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    Royal Flash
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    Royal Flash
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    Royal Flash
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    Royal Flash

    Written by George MacDonald Fraser

    Narrated by Rupert Penry-Jones

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    In Volume II of the Flashman Papers, Flashman tangles with femme fatale Lola Montez and the dastardly Otto Von Bismarck in a battle of wits which will decide the destiny of a continent.

    In this volume of The Flashman Papers, Flashman, the arch-cad and toady, matches his wits, his talents for deceit and malice, and above all his speed in evasion against the most brilliant European statesman and against the most beauiful and unscrupulous adventuress of the era.

    From London gaming-halls and English hunting-fields to European dungeons and throne-rooms, he is involved in a desperate succession of escapes, disguises, amours and (when he cannot avoid them) hand-to-hand combats.

    All the while, the destiny of a continent rests on his broad and failing shoulders.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateSep 27, 2012
    ISBN9780007505647
    Unavailable
    Royal Flash
    Author

    George MacDonald Fraser

    The author of the famous ‘Flashman Papers’ and the ‘Private McAuslan’ stories, George MacDonald Fraser has worked on newspapers in Britain and Canada. In addition to his novels he has also written numeous films, most notably ‘The Three Musketeers’, ‘The Four Musketeers’, and the James Bond film, ‘Octopussy’. George Macdonald Fraser died in January 2008 at the age of 82.

