This is one of those giggly books. The main character is so awful you can't help but laugh at him and dare I say, even like him a little for his brazen attitude. The premise is Flashman is the first installment of the "Flashman Papers 1839-1842" a sort of journal of Harry Flashman's. Readers get a taste of Harry's storytelling from the very start: British boy Harry Flashman manages to get himself drunk, expelled from school and into his father's mistress's bed in less than the first dozen pages. What first appears as a punishment for another indiscretionary roll in the hay ultimately becomes Harry's greatest triumph. He is sent to be a secret agent in Afghanistan and manages to emerge a brave hero after the Retreat from Kabul. Harry is so shameless he basks in the honor despite the fact his cowardice is the only thing that saved him. But, his story is told with such honest sarcasm you can't help but enjoy his villainy. ( )

If you like historical romance, hot women, horny British cowards with stiff upper lips, pistols at dawn, and mad cavalry charges into hopeless situations, you'll love Flashman.

George MacDonald Fraser was the finest composer of rum-and-strumpet history. Nobody now alive does it so well and it's possible that nobody will ever do it better. No fictitious hero is half so bad (which is really good) as Flash Harry. ( )

Memorable "memoir" of an incorrigible coward who in his haste to run away from danger as fast as he possibly can frequently ends up the bloodied and battered sole survivor who is taken for a hero. Most of the story takes place in Afghanistan, which doesn't seem to have changed much since 1842, when this story is set. I'm not sure I would call it "hilariously funny" as the blurb on the cover does--the violent parts are told in blood-curdling detail and it's also hard to laugh in the midst of the British Army's retreat from Afghanistan. ( )

My all time favourite anti-hero. The bastard you love to hate (and hate yourself for loving!). And why? Because probably in the midst of Upper-Middle class Victorian prudery, sanctemonious righteousness and hypocrisy, he turns out to be the most honest cads of all time. Learn about nineteenth century history from a historian, and all with that naughty flashy slant. Such a shame he died before all of the stories were told. (oh and because he taught me what 'poonts' were!) ( )

This series by George MacDonald Fraser has been on so many threads, and it is one which I would never have picked up on my own. I loved this man! He is rude, a self-proclaimed coward, and amazingly enough, an English hero by the time of the series based on his “papers.” Flashy is so unredeemly Politically Incorrect he is great fun to follow. I bought the first book after reading it and have sent it to my son for some post-graduation reading of non-correct, non-curriculum, non-economic books. I myself have the second book ready to open. ( )