Flashman and the Angel of the Lord

by George MacDonald Fraser Narrated by David Case

Overview

If only Flashman had got on with his dinner and ignored the handkerchief dropped by a flirtatious hussy in a Calcutta hotel... well, American history might have been different, a disastrous civil war might have been avoided, and Flash Harry himself would have been spared one of the most hair-raising adventures of his misspent life. If only... but alas, the arch-rotter of the Victorian age could never resist the lure of a pretty foot and this latest extract from The Flashman Papers soon finds him careering towards the little Virginian town of Harper's Ferry, where John Brown and his gang of rugged fanatics were to fire the first shot in the great war against slavery.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's 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.)

From the Publisher

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

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172048647
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	01/05/2010
Edition description:	Unabridged

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