Flashman and the Angel of the Lord
Encyclopedia
Flashman and the Angel of the Lord is a 1994 novel
by George MacDonald Fraser
. It is the tenth of the Flashman
novels.
. 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 immediately after Flashman in the Great Game
and before Flashman and the Dragon
. It details Flashman's involvement with John Brown
and his raid on Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, from 1858 to 1859.
ed husband can find him. He proceeds to South Africa
, where by a chance meeting he reunites with John Charity Spring (whom he had worked for as a slaver in Flash for Freedom!
and seen shanghaied in Flashman and the Redskins
). Spring uses his daughter, Miranda, and her feminine wiles to have Flashman drugged and sent to the United States, where charges against
his old aliases still exist. Flashman manages to avoid the authorities, but Crixus (one of the chiefs of the Underground Railroad
from Flash for Freedom!) finds him and tries to convince him to join John Brown's attempt to start a slave rebellion. One of Crixus' followers, a black man named Joe Simmons, actually works for the Kuklos, a possible forerunner of the Ku Klux Klan
. They also want Flashman to help Brown, but in order to start a civil war. One last doublecross exists: the wife of the leader of the Kuklos works for Allan Pinkerton
, who brings Flashman to meet William H. Seward
. Seward, considered by many at that time to be the next President of the United States, also wants Flashman to join with Brown, but to slow him down and prevent the raid into the South from ever happening, and therefore prevent civil war.
Of course Flashman fails at this, and he becomes an eyewitness to the whole event.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by George MacDonald Fraser
George MacDonald Fraser
George MacDonald Fraser, OBE was an English-born author of Scottish descent, who wrote both historical novels and non-fiction books, as well as several screenplays.-Early life and military career:...
. It is the tenth of the Flashman
Harry Paget Flashman
Sir Harry Paget Flashman VC KCB KCIE is a fictional character created by George MacDonald Fraser , but based on the character "Flashman" in Tom Brown's Schooldays , a semi-autobiographical work by Thomas Hughes ....
novels.
Plot introduction
Presented within the frame of the supposedly discovered historical Flashman Papers, this book describes the bully Flashman from Tom Brown's SchooldaysTom Brown's Schooldays
Tom Brown's Schooldays is a novel by Thomas Hughes. The story is set at Rugby School, a public school for boys, in the 1830s; Hughes attended Rugby School from 1834 to 1842...
. The papers are attributed to Flashman, who is not only the bully featured in Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes was an English lawyer and author. He is most famous for his novel Tom Brown's Schooldays , a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. It had a lesser-known sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford .- Biography :Hughes was the second son of John Hughes, editor of...
' 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 immediately after Flashman in the Great Game
Flashman in the Great Game
Flashman in the Great Game is a 1975 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. It is the fifth of the Flashman novels.-Plot introduction:Presented within the frame of the supposedly discovered historical Flashman Papers, this book describes the bully Flashman from Tom Brown's Schooldays...
and before Flashman and the Dragon
Flashman and the Dragon
Flashman and the Dragon is a 1985 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. It is the eighth of the Flashman novels.-Plot introduction:Presented within the frame of the supposedly discovered historical Flashman Papers, this book describes the bully Flashman from Tom Brown's Schooldays...
. It details Flashman's involvement with John Brown
John Brown (abolitionist)
John Brown was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the...
and his raid on Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, from 1858 to 1859.
Plot summary
At the start of the novel, Flashman leaves Calcutta before the wrath of a cuckoldCuckold
Cuckold is a historically derogatory term for a man who has an unfaithful wife. The word, which has been in recorded use since the 13th century, derives from the cuckoo bird, some varieties of which lay their eggs in other birds' nests...
ed husband can find him. He proceeds to South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, where by a chance meeting he reunites with John Charity Spring (whom he had worked for as a slaver in Flash for Freedom!
Flash for Freedom!
Flash for Freedom! is a 1971 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. It is the third of the Flashman novels.- Plot introduction :Presented within the frame of the supposedly discovered historical Flashman Papers, this book describes the bully Flashman from Tom Brown's Schooldays...
and seen shanghaied in Flashman and the Redskins
Flashman and the Redskins
Flashman and the Redskins is a 1982 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. It is the seventh of the Flashman novels.-Plot introduction:Presented within the frame of the supposed discovery of a trunkful of papers detailing the long life and career of a Victorian officer, this series centres around...
). Spring uses his daughter, Miranda, and her feminine wiles to have Flashman drugged and sent to the United States, where charges against
his old aliases still exist. Flashman manages to avoid the authorities, but Crixus (one of the chiefs of the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
from Flash for Freedom!) finds him and tries to convince him to join John Brown's attempt to start a slave rebellion. One of Crixus' followers, a black man named Joe Simmons, actually works for the Kuklos, a possible forerunner of the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
. They also want Flashman to help Brown, but in order to start a civil war. One last doublecross exists: the wife of the leader of the Kuklos works for Allan Pinkerton
Allan Pinkerton
Allan Pinkerton was a Scottish American detective and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.-Early life, career and immigration:...
