ROYAL FLASH: FROM THE FLASHMAN PAPERS 1842-3 AND 1847-8. Edited and arranged by George MacDonald Fraser. 257 pages. Knopf. $5.95.
It will be remembered, perhaps reluctantly, how in the first volume of his monstrously entertaining mock memoirs, published last year, Harry Flashman employed his talents as a poltroon and bully to escape the general slaughter of the First Afghan War (1841) and returned to London an apparent hero. Now that we have another installment to hand, Flashman and his clever "editor," George MacDonald Fraser, must be credited with escape from a rather different but no less dire fate. The second book is practically as good as his first.
As before, Fraser deserves a large part of the praise. With a clear head and a strong stomach, he footnotes Flashman's route into and (just barely) out of that Dismal Swamp of 19th century diplomacy, the Schleswig-Holstein Question. Of this, Britain's great Foreign Minister Lord Palmerston is supposed to have remarked that it was understood by only three people—one died, one went mad thinking about it, and the third, Pam himself, never could remember the answer.
Flashman I gained most of its horrid strength from historical plausibility (enough to fool a number of reviewers into taking the memoirs as true, thus missing the joke). Royal Flash, however, is as contrived as a Victorian thriller. There is a highly significant passing mention of The Prisoner of Zenda. The plot hinges painfully on Flashman's uncanny physical resemblance to a Prince Carl Gustaf of Denmark (the main differences between them being that the prince was bald and had scars on his face, while Flashman's hair was abundant and his scars were on his rear), and involves swordplay, dirty fighting, torture, fraudulent marriage, blackmail and what Flashman calls "dancing the mattress quadrille." But then, our hero of necessity bumps into the odd historical personage along the way, too—Lola Montez, Bismarck, Karl Marx.
Where Flashman will turn up next hardly bears thinking on. Editor Fraser notes a tantalizing four-year gap in the middle of the present book, which will presumably be filled later. With what? Was Flashman attending the French invasion of Papeete? Helping negotiate the Treaty of Wanghia? Moving West with the Mormons? Tune in next year.
· Charles Elliott