the book.

I didn't believe him, and here I am: having listened to 10 hours and change of a very good story about a man I'd rather have died and feeling very dissatisfied at the end because he didn't while several, much better people did. I find I'm not cynical enough to listen to the rest of the books in the series that almost certainly would leave me feeling the same way despite being very well written and (if the performance here is any indication) masterfully read.

This might be for you, if you're in the mood to root for the bad guy (and trust me, there'll plenty of moments where it'll be very clear the villain of the story is the man whose story you're listening to, no matter what Flashman himself says on the topic).

A masterful performance, albeit about a tre cowardly man

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I'm 62 and read these as a teen/young adult....and hearing flashman again is wonderful...my first antihero!

the historical accuracy

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All the worst parts of British culture hung out to dry. Satire on par with Yes, Minister, but far more salty. Spike Lee should make this into a TV show, the perfect picture of how we became so horrible in Europe. In a time when works of art are judged by the morality of the main character this is utterly irredeemable of course; a story of the Man, British colonial superiority, a cross between James Bond and Indiana Jones. Cheerfully racist and misogynist. Great naughty fun.

Fun, fabulously un-PC

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I don’t no what every body is going on about, complaining about Colin Mace. He was superb and really brought Flashman to life in my eye. Each to their own I suppose.

Great listen don’t let the other reviews put you off like it nearly made me do so glad I took a chance and it paid off

What a fantastic listen

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An excellent reading of a well written and often funny book - but much as Fraser makes clear that it's a satire and that Flashman is not supposed to be seen as a hero, it's nevertheless difficult to really enjoy a book with Flashman as a first-person protagonist. He - the character, one must presume, not the author - cheerfully displays many of those traits that were more common among the colonial British tag many would like to believe, and his casual racism and awful treatment of women is made no more palatable as entertainment by its realism.

It's a good book, but even knowing the point Fraser meant to make I just couldn't enjoy it. Perhaps I'll finish listening to it one day, but probably not.

Well written, well read, but not well aged

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My favourite part of the day is listening to Flashy’s adventures.
Irreverent, human and funny!

Masterfully told, as always.

Hilarious

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If you like a story that's simultaneously a history textbook, a thriller, a raucous comedy, and a smutty drugstore paperback all at the same time this is the book for you.

Fantastic narrator

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