History Literature / Flashman

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: General Elphinstone gets one, funnily enough. While he was every bit as incompetent as portrayed by Flashman, his decision to basically hand himself over to Akbar Khan during the retreat is portrayed as merely being an act of colossal stupidity. In reality, Elphinstone [[DirtyCoward was fully aware of how much of a disaster the retreat was and was consciously abandoning his men in the hope he would be treated well by the Afghans]].

* NobleSavage: Averted like all hell and mocked. Flashy finds them no better (but in many senses no worse) than the Europeans or the Americans, though he does admire individuals like the Yawner, [[spoiler: who would later become famous as Geronimo]], and Mangas Colorado. And [[NubileSavage Sonsee-array,]] [[TheCasanova of course.]]

* BloodBrothers: Ilderim Khan, a Pathan horseman, becomes this with Harry. Harry genuinely likes and admires the young man (after all, as he says, it takes a true coward to recognize courage), and is stunned to realize that [[spoiler:Ilderim was killed by rebels as a prisoner-of-war in the Sepoy Mutiny.]]
** Flashman also becomes a blood brother to Yakub Beg in ''Flashman at the Charge''.

** {{Subverted}} in "Flashman and the Tiger": [[spoiler:Flashman's about to pull one by killing Colonel Moran, only to realize he's being arrested for the murder of Ronald Adair]].

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler:John Sebastian Moran]] goes on one in ''Flashman and the Tiger'' against those who sold him into slavery, with victims including [[spoiler:John Charity Spring. Flashman]] is also targeted indirectly, which sets up the events of the story.

** An example stemming from DatedHistory: both ''Great Game'' and the previous book, ''Flashman at the Charge'', depict the Russian Empire as plotting to annexe British India. This was believed to be the case at the time the books were written, but modern-day historians believe that, while some invasion plans were drawn up, none of them were ever implemented and no serious invasion attempts were ever made. In contrast to this, ''Flashman at the Charge'' has the Russian plan to attack India via Afghanistan, in reality never put into effect, actually being carried out and only being failing thanks to Flashman and Yakub Beg, whereas ''Flashman in the Great Game'' has the Russians, specifically Nikolay Ignatyev, orchestrating the 1857 rebellion to undermine the British, which there is no evidence actually happened.

The ''Flashman'' novels by Creator/GeorgeMacDonaldFraser are a {{Picaresque}} series of adventures, starring Harry Flashman. They are presented as the memoirs of an infamous Victorian war hero who describes his adventures as a bully, rapist, lecher, backstabber, and [[DirtyCoward coward]]. The author had a fondness for RefugeInAudacity and strove to make his stories -- narrated by the eponymous rogue from the perspective of his comfortable retired life -- as deliciously offensive as possible.

The character Flashman is taken from the Victorian novel ''Literature/TomBrownsSchooldays'', where he is presented without any redeeming qualities. He has ''almost'' no redeeming qualities in Fraser's books either, except for crystal-clear powers of observation and real affection for his wife Elspeth and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In fact, these last two are the only categories of people in the world he's prepared to risk his own life for. Like his latter-day literary child Literature/CiaphasCain, there is the occasional indication that Flashy doth protest too much and is braver than he thinks he is -- but unlike Cain, even if this is the case, cowardice is only one aspect of the bullying, self-centered, and misogynistic Flashy's awfulness. Of course, given the many military catastrophes and disasters of the nineteenth-century British Empire, frequently in the situations Flashy finds himself in "being a coward" also counts as "being the OnlySaneMan" (certainly, a certain George Armstrong Custer should have retreated when Flashman advised it).

The novels are extremely well-researched, and Flashman encounters pretty much anyone who was famous during the Victorian times, as well as living through most of the great political movements and scandals of the era.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: InUniverse, ''Flashman and the Angel of the Lord'' gives two different views of John Brown. Crixus of the Underground Railroad views him as a straightforward hero, whereas Flashman views him as an insane KnightTemplar. Interestingly, Fraser himself seems to take a third view of Brown as a WellIntentionedExtremist who was neither straightforwardly heroic nor totally delusional.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: While Fraser is known for his careful research, he does occasionally slip. He portrays the Underground Railroad as much more organized and far-reaching than it was, and also invents a pre-1865 precursor of the UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan.

* AntiHero: Flashman is an UnscrupulousHero who cares only about himself and what he can get out of a situation.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Thomas Henry Kavanaugh is portrayed in ''Flashman in the Great Game'' as an incompetent bungler who got lost during his famous escape from Lucknow due to his own stubbornness and only made it to his destination because of Flashman's help. Lampshaded by Fraser, who suggests in the ending notes that Flashman [[UnreliableNarrator deliberately exaggerated]] Kavanaugh's negative qualities out of jealousy that his role in the escape didn't get as much recognition as Kavanaugh's.

* TheDitz: Flashman's wife, Elspeth. As far as he knows. She does show reserves of amazing fortitude, though: in Madagascar, fleeing from mad Queen Ravonalova, a searching guard steps on her finger and breaks it--and she doesn't even cry out. In ''Flashman and the Redskins'' Harry comments on his wife's 'cold courage'.

* BoldInflation: Queen Victoria emphasizes every fifth word or so with italics. ''Very'' much [[JustifiedTrope justified by real life]], as evinced by Victoria's diaries.

Not to be confused with ''Series/ChoushinseiFlashman''. Or the robot master from ''VideoGame/MegaMan2''.