Flashman and the Dragon

Author	George MacDonald Fraser
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Historical novel
Publisher	HarperCollins
Released	1986
Media Type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	320 pp (paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-00-721721-8
Preceded by	Flashman and the Redskins
Followed by	Flashman and the Mountain of Light

Flashman and the Dragon is a 1986 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. It is the eighth of the Flashman novels. Image File history File links FlashmanandtheDragoncover. ... George MacDonald Fraser (born 1926 in Carlisle, England) is a writer of Scottish descent. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A historical novel is a novel in which the story is set among historical events, or more generally, in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the author. ... Collins was a Scottish printing company founded by a Presbyterian schoolmaster, William Collins, in Glasgow in 1819, in partnership with Charles Chalmers, the younger brother of Thomas Chalmers, minister of Tron Church, Glasgow. ... A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) book is bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth or heavy paper) and a stitched spine. ... Paperback may refer to a kind of book binding by which papers are simply folded without cloth or leather and bound - usually with glue rather than stitches or staples - into a thick paper cover; or to a book with this type of binding. ... Flashman and the Redskins is a 1982 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. ... Flashman and the Mountain of Light is a 1991 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. ... Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... George MacDonald Fraser (born 1926 in Carlisle, England) is a writer of Scottish descent. ... Cover of Flashman Book Cover: Flash For Freedom ! Brigadier-General Sir Harry Paget Flashman V.C. K.C.B. is a fictional character originally created by the author Thomas Hughes in his semi-autobiographical work Tom Browns Schooldays, first published in 1857. ...

Plot introduction

Presented within the frame of the supposedly discovered historical Flashman Papers, this book describes the bully Flashman from Tom Brown's Schooldays. 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. Cover of 1999 re-issue by Oxford Worlds Classics Tom Browns Schooldays, first published in 1857, is a novel by Thomas Hughes, set at a public school, Rugby School for Boys, in the 1830s when Hughes himself had been a student there. ... A statue of Thomas Hughes at Rugby School For the recipient of the Victoria Cross see Thomas Hughes, VC Thomas Hughes (October 20, 1822 – March 22, 1896) was an English lawyer and author. ...

The present novel takes place shortly after Flashman's service with John Brown in the United States (detailed in Flashman and the Angel of the Lord). There is no explanation as to how he ends up in Hong Kong, but it is from here that he begins his adventures in China. Flashman meets both the leaders of the Taiping Rebellion and members of the Qing Dynasty who resisted the British march to Pekin in 1860 - part of the Second Opium War. John Browns Oath Engraving from daguerreotype by Augustus Washington, ca. ... Flashman and the Angel of the Lord is a 1996 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. ... Combatants Qing Empire Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Commanders Xianfeng Emperor, Empress Dowager Cixi, Zeng Guofan (military) Hong Xiuquan, Li Xiucheng (military) Seal of the Heavenly Kingdom The Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864) was perhaps the bloodiest civil war in human history, a clash between the forces of the Qing Empire in China... The Qing Dynasty (Chinese: 清朝; Pinyin: Qīng cháo; Wade-Giles: Ching chao; Manchu: daicing gurun), sometimes known as the Manchu Dynasty, was a dynasty founded by the Manchu clan Aisin Gioro, in what is today northeast China, expanded into China and the surrounding territories, establishing the Empire... Beijing (Chinese: ; pinyin: Běijīng; ; IPA: ), a city in northern China (formerly spelled in English as Peking or Peiking), is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ... The Second Opium War or Arrow War was a war of the United Kingdom and France against the Qing Dynasty of China from 1856 to 1860. ...

