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Arbite posted:So... should I tag in for a bit again? do it, imo
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# ? Oct 28, 2020 10:01 |
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# ? Apr 23, 2024 22:44 |
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[Oliver Twist voice] Please, may we have some more 19th century sociopath? We hunger greatly for more Flashman[/Oliver Twist voice]
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# ? Nov 6, 2020 20:14 |
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I'm sorry for leaving this thread sitting for so long, but I just haven't had the time or mood to sit down with Flashy lately. I'll try to remedy that this weekend.
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# ? Nov 6, 2020 21:44 |
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Selachian posted:I'm sorry for leaving this thread sitting for so long, but I just haven't had the time or mood to sit down with Flashy lately. I'll try to remedy that this weekend. No biggie. While I like this Flashman thread, it's not like we're paying you to do this. Do whatever you feel like doing whenever you feel like doing it. No pressure, really.
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# ? Nov 7, 2020 18:41 |
I'm just gonna give this a bump so it doesn't fall off the end of the forum.
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# ? Feb 10, 2021 13:22 |
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Alright, if I'm stuck in this country for another few months I'm going to get this jumpstarted again. quote:I had three days still left at Balmoral, and the first of them was spent closeted with Ellenborough and a sharp little creature from the Board of Control, who lectured me in maddening detail about my mission to Jhansi, and conditions in India I won't weary you with it here, for you'll learn about Jhansi and its attendant horrors and delights in due course. Sufficient to say it did nothing but deepen my misgivings and then, on the Wednesday morning, something happened which drove everything else clean out of my mind. At the center of a globe spanning empire which adores him, Flashy finds reason for terror. quote:The man on the steps, spruce in the rig of an English country gentleman, and now turning away into the castle, was the man I'd last seen beside the line of carrion gallows at Fort Raim the man Palmerston was sending me to India to defeat and kill: Count Nicholas Pavlevitch Ignatieff. This shock sends him storming right back to Ellenborough. quote:"I want an explanation of this, my lord," says I, "for I'll not believe it's chance." In no time it's confirmed. quote:"It's true," says he. "Count Ignatieff is here with Lord Aberdeen's party as a guest of the Queen. It seems you know we have Granville in Petersburg just now, for the new Tsar's coronation? Well, a party. of Russian noblemen the first since the war have just arrived in Leith yesterday, bringing messages of good will, or God knows what, from the new monarch to the Queen. Someone had written to Aberdeen I don't know it all yet and he brought them with him on his way north with this fellow among 'em. It's extraordinary! The damndest chance!" This is not nearly the last reference to unqualified administration over in India. Eventually Flashman calms down and prepares to visit the royal family. quote:I'd reminded myself that we weren't meeting on his ground any more, but on mine, and that the kind of power he'd once had over me was a thing quite past. Still, I won't pretend I was feeling at ease, and I'd drummed it into Elspeth's head that not a hint must be let slip about my ensuing departure for India, or Pam's visit. She took it in wide-eyed and assured me she would not dream of saying a word, but I realised with exasperation that you couldn't trust any warning to take root in that beautiful empty head: as we approached the drawing-room doors she was prattling away about what wedding present she should suggest to the Queen for Mary Seymour, and I, preoccupied, said offhand, why not a lusty young coachman, and immediately regretted it you couldn't be sure she wouldn't pass it on and then the doors opened, we were announced, and the heads in the room were all turning towards us. This is a reference to The Lady of the Lake poem, in which among other things, Fitzjames travels incognito and Roderick dies. Flashman is unaware or too distracted to find this ominous. quote:Albert, of course, was much struck by the coincidence of our meeting again, and preached a short sermon about the brotherhood of men-at-arms, to which Ignatieff smiled politely and I cried "Hear, hear!" It was difficult to guess, but I judged my Muscovite monster wasn't enjoying this too much; he must have been wondering why I pretended to be so glad to see him. But I was all affability; I even presented him to Elspeth, and he bowed and kissed her hand; she was very demure and cool, so I knew she fancied him, the little trollop. Ever the bully when he has the advantage, however fleeting he should know it to be. Next time: Flashman has first of many near fatal incidents to come. This series has countless but Great Game has my favorites.
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# ? Apr 6, 2021 07:00 |
Arbite posted:Alright, if I'm stuck in this country for another few months I'm going to get this jumpstarted again. Huzzah!
