- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; First Edition edition (1 Oct 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007253834
- ISBN-13: 978-0007253838
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.6 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 470,737 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
Praise for Flashman on the March: 'There is a little of Flashman in all of us -- but not enough.' Evening Standard 'The Flashman Papers do what all great sagas do -- winning new admirers along the way but never, ever betraying old ones. It is an immense achievement.' Sunday Telegraph 'In our crass, humourless, anaemic, politically correct age, there could be no better tonic or treat than the outrageous Flashy's bold descriptions of action in battle or bedroom. To relish George MacDonald Fraser is to rediscover the joy of reading.' Daily Telegraph 'Everything we expect from a Flashman adventure is here: lechery, double-crossing, real people, the epic poltroonery from which Flashman emerges as saviour of the hour!my one complaint about the series -- surely the great mock-historical romp of the past half-century -- is that MacDonald Fraser does not add to it often enough.' Mail on Sunday
Review
Praise for Flashman on the March:
'There is a little of Flashman in all of us – but not enough.' Evening Standard
'The Flashman Papers do what all great sagas do – winning new admirers along the way but never, ever betraying old ones. It is an immense achievement.' Sunday Telegraph
'In our crass, humourless, anaemic, politically correct age, there could be no better tonic or treat than the outrageous Flashy's bold descriptions of action in battle or bedroom. To relish George MacDonald Fraser is to rediscover the joy of reading.' Daily Telegraph
‘Everything we expect from a Flashman adventure is here: lechery, double-crossing, real people, the epic poltroonery from which Flashman emerges as saviour of the hour…my one complaint about the series – surely the great mock-historical romp of the past half-century – is that MacDonald Fraser does not add to it often enough.' Mail on Sunday
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I purchased this book a few weeks ago and was lucky enough to attend a book signing and get George Macdonald Fraser (yes, the great chap himself) to autograph my copy. Whilst waiting, I read most of the book (well, it was a long wait!). I was thinking at the time that most of his usual readers were not going to like this, and reading the two other reviews posted here on Amazon, it seems I was right.
However, I enjoyed it mightily.
I have read almost all his previous novels, and I am a huge fan of the Flashman series. And this is why I thought most people wouldn't like this one - it isn't historically accurate at all. It's more in the style of Robert Rankin. It is a sixteenth century novel full of twenty-first century references (and very modern and political ones at that - I don't think a lot of them will be understood ten years from now). But I did find it very amusing, and very clever. It does sit very much at odds with his other works, though.
Personally, I'd tell everyone to give it a read. It is funny and witty and enjoyable. Just don't go thinking it will be anything like his other books! Once you get past that way of thinking it does help.
However, I enjoyed it mightily.
I have read almost all his previous novels, and I am a huge fan of the Flashman series. And this is why I thought most people wouldn't like this one - it isn't historically accurate at all. It's more in the style of Robert Rankin. It is a sixteenth century novel full of twenty-first century references (and very modern and political ones at that - I don't think a lot of them will be understood ten years from now). But I did find it very amusing, and very clever. It does sit very much at odds with his other works, though.
Personally, I'd tell everyone to give it a read. It is funny and witty and enjoyable. Just don't go thinking it will be anything like his other books! Once you get past that way of thinking it does help.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Well, he's gone now, as of a day or two ago. George MacDonald Fraser, that is. Godspeed to him, he entertained us with his stellar writing and imagination through McAuslan, Flashy, and a host of other fictitious and semi-fictitious characters in his many memorable novels, and moved us and made us think in his various memoirs/opinion pieces such as the incomparable QUARTERED SAFE OUT HERE and the gleefully non-P.C. LIGHT'S ON AT SIGNPOST. This last book, THE REAVERS, revisits his CANDLEMASS ROAD territory, with a healthy dose of THE PYRATES-style out-of-time humor and crazed comic style. Obviously he wrote this for the sheer joy of it, taking one last romp through the loves and influences that had shaped his writer's life. I'm taking it as a last hail-fellow-well-met from one of the great English storytellers of the 20th century, and glad he had time to favor us with one more before he made his exit. Great writer, and a life well lived. I admired the guy, and what a legacy he leaves for the ages.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As noted in other reviews, this books is written in the same vein as "The Pyrates", a book I didn't much like. But this novel is hilarious! It had me laughing on every page. However, as has also been noted, most of the humour is topical. Consequently, this book will probably have the shortest shelf life of all GMF's novels. So if you are going to read it, and I recommend you do, do so soon.
Ironically, in the introduction GMF justifies this re-write of "The Candlemass Road" on the grounds that that book has faded into the past. In fact Candlemass could still be read and enjoyed in a hundred years when the jokes in "The Reavers" have become as obscure as those in Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost."
RIP GMF 2 January 2008
Ironically, in the introduction GMF justifies this re-write of "The Candlemass Road" on the grounds that that book has faded into the past. In fact Candlemass could still be read and enjoyed in a hundred years when the jokes in "The Reavers" have become as obscure as those in Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost."
RIP GMF 2 January 2008
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
a bit of fun
This book is not a typical flashman story. It is a chance for the author to make lots of jokes at the expense of modern and political ideas. Read more
Published 12 months ago by A. Browne
Ludicrously silly final work of a great comic writer
The late George MacDonald Fraser's final novel is nonsense from its' cliche beginning - "It was a dark and stormy night in Elizabethan England" to its' daft ending. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Marshall Lord
Another fantastic read by GMF
Loved the Flashman Papers,
Loved The Pyrates,
Loved The Reavers as well,
GMF can do no wrong for me, each book funnier than the last.
Loved The Pyrates,
Loved The Reavers as well,
GMF can do no wrong for me, each book funnier than the last.
Published 20 months ago by moogsmoot
Hard to read
Anyone who like me has an antipathy to 'comedy' accents represented phonetically in print should avoid this book. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Graham R. Hill
Avoid
I picked up this book with some enthusiasm as I have read and re-read GMF's Flashman work with great joy.
What a disappointment. Read more
What a disappointment. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Alistair Coleman
`It was a dark and stormy night in Elizabethan England ...'
Spoiled, arrogant, filthy rich and breathtakingly beautiful, the young Lady Godiva Dacre is exiled from the court of Good Queen Bess [who can't abide red-haired competition] to her... Read more
Published on 5 May 2010 by J. Cameron-Smith
Terrible disappointment
I'm a huge huge fan of the author - the Flashman books were fantastic, his memoirs and the McAuslan books I've read many times, and I loved Black Ajax. Read more
Published on 13 April 2010 by P. Sergeant
The Reavers
As a long time devotee to the works of GMF I was disappointed with this book. Whilst I appreciate GMF's humour and skill as a storyteller, I found this book frivolous and without... Read more
Published on 9 Aug 2009 by Mr. S. Mcmanus
Hugely disappointing
I'm a huge fan of the Flashman series so The Reavers was such a disappointment. The style was awful and the humour worse. It was dull, cluttered and confusing. Read more
Published on 17 Oct 2008 by P. Cavanagh
A Farcical Farewell
Like most others who will pick up this final book from Fraser, I am a longtime devotee of his Flashman series. Read more
Published on 18 Sep 2008 by A. Ross
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