, who brings Flashman to meet William H. Seward
William H. Seward
William Henry Seward, Sr. was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...
. Seward, considered by many at that time to be the next President of the United States, also wants Flashman to join with Brown, but to slow him down and prevent the raid into the South from ever happening, and therefore prevent civil war.
Of course Flashman fails at this, and he becomes an eyewitness to the whole event.
Fictional characters
- Flashman - The hero or anti-heroAnti-heroIn fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
- John Charity Spring
- Miranda Spring
- Joe Simmons
- Crixus
- Annette Mandeville
- Charles La Force
- Mrs. Popplewell
Historical characters
- Julia Ward HoweJulia Ward HoweJulia Ward Howe was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, and poet, most famous as the author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".-Biography:...
- Future writer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Flashman meets her at a party and calls her "a spanking little red-head with a sharp eye." - John BrownJohn Brown (abolitionist)John Brown was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the...
- One of the title characters, Brown was considered to be either a hero or a scoundrel, depending on whose view of history one is reading. As far as Flashman was concerned, he usually disliked anyone that nearly got him killed, and he says, "he was a sincere, worthy, autocratic, good-natured, terrible, dangerous old zealot, hard as nails, iron-willed, brave beyond belief, and possessed of all the muscular ChristianMuscular ChristianityMuscular Christianity is a term for a movement originating during the Victorian era which stressed the need for energetic Christian activism in combination with an ideal of vigorous masculinity...
virtues which I can't stand." Later Flashman says, "there's a case to be made for saying he was the most evil influence ever let loose in North America." Despite all this, Flashman clearly liked the man, and he even saves Brown's life towards the end. - George Edward GreyGeorge Edward GreySir George Grey, KCB was a soldier, explorer, Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Governor of Cape Colony , the 11th Premier of New Zealand and a writer.-Early life and exploration:...
- Governor of Cape ColonyCape ColonyThe Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...
. - Allan PinkertonAllan PinkertonAllan Pinkerton was a Scottish American detective and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.-Early life, career and immigration:...
- Scottish born detective. - William H. SewardWilliam H. SewardWilliam Henry Seward, Sr. was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...
- United States Senator. Flashman says he was "civil, pleasant, easy - and the most vicious arm-twister I ever struck". - Franklin Benjamin SanbornFranklin Benjamin SanbornFranklin Benjamin Sanborn was an American journalist, author, and reformer. Sanborn was a social scientist, and a memorialist of American transcendentalism who wrote early biographies of many of the movement's key figures...
- Member of the Secret SixSecret SixThe Secret Six, or the Secret Committee of Six, were six wealthy and influential men who secretly funded the American abolitionist, John Brown. They were Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Samuel Gridley Howe, Theodore Parker, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, Gerrit Smith, and George Luther Stearns...
. - Henry WilsonHenry WilsonHenry Wilson was the 18th Vice President of the United States and a Senator from Massachusetts...
- United States Senator - Samuel Gridley HoweSamuel Gridley HoweSamuel Gridley Howe was a nineteenth century United States physician, abolitionist, and an advocate of education for the blind.-Early life and education:...
- Member of the Secret Six. - George Luther StearnsGeorge Luther StearnsGeorge Luther Stearns was an American industrialist and merchant, as well as a noted recruiter of blacks for the Union Army during the American Civil War.-Biography:...
- Member of the Secret Six. - John Henrie Kagi - "Secretary of War" to Brown.
- Dangerfield NewbyDangerfield NewbyDangerfield Newby was the oldest of John Brown's raiders, one of five black raiders, and the first of his men to die at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Born a slave in Fauquier County, Virginia, Newby married a woman also enslaved. Newby was later freed by his Scottish father, but his wife and seven...
- One of John Brown's raiders. - Barclay CoppockBarclay CoppockEdwin Coppock, Barclay's brother, redirects here.Barclay Coppock was a follower of John Brown and a Union Army soldier in the American Civil War. Along with his brother Edwin Coppock , he participated in Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry...
- One of John Brown's raiders. - Frederick DouglassFrederick DouglassFrederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
- Escaped slave and abolitionist. Brown meets him with Flashman in tow in order to convince him to join the raid. Flashman describes him as "altogether white in speech and style, but I doubt if he knew it or cared; he had a fine sense of his own dignity, which would have irked me whatever colour he was". - J.E.B. StuartJ.E.B. StuartJames Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart was a U.S. Army officer from Virginia and a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb", from the initials of his given names. Stuart was a cavalry commander known for his mastery of reconnaissance and the use...
- Robert E. Lee's aide-de-camp at Harper's Ferry. - Henry A. WiseHenry A. WiseHenry Alexander Wise was an American politician and governor of Virginia, as well as a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.-Early life:...
- Governor of Virginia.