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# ? Apr 6, 2021 14:45 |
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m7RPjQxjmA&t=66s
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# ? Apr 6, 2021 17:13 |
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Flashman goes to bed quite satisfied with himself and is eager to leave Scotland. quote:And I was far from expecting anything the next day, the last full one I was to spend at Balmoral. It was a miserable, freezing morning, I remember, with flurries of sleet among the rain, and low clouds rolling down off Lochnagar; the kind of day when you put your nose out once and then settle down to punch and billiards with the boys, and build the fire up high. But not Prince Albert; there were roe deer reported in great numbers at Balloch Buie, and nothing would do but we must be drummed out, cursing, for a stalk. GMF excells as ever at setting the scene. quote:We were just about to start on our squelching climb, when another brake came rolling up the road, and who should pile out but the Russian visitors, with one of the local bigwigs, all dressed for the hill. Albert of course was delighted. After getting Flashman sent to India the first time the prince has caused Flashy's return to be even more unpleasant. quote:"Eh? What d'you mean?" I started in astonishment. "Surely nothing less," says he, "for such a distinguished campaigner as yourself." The moment Flashman's alone with his ghillie he tries to flee. After some distance quote:"Oh!" says he. "What's this? All of a sudden, my pudden's is pad." Flashman's eternal dilemma. quote:Behind me, on the far side of the wood, a twig had snapped. 'Tom Brown's School Days' is more relevant in this adventure than most. quote:I stopped breathing, while he turned his head this way and that, searching the thickets; he had his gun cocked, and by God he wasn't looking for stags. Then he snapped his fingers, and the moujik came padding out of the dimness of the wood; he was heeled and ready as well, his eyes glaring above his furze of beard. Ignatieff nodded to the left, and the great brute went prowling off that way, his piece presented in front of him; Ignatieff waited a few seconds and then took the way to the right.
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# ? Apr 8, 2021 06:08 |
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Frasier does indeed have a really great way of writing tense action like that. You can really feel the terror off the situation.
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# ? Apr 8, 2021 16:14 |
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Huzzah!
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# ? Apr 8, 2021 16:41 |
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Gats Akimbo posted:
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# ? Apr 8, 2021 18:55 |
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quote:...and the moujik dropped his piece, shrieking, and clutched at his arm as he toppled backwards among the rocks. Always the bully. quote:"Hold on!" cries he, catching my arm, and he was positively grinning. "Capital idea, I agree but we mustn't, you see. One bullet in him can be explained away by his own clumsiness but not two, eh? We mustn't have any scandal, colonel not involving her majesty's guests. Come along now let's be moving down, so that Count Ignatieff, who I've no doubt is watching us this minute, can come to his stricken servant's assistance. After you, sir." Flashman's small measure of revenge foiled, he makes one final attempt to get out of approaching doom to Ellenborough later that night. quote:I ventured the cautious suggestion that it might be better, after what had happened, to send someone else to Jhansi just in case Ignatieff had tumbled to me but Ellenborough wasn't even listening. He was just full of indignation at Ignatieff's murderous impudence not on my account, you'll note, but because it might have led to a scandal involving the Queen. (Admittedly, you can't have it getting about that her guests have been trying to slaughter each other; the poor woman probably had enough trouble getting people to visit, with Albert about the place.) One last touch of bigotry for the road. Next time, India!
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# ? Apr 9, 2021 07:54 |
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This is the good poo poo. Thanks for picking this thread up again.
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# ? Apr 9, 2021 15:37 |
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Now we're really getting going, this is such a good book.
