Type of bind: Paperback
EAN num: 9780007766734
ISBN number: 0007766734
Label: COLLINS
Manufacturer: COLLINS
Page Count: 304
Printing Date: 1999
Publishing house: COLLINS
Studio: COLLINS
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Rated by buyers -
Harry Flashman has always been a character on the periphery of my awareness. I remember seeing the books around and never picked one up, but now that I have, I'll probably read the rest of them. This book was just a lot of fun. This tale of Flashman forced to impersonate Prince Carl Gustaf of Denmark by Otto Von Bismarck after being tricked into coming to Germany by Lola Montez, is one of those combinations of history and farce that are entertaining when well-done. Fraser moves the story along well, with clearly defined and often hilarious characters and an anti-hero who is truly larger than life. Occasionally the story has a tendency to meander, but Fraser always ends up pulling it together with one more scene of Flashman's accidental heroics, generally brought forth by his incredible cowardice, a fault he is consistently proud of. With all the interesting footnotes and historical figures fitting naturally into Flashman's world, this really hits the mark.
Rated by buyers 
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The blurb in the front of George MacDonald Fraser's Royal Flash - the second book in the Flashman Papers - is a New York Times quote that says: "If anyone is looking for a successor to James Bond, Flashy is the one." This is inaccurate; if anything, Harry Flashman is the anti-Bond: cowardly where Bond is courageous, self-serving where Bond is selfless, but human where Bond is superheroic (although the literary Bond is considerably less so than the cinematic one). Flashman, in short, is one of the great cads in fiction, and gleefully unrepentant in his roguishness.
Royal Flash starts where the very first volume (Flashman) ended, with the narrator resting on his laurels from his campaigns in Afghanistan. Of course, readers of the very first volume are well aware that his heroics are essentially pure fiction, but the British public of 1842 is not onto him. For around 70 pages, Harry is relishing his status while antagonizing various historical figures, most particular, a young Bismarck. This will come back to haunt him years later, when he receives a mysterious summons to come to Germany.
Harry smells a trap, but the scent of money is stronger, so he goes, only to be forced into a scheme of Bismarck's. As it turns out, Flashman is a virtual twin for Prince Carl Gustaf, who is soon to marry a princess that will solidify certain political alliances that Bismarck wants. Unfortunately, Gustaf has taken ill with a sexually transmitted disease and the cure will take too long; the wedding would be threatened and with it, Bismark's plans. Enter Flashman, who will impersonate Gustaf temporarily. Harry suspects there's more to this than what he's been told, but he has little choice to go along with the plot.
I enjoyed the very first book in this series, but I like this one even more. The book Flashman is a bit more episodic, while Royal Flash has more of a single plot, allowing a better narrative flow. A wonderful blend of history and satire, Royal Flash will continue to entertain those who found the very first book a pleasure.
Rated by buyers -
One bloody narrow escape after another! Flashman, Aubrey/Maturin, Jack Bauer! It must be atavistic, the thrill I feel from them, hormonally encrypted by my neanderthal evolution! Plus Flashman comes with 'entremeses' of lechery between the entrees of fish and foul!
If you are so much as considering RoyaL Flash, you should - you must - have read the very first of the series, titled simply Flashman. If you haven't, I'll tell you only that Harry Flashman is the most cynical craven con-man to slither through historical fiction since the picaresque adventures of Lazarillo de Tormes. Wny it's almost plausible that such a scoundrel might have skulked in the crevices of history, playing a necessary but unrecorded role! And you may be sure that nearly all the historical allusions and settings of the Flashman books are quite authentic. In Royal Flash, our anti-hero's opponent is none other than Otto von Bismark; I'm dead certain that anyone who read RF before the age of 25 would never be able to conceptualize Bismark other than as portrayed by George MacDonald Fraser.
This second book of the Flashman Papers takes a good thirty pages to build up speed, but then it's.... one bloody narrow escape after another, as our Harry lucks out against the blondest blue-eyed beasts all Germany can muster, without ever being forced to act courageously.
Read it! You know you can't resist! If you've come this far, you're doomed to read them all.
Rated by buyers -
" 'I have every confidence in de Gautet,' says Bismarck. 'With a sabre he can split a fly on the wing.'
I was listening to them appalled; these two monsters calmly discussing the best means of giving me a slashed head. If there is one thing I can't endure, it is pain, and the thought of cold steel slicing into my skull nearly made me swoon." - Flashman commenting on a casual conversation between Otto von Bismarck and Rudi von Starnberg (ROYAL FLASH)
Once again, Harry finds himself at the mercy of his tormentors. Having been tricked by a vengeful Lola Montez to travel from England to Munich, the capital of Bavaria, Flashy finds himself the center of a plot by Prussian Count Otto von Bismarck to annex the provinces of Schleswig and Holstein, claimed by both Denmark and Germany, thus unifying a fragmented confederation of German states into what will eventually become modern day Germany. In order to do this, old nemesis Otto forces our cowardly and unwilling anti-hero to assume the identity of Danish Prince Carl Gustav, who bears an uncanny resemblance (sans capital hair and mustaches) to himself. The only things missing to make the disguise perfect are two "schlager" scars on his head. A schlager is a long sword with a large handguard that was used by German university students to inflict fashionable scars on each other's face or head when dueling. Anyway, our lovable rogue assumes the role of the imprisoned prince and through bluff and fear for his life weds the beautiful Irma, Duches of Strackenz, and...well, I won't give the good stuff away. If the plot of this, the second packet of the "Flashman Papers", sounds suspiciously like Anthony Hope's Victorian adventure novel THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, it's because Hope took the idea for his literary romance from Flashy's "real-life experiences."
This is a rollicking good adventure and one true Flashmaniacs will enjoy reading again and again. I highly recommend ROYAL FLASH, but suggest readers unfamiliar with the humorously faint-hearted exploits of Harry Flashman, Esq. very first read FLASHMAN (Packet # 1 of the "Flashman Papers").
Rated by buyers 
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Given that my introduction to the Flashmen series almost coincided with the tragic (although not unexpected) death of George Macdonald Frasier I have made it my news years resolution to let people know about his (mostly) wonderful books.
They wouldn't be good without the main character Sir Harry Flashman VC; who without ever really meaning to became the most highly decorated solider of the Victorian Era. This is all of course just a byproduct of his attempts to save his own worthless hide, with the reader cheering him all the while. They are also outstanding in their great attention to historical accuracy backed up with a large amount of footnotes.
This particular installment "Royal Flash " involves a particular set of circumstances (seems like a pattern) whereby Flash leaves London and is asked to do what only he can do best impersonate a Danish Prince so the German state can be founded. This is to be facilitated by Flash and the actions of one Otto Von Bismark. I don't understand it myself out of the seven Flashman books I have read up to this point this is my least favorite. While it is all well and good to see Harry Flashman lording it over people who have to obey his every command nothing really happens in the very first part of the book. The prose and the sardonic humour are still excellent but that doesn't make up for a ponderous plot.
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