Plot summary

In Hong Kong, Flashman is convinced by Phoebe Carpenter, a lovely minister's wife, to take a shipment of opium into Canton, with the promise of a later, more pleasant meeting. On the way he discovers that instead of opium he is carrying guns to the Taiping rebels. In Canton, Flashman manages to convince Harry Smith Parkes that he was trying to stop the shipment. However, instead of being able to head for home as he originally intended, he is put on the intelligence staff in Shanghai. From Shanghai he travels to Nanking and meets the leaders of the Taiping rebels, in order to convince them not to march on Shanghai. Opium is a narcotic analgesic drug which is obtained from the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L. or the synonym paeoniflorum). ... (Simplified Chinese: 广州; Traditional Chinese: 廣州; pinyin: GuÇŽngzhōu; Wade-Giles: Kuang-chou; Postal System Pinyin: Canton) is the capital of Guangdong Province in southern China. ... Sir Harry Smith Parkes (1828 - 1885) was a 19th century British diplomat who worked mainly in China and Japan. ... Shanghai (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Shanghainese: ), stuated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta in East China, is the largest city of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Nanjing (南京, Pinyin: Nánjīng, Wade-Giles: Nan-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Nanking, formerly Jinling 金陵, Jiangning 江宁, and Tianjing 天京) is the central city of downstream Yangtze Basin and is a renowned historical and cultural city. ...

Flashman then proceeds to the mouth of the Peiho to join Lord Elgin's staff for his march to Pekin. After being captured by the Imperials, he meets Xianfeng Emperor and becomes the prisoner and lover of Yehonala, the imperial concubine. At the end of the novel, he witnesses the destruction of the Summer Palace. Categories: China geography stubs | Chinese rivers ... James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine (July 20, 1811 – November 20, 1863) was a British colonial administrator and diplomat, best known as Governor General of the Province of Canada and Viceroy of India. ... The Xianfeng Emperor (July 17, 1831 - August 22, 1861) was the eighth emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty, and the seventh Qing emperor to rule over China, from 1850 to 1861. ... The Dowager Empress Cixi 慈禧皇太后 (Chinese: 太后那拉氏; Pinyin: Cíxǐ Tàιhòu; Wade-Giles: Tzu-Hsi) (November 29, 1835 – November 15, 1908), popularly known in China as the Western Empress Dowager (西太后), and officially known posthumously as Empress Xiao Qin Xian (孝钦显皇后), was a powerful and charismatic figure who was the de... A swampy marsh area ... The Summer Palace in Beijing. ...

Characters

Fictional characters

• Harry Paget Flashman - the hero or anti-hero
• Reverend Josiah Carpenter
• Mrs Phoebe Carpenter
• Szu-Zhan - member of the Provident Brave Butterfly Triad

In literature and film, an anti-hero is a central or supporting character that has some of the personality flaws and ultimate fortune traditionally assigned to villains but nonetheless also have enough heroic qualities or intentions to gain the sympathy of readers or viewers. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Historical characters

• 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
• John Arbuthnot Fisher - Midshipman when Flashman meets him on the Pearl River, but later Admiral of the Fleet
• Garnet Joseph Wolseley - 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 ambasador whose job it was to go to Pekin and see that the Treaty of Tientsin was honored. He was also responsible for the destruction of the Summer Palace, which was villified by many as an unciviled 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."
• 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".
• Ch'en Yu-ch'eng
• Charles George Gordon - Flashman meets him briefly during the destruction of the Summer Palace.
• Henry Loch - Secretary to Lord Elgin.
• Felice Beato
• Prince Yi
• Sushun
• Xianfeng Emperor - Eighth emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, referred to as Emperor Hsienfeng.
• Empress Dowager Ci'an
• Empress Dowager Cixi - Yehonala, the imperial concubine, when Flashman meets her. Flashman at one point refers to her as a monster, although he reconsiders and instead says, "With Yehonala everything was extreme; whatever she did was done with every fibre of her, and enjoyed with sensual intensity - whether it was nibbling a sugared walnut, or half-killing a partner in bed, or flaunting a new dress, or having an offender flogged nearly to death..." He later says she was one of three women he ever truly loved (excluding Elspeth), the other two being Lola Montez and Rani Lakshmi Bai.
• Tongzhi Emperor
• Prince Gong