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    Reviews for Royal Flash

    4/5

    378 ratings13 reviews

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    • 3/5
      We had moved here and this proved topical. It was a humid summer and the house was gradually coming together. I'd come home from work and then attend to some task, usually making quite the mess. I lack facility in such matters. I read a number of story collections that summer, I also read a Flashman. The novel's layered plot I found engaging, though not the execution thereof. Who can complain about a protagonist whose favorite verb is roger? Sure, the politics are incredibly reactionary and the pacing akin to genre norms. That said, I did buy a couple more more future diversion.
    • 3/5
      The second Flashman book is the weakest I have read so far. Compared to the other ones, there is a lot of inaccurate information present whereas usually Fraser's careful attention to detail is one of the joys in reading about Flashy's exploits. In 1848, Otto von Bismarck was not yet in an important position (just a Prussian member of parliament) and would never have had such influence to intervene in the fictional country.Like his virtual successor James Bond, Harry Flashman's adventures are a sequence of capture and escape, interrupted by bedding activities. The Flashman girl in this episode is Lola Montez (whose Anglo-Irish background I have not known, though I have seen her portrait among the gallery of beauties in the wonderful but stuffed with tourists Nymphenburg Palace in Bavaria.The 1848 revolution era could have been much better used in the Flashman timeline from the revolution in Paris to those in Italy and Hungary. Plenty of much better episodes than this fictional and unhistorical prelude to German unification.
    • 4/5
      Even though I didn't remember the plot of Flashman, the first book in Fraser's series, one detail came rushing back to me immediately when I started Royal Flash - Harry Flashman is definitely not short on ego. He's the same despicable cad he was in the first book. Within the first few pages of Royal Flash he describes himself as handsome, beloved, admired, and respected. And, like the first few pages of Flashman he winds up in the bed of a beautiful woman almost immediately. But, having said all that, he's still a coward, albeit a clever one at that. He says brazenly, "The world was my oyster, and if it wasn't my sword that had opened it, no one was any the wiser" (p 4). This time Flashy hass got himself in deep. As payback for an earlier embarrassment Harry is forced to pretend he is Prince Carl Gustaf while the real royalty gets over a bout of the clap. Only, here's the twist: he takes over for Carl on the eve of his wedding and has to marry the Irma, the frosty Duchess of Strackenz. He is assured the marriage is not binding due to his different religious faith (and the fact he is already married). True to Fraser style, all is not as it seems and Flashman finds himself in one pickle after another.
    • 4/5
      Audiobook. Read this about 20 years ago. Lacks the culture clash and introductions of characters that makes the first Flashman great. Still, a fun read. Great funny writing. Flawless narration.
    • 5/5
      Ever read/watch a prisoner of Zenda??? Fantastic read along with Flashman at the Charge my favourite in the whole series
    • 4/5
      Found myself wanting to read more about Flashman after finishing this book. Was a bit put off after the first novel because he was such a bastard. But have come to enjoy his adventures and his cowardly nature.Feelt it was a little slow in getting started but by the end was really hooked and was looking forward to reading it very much. Chuckled as he got himself out of scrapes by sheer luck and cowardly actions. What a bounder.
    • 4/5
      Our intrepid hero, Harry Flashman, is back for volume two of the Flashman Papers, a narrative of the life and times of one of the most ne’er-do-well wastrels to ever grace the pages of a published autobiography.This installment picks up where the first volume left off; Harry returns from his Afghan adventures, quite the conquering hero and the toast of London. Soon, however, the bloom is off the rose and further adventures await, this time among the nobility of the continent. Soon, Flash matches wits with one of the greatest statesmen of the 19th century, Otto von Bismarck, and changes the course of European history as a result.As in the original Flashman novel, our Harry is revealed as the premier coward and opportunist of his era; faults which he quite willingly admits and even boasts of. This passage, relating to his beautiful, vacuous wife Elspeth gives a glimpse into the Flashman psyche:“At that moment I was overcome again with that yearning affection for her that I sometimes felt, in spite of her infidelities; I can’t explain it, beyond saying that she must have had some magical quality, something to do with the childlike thoughtful look she wore, and the pure, helpless stupidity in her eyes. It is very difficult not to like a lovely idiot.”Uproariously funny and entertaining, this sequel is every bit the equal of the original.
    • 3/5
      The Flashman books are great fun reads
    • 4/5
      Oh, Flashman, you cheeky scamp! What are you up to today?"Well, Mr Bookface, I've been kidnapped by Chancellor Bismark and forced to impersonate a Danish prince. But don't wory, I'm sure to fit some fighting, drinking and whoring in along the way!"This second Flashman novel is my personel favourite. Wonderfully politically incorrect, funny and full of fascinating military history. Go buy it! Buy all the Flashman books! Now!
    • 4/5
      Oh Flashy. I got into this series after a friend clued me in, and it has both piqued my historical interest to do some background reading and has also made be fall a bit in love with this horrid fellow. Its a great, easy way to fall into the time period. Bismark is rather terrifying.
    • 5/5
      The recent death of George McDonald Fraser has brought a close (maybe permanent, maybe not?) to this delightful series of books. I have had the pleasure of following this series every since the release of the first book back in the sixties. The Flashman novels combine history (including substantial endnotes) with sex, action, adventure and the secret pleasure of enjoying the exploits of one of the most notoriously popular non-politically correct characters of 20th Century literature. Flashman is a womanizer, a coward, a scoundrel and a cheat, but in the novels, which are all narrated by Flashman himself, he is utterly honest with his readers. He is a man not proud of his faults, but certainly unabashed about them.The Flashman novels could be dismissed as sensationalized light reading , but Fraser cleverly tied his character into most of the major events of the last sixty years of the nineteenth century, a Victorian Zelig or Forrest Gump. Flashman casually mentions this minor detail or that simple observation, then Fraser in his assumed role as editor of the Flashman papers meticulously explains in the endnotes how these mentions by Flashman confirm the truth of his narrative, since only if Flashman was there could he have known about this fact or that. Fraser's endnotes also round out the historic details of the narrative, giving background and elaboration to the history-as-I-lived-it tales told by Flashman. It all works wonderfully, even if you somewhat suspect that some details are being outrageously fabricated.I very strongly recommend these books to anyone who has an interest in history and is willing to keep an open mind towards the womanizing and the language (the n-word appears quite a bit, but completely in character for Flashman). I would suggest the best way to read them is in order of publication. This doesn't follow Flashman's own life chronology, but the books published later often make reference to previous editions of the "Flashman Papers" and so is more fun for the reader to follow.
    • 4/5
      Another fabulous adventure with crude and cowardly Flashman ... this time assuming the identity of a German prince. Once again I've had to double-check some of the characters and history to be able to spot the "true" bits. I'll definitely have to read The Prisoner of Zenda now, since Flashman claims it is based on his own experience!
    • 4/5
      Perhaps it is unfair to give Royal Flash only 4 stars, but I had to distinguish its rating from the first Flashman book, which I would have given 5+ stars. The Royal Flash takes Harry Flashman from the comforts of home to Munich - at the invite of Lola Montez! Flashy, what are you thinking? (By the way, Lola Montez is an historical figure - and quite a beauty.) Once in Bavaria he meets his old nemesis Otto Bismarck, who entangles Harry in the intrigues of 1840's Germany, Denmark, and the Schleswig-Holstein Question.