Imatge de l'autor

George MacDonald Fraser (1925–2008)

Autor/a de Flashman

50+ obres 17,843 Membres 338 Ressenyes 115 preferits

Sobre l'autor

Author George MacDonald Fraser was born April 2, 1925 in Carlisle. He was refused entrance to the medical faculty of Glasgow University, so he joined the army in 1943. He served as an infantryman with the 17th Indian Division of the XIVth Army in Burma, a lance corporal and was commissioned in the mostra'n més Gordon Highlanders. After the war, he became a sports reporter with the Carlisle Journal; and during this time, he met and married Kathleen Hetherington, a reporter from another paper. He worked as a reporter and sub-editor on the Cumberland News and then moved to Glasgow, in 1953, where he worked at the Glasgow Herald as a features editor and deputy editor. Fraser's first novel was "Flashman" (1969), which was followed by nine sequels, so far, that deal with different venues of the 19th century ranging from Russia, Borneo and China to the Great Plains of the America West. Some of the other titles in the Flashman Papers are "Royal Flash" (1970), "Flashman in the Great Game" (1975), "Flashman and the Redskins" (1982), and "Flashman and the Angel of the Lord" (1994). Some of his non-fiction work includes "The Steel Bonnets" (1971), which is a factual study of the Anglo-Scottish border thieves in the seventeenth century, and "Quartered Safe Out Here" (1992). Fraser has also written a number of screenplays that include "The Three Musketeers" (1973), "Royal Flash" (1975), "Octopussy" (1983), and "Return of the Musketeers" (1989). He has also written a series of short stories about Private McAuslan whose titles include "The General Danced at Dawn" (1970), "McAuslan in the Rough" (1974), and "The Sheik and the Dustbin and other McAuslan Stories" (1988). He died of cancer on January 2, 2008. (Bowker Author Biography) mostra'n menys
Nota de desambiguació:

(eng) 1. George MacDonald Fraser (CK info above) wrote Flashman.
2. George MacDonald (1824-1905) wrote At the Back of the North Wind.
George Milne Fraser is a separate author. Please do not combine.

Sèrie

Obres de George MacDonald Fraser

Flashman (1969) 2,648 exemplars
Royal Flash (1970) 1,412 exemplars
Flashman at the Charge (1973) 1,172 exemplars
Flash for Freedom! (1971) 1,113 exemplars
Flashman's Lady (1977) 1,105 exemplars
Flashman in the Great Game (1975) 1,096 exemplars
Flashman and the Redskins (1982) 950 exemplars
Flashman and the Dragon (1985) 919 exemplars
Flashman and the Tiger (1999) 833 exemplars
Flashman on the March (2005) 805 exemplars
Quartered Safe Out Here (1993) 599 exemplars
The Pyrates (1983) 564 exemplars
The Reavers (2007) 300 exemplars
Mr. American (1980) 284 exemplars
Black Ajax (1997) 270 exemplars
The General Danced at Dawn (1970) 217 exemplars
The Complete McAuslan (1970) 215 exemplars
The Candlemass Road (1993) 184 exemplars
McAuslan in the Rough (1974) 144 exemplars
The Sheikh and the Dustbin (1988) 108 exemplars
Lights on at Signpost (2002) 79 exemplars
Captain in Calico (2015) 68 exemplars
The Three Musketeers [1973 film] (1973) — Screenwriter — 53 exemplars
Flashman / Royal Flash (1969) 29 exemplars
World of the Public School (1977) 14 exemplars
Modern Short Stories 2: 1940-1980 (1982) — Col·laborador — 12 exemplars
Royal Flash [1975 film] (2007) — Screenwriter — 10 exemplars
The Return of the Musketeers [1989 film] (1989) — Screenwriter — 6 exemplars
Flashman 5 exemplars
Royal Flash II (1997) 3 exemplars
A Quick Flashman (2005) 2 exemplars
Levemand til hest 1 exemplars
Crossed Swords 1 exemplars
FLASHMAN OMNIBUS 1 exemplars

Obres associades

The Penguin Book of War (1999) — Col·laborador — 450 exemplars
The Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard (1910) — Introducció, algunes edicions227 exemplars
The White Company / Sir Nigel (1994) — Introducció, algunes edicions84 exemplars
The Mammoth Book of Sword and Honour (2000) — Col·laborador — 51 exemplars
A Feast of Stories (1996) — Col·laborador — 14 exemplars

Etiquetat

Coneixement comú

Nom normalitzat
Fraser, George MacDonald
Nom oficial
Fraser, George MacDonald
Data de naixement
1925-04-02
Data de defunció
2008-01-02
Gènere
male
Nacionalitat
UK
Lloc de naixement
Carlisle, Cumbria, England, UK
Lloc de defunció
Strang, Isle of Man
Llocs de residència
Isle of Man
Carlisle, England, UK (birth)
Educació
The Glasgow Academy, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Professions
soldier (British Army)
journalist
editor
screenwriter
novelist
Relacions
Fraser, Caro (daughter)
Hetherington, Kathleen (wife)
Organitzacions
British Army (WWII)
Glasgow Herald
Premis i honors
Officer, Order of the British Empire (1999)
Fellow, Royal Society of Literature (1998)
Biografia breu
George MacDonald Fraser OBE FRSL (2 April 1925 – 2 January 2008) was a Scottish author who wrote historical novels, non-fiction books and several screenplays. He is best known for a series of works that featured the character Flashman.
Nota de desambiguació
1. George MacDonald Fraser (CK info above) wrote Flashman.
2. George MacDonald (1824-1905) wrote At the Back of the North Wind.
George Milne Fraser is a separate author. Please do not combine.

