Flashman and the Dragon

Flashman and the Dragon is a 1985

The Guardian said the book was "as buoyant as ever".^[1]

Plot introduction

Presented within the frame of the supposedly discovered historical Flashman Papers, this book describes the bully Flashman from Tom Brown's School Days. The papers are attributed to Flashman, who is not only the bully featured in Thomas Hughes' novel, but also a well-known Victorian military hero. The book begins with an explanatory note detailing the discovery of these papers.

The present novel takes place shortly after Flashman's service with

• James Hope Grant
  - British general and commander of the British forces during the Second Opium War. Flashman says, "He wasn't much of a general; it was notorious he'd never read a line outside the Bible; he was so inarticulate he could barely utter any order but 'Charge!'; his notions of discipline were to flog anything that moved...But none of this mattered in the least because, you see, Hope Grant was the best fighting man in the world."
• Frederick Townsend Ward - American soldier of fortune and initial commander of the Ever Victorious Army. Flashman tries to shoot him at one point, but later says, "while Gordon finished the Taiping business, it was young happy-go-lucky Fred who broke the ground for him."
• Hong Xiuquan - Founder and leader of the Taiping Rebellion, referred to as Hung Hsiu-chuan. Flashman meets him at a time when his mind has deteriorated from excess debauchery, and refers to him as a "raving, dangerous, dreadful madman, and one of the most diabolical powers ever loosed on a suffering world."
• Harry Smith Parkes
  - British diplomat
• Admiral of the Fleet
  .
• Garnet Joseph Wolseley - British army officer on Hope Grant's staff in China.
• Charles Montauban - Commander of the French forces during the Second Opium War.
• Lord Elgin - High Commissioner to China and the ambassador whose job it was to go to Peking and see that the Treaty of Tientsin was honoured. He was also responsible for the destruction of the Summer Palace, which was vilified by many as an uncivilised act of vandalism. Flashman, however, liked him and called him, "the shrewdest diplomatic of his day, hard as a hammer and subtle as a Spaniard." Flashman sees the destruction of the Summer Palace as a way of punishing the cruel and decadent court rather than the populace.
• John Moyse - the "Private of the Buffs" who refuses to kow-tow to a local mandarin. Flashman has no such scruples.
• Dighton Probyn - British cavalry officer, decorated with Victoria Cross.
• Li Xiucheng - Military commander of the Taiping Rebellion, referred to as Loyal Prince Li. Flashman says he could "feel the force that had brought him in ten years from apprentice charcoal-burner and private soldier to the third place in the Taiping hierarchy...It was there, in the cold soft voice and hard unwinking eyes; he was a fanatic of course, and a formidable one."
• Chen Yucheng
• Hong Rengan - cousin of Hong Xiuquan and Prime Minister of the Taiping movement, referred to as Hung Jen-Kan. Flashman calls him an "extraordinary man".
• Charles George Gordon - British army officer; Flashman meets him briefly during the destruction of the Summer Palace.
• Henry Loch
  - Secretary to Lord Elgin.
• Felice Beato - A semi-official photographer to the British forces of the expedition.
• Prince Yi
• Sushun
• Sengge Rinchen - Mongol general leading the Manchu forces, referred to as Sang Kol-in-sen.
• The Xianfeng Emperor - Eighth emperor of the
  Manchu
  Qing Dynasty, referred to as Emperor Hsienfeng.
• Empress Dowager Ci'an
• Rani Lakshmi Bai. She was also one of the three most beautiful people in the world according to Flashman, the other two being Lola Montez
  and Elspeth.
• The Tongzhi Emperor
• Prince Gong
• Triad
  .

References