![]() ![]() ![]() Now, if Thomas Hughes had written a sequel featuring the further adventures of Flashman, he’d either have reformed and become a pillar of the establishment, or else sunk into debauchery and died in the gutter. Harry is a liar, cheat, bully, coward, braggart and comes to a bad end, being soundly defeated by the noble and clean living Tom Brown. ![]() In Tom Brown’s School Days, the British boy’s book by Thomas Hughes, the villain of the piece is Harry Flashman. While I like my heroes to be heroic as much as the next romance fan, I have a big soft spot in my heart for Flashy, but I’d never let him know it – he’d probably sell me into a harem or some such trick. Flashy is the worst sort of cad, as he would tell you himself, and never reforms. You can’t say that about Sir Harry Flashman, the protagonist of George MacDonald Fraser’s series of historical novels set during the height of the Victorian Empire. The main characters in those books may act the anti-hero at times, but they are ultimately true heroes. Many romance readers enjoy historical fiction like Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles and Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey Maturin series (both series were reviewed at AAR). ![]()
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