Membres

Converses

George MacDonald Fraser a Legacy Libraries (juliol 2014)

Ressenyes

First published in 1969, the humorous ripping yarn style story would surely never get published these days, which I found very refreshing. It's great to read a story unconstrained by modern political correctness. I found the storyline entertaining bit somewhat predictable and also found it hard to be very much concerned with the journey of the anti-hero who is unashamedly a liar, coward, cheat, misogynist, racist and imperialist! Another plus, is this historical fiction gives a good insight into the era and the events surrounding the first afghan war.
While this book is the first tin a 12 book series, I think one was all I will fi time to read.
… (més)
 
Marcat
Daniel_M_Oz | Hi ha 65 ressenyes més | Feb 25, 2024 |
For starters, Harry Flashman is expelled from school as a drunken bully. After seducing his father's mistress, he begins a secret life that leads from the boudoirs and bordellos of Victorian England to the erotic frontiers of her exotic Empire. Along the way he lies, cheats, steals, fights fixed duels, betrays his country and proves a coward on the battlefield.

Let's face it: Flashman is not really a nice guy. He's a bully, a coward, a rapist, a racist and a drunk. His survival instinct means that he manages to get out of scrapes that can (and does) kill everyone around him. People around him mistake his cowardice, and resulting survival against all odds, as some form of heroism.

Kicked out of Rugby, and having been blackmailed from one regiment to the next after marrying one of his conquests, he ends up in Afghanistan in the late 19th century - at a time when the British are to make one of their more ignoble retreats back to India. Whole regiments are slaugtered around Flashman, due in no small part to the incompitence of the officers around him. [written in 1969, decades before 9/11, this is a fictional illustration of why the West will never win in Afghanistan and would be lucky to come out with a draw].

Did get a bit bored with the tediously long chapters and the constant battles, so not sure I'd like to read a sequel.
… (més)
 
Marcat
nordie | Hi ha 65 ressenyes més | Oct 14, 2023 |
Nihilistic pulp of limited merit or use. Knowledgeably & well enough written, but we read adventure novels notably for the vicarious delight of seeing a hero (= imagining ourselves) “take charge” against hostile situations which threaten him on the most existential level. So it’s *very* blue-balling, & quickly repetitive - after some early chapters’ amusement, yes - to have patiently to read through the very opposite actions again & again.

Two satisfying exceptions: The snake pit, where the protagonist (having no choice) shows himself unusually resolute & lethal. & the ending, where he suffers some subtly crafted & humorous consequences for his overall behaviour via two final - cushy, but irreversibly humiliating - developments.

Still. Hardly time optimally spent.

[Edit: Months later, I'm still annoyed I let the hype lure time away from me on this book. I'm no feminist or pearl-clutching social crusader, nor should it be anyone's role to patrol literature - only to exert hygiene on what one personally ingests. He can say n****** & be imperialist all he likes, it's in character. Likewise, his rape of a concubine offered to him as political gift is at least narratively necessary for her subsequent revenge. But I drew an instant private discomfort line at his multiple woman-beatings (plus more rapes for good measure). Speaking *strictly* personally, I dislike wasting limited reading hours on an (even anti-) hero like that. & deepest down - he's said as much in later comments - the author never *really* considered him an ANTIhero, did he.

So let's at least stop pretending that part. Either one finds a malevolent yellow-soldier, whose only martial assaults are on the defenceless, somehow exciting & fun - or one looks for the plenty of better pulp entertainment elsewhere.]
… (més)
 
Marcat
SkjaldOfBorea | Hi ha 65 ressenyes més | Jul 30, 2023 |

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Elizabeth Bowen Contributor
Doris Lessing Contributor
Muriel Spark Contributor
R. K. Narayan Contributor
William Trevor Contributor
Jean Rhys Contributor
David Watkin Director of photography
Alexandre Dumas père Original novel
Ilya Salkind Producer
Anthony Hope Contributor
Arthur Conan Doyle Contributor
P.C. Wren Contributor
Stanley Weyman Contributor
H. Rider Haggard Contributor
Gino D'Achille Cover artist
David Case Narrator
Arthur Barbosa Cover artist
Mogens Boisen Translator
Colin Mace Narrator
Wolfgang Proll Translator
Ken Lewis Maps, Illustrator
Ute Tanner Translator
Frank Frazetta Cover artist
Janet Odgis Cover designer
Timothy West Narrator
Henriette Bese Translator
Melissa Jacoby Cover designer
Herbert Schuster Translator
Archie Ferguson Cover designer
Chip Kidd Cover designer

Estadístiques

Obres
50
També de
5
Membres
17,843
Popularitat
#1,233
Valoració
3.9
Ressenyes
338
ISBN
448
Llengües
10
Preferit
115

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