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# ? Apr 9, 2021 17:10 |
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quote:I remember young Fred Roberts (who's a Field-Marshal now, which shows you what pull these Addiscombe wallahs have got) once saying that everyone hated India for a month and then loved it forever. I wouldn't altogether agree, but I'll allow that it had its attractions in the old days; you lived like a lord without having to work, waited on hand and foot, made money if you set your mind to it, and hardly exerted yourself at all except to hunt the beasts, thrash the men, and bull the women. You had to look sharp to avoid active service, of course, of which there was a lot about; I never fell very lucky that way. But even so, it wasn't a half-bad station, most of the time. And now for a travelog. quote:Mind you, I could see things were changing even in '56, when I landed at Bombay. My first voyage to India, sixteen years before, had lasted four months on a creaking East Indiaman; this time, in natty little government steam sloops, it had taken just about half that time, even with a vile journey by camel across the Suez isthmus in between. quote:"All sounds very peaceful and prosperous," says I, over a peg and a whore at Mother Sousa's like a good little political, you see, I was conducting my first researches in the best gossip-mart I could find (fine mixed clientele, Mother Sousa's, with nothing blacker than quarter-caste and exhibition dances that would have made a Paris gendarme blench well, if it's scuttle-butt you want, you don't go to a cathedral, do you?). The chap who'd bought me the peg laughed and said: Painting a vast picture in few strokes. quote:He was just a pipsqueak, of course, and knew nothing; the little yellow piece I was exercising hadn't heard of Jhansi either, and when I asked her at a venture what chapattis were good for except eating, she didn't bat an eye, but giggled and said I was a verree fonnee maan, and must buy her meringues, not chapattis, yaas? You may think I was wasting my time, sniffing about in Bombay, but it's my experience that if there's anything untoward in a country even one as big as India you can sometimes get a scent in the most unexpected places, just from the way the natives look and answer. But it was the same whoever I talked to, merchant or military, whore or missionary; no ripples at all. After a couple of days, when I'd got the old Urdu bat rolling familiarly off my palate again, I even browned up and put on a puggaree*(*Turban.) and coat and pyjamys, and loafed about the Bund bazaar, letting on I was a Mekran coast trader, and listening to the clack. I came out rotten with fleas, stinking of nautch-oil and cheap perfume and cooking ghee, with my ears full of beggars' whines and hawkers' jabbering and the clang of the booths but that was all. Still, it helped to get India back under my hide again, and that's important, if you intend to do anything as a political. How dark he tans varies from cover to cover. Some of which are not worksafe. quote:Hullo, says you, what's this? not Flashy taking his duty seriously for once, surely. Well, I was, and for a good reason. I didn't take Pam's forebodings seriously, but I knew I was bound to go to Jhansi and make some sort of showing in the task he'd given me the thing was to do it quickly. If I could have a couple of official chats with this Rani woman, look into the business of the sepoys' cakes, and conclude that Skene, the Jhansi political, was a nervous old woman, I could fire off a report to Calcutta and withdraw gracefully. What I must not do was linger because if there was any bottom to Pam's anxieties, Jhansi might be full of Ignatieff and his jackals before long, and I wanted to be well away before that happened. He gives Flashman his lay of the land in Jhansi and it's not good. quote:"You don't think it amounts to anything, surely?" I found all his cheerful references to Thugs and Pindaris damned disconcerting; he was making Jhansi sound as bad as Afghanistan. And now another zealot who's got it all figured out: quote:This sounded to me like a man riding his pet hobby; I couldn't see why any of this should do anything but please the people. Strong condemnation. quote:"It wouldn't be so bad, if we weren't so confounded soft! If we would only carry things with a high hand the reforms, and the missionary work, even. Either let well alone, or do the thing properly. But we don't, you see; we take half-measures, and are too gentle by a mile. If we are going to pull down their false gods, and reform their old and corrupt states and amend their laws, and make 'em worthy men and women then let us do it with strength! Dalhousie was strong, but I don't know about Canning. I know if I were he, I'd bring these oily, smirking, treacherous princes under my heel " his eyes flashed as he ground his boot in the dust. "I'd give 'em government, firm and fair. I'd be less soft with the sepoys, too and with some of our own people. That's half the trouble you haven't been back long enough, but depend upon it, we send some poor specimens out to the army nowadays, and to the Company offices.Broken-down tapsters and serving men's sons, eh? Well, you'll see 'em ignorant, slothful fellows of poor class, and we put 'em to officer high-caste Hindoos of ten years' service. They don't know their men, and treat 'em like children or animals, and think of nothing but drinking and hunting, and and " he reddened to the roots of his enormous beard and looked aside. "Some of them consort with with the worst type of native women." He cleared his throat and patted my arm. "There, I'm sorry, old fellow; I know it's distasteful to talk of such things, but it's true, alas." Next time: Into Jhansi.
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# ? Apr 11, 2021 13:14 |
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I've spent the last 24 hours reading this thread from start to finish and it has been an amazing ride. I've been meaning to read the Flashman novels for awhile so this was a great way to jump in. Thanks to all the contributors for keeping this thread going. I have a new appreciation for my sweet gentle boy Ciaphas Caine now.
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# ? Apr 12, 2021 00:21 |
I never quite loved the Caine books because hes just too nice. Flashman is a monster and he knows it, and its what makes the books work IMO.
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# ? Apr 12, 2021 00:50 |
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Beefeater1980 posted:I never quite loved the Caine books because hes just too nice. Flashman is a monster and he knows it, and its what makes the books work IMO. Yeah to be honest, the Caine books get a bit repetitive because he is so much of an actual real hero. Flashman kept me riveted because he's so much of a loving rear end in a top hat.
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# ? Apr 12, 2021 03:49 |
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Caine was my gateway to 40k and I'd recommend the first trilogy any day, but the series suffers over time from too many Tyranids in lieu of personalities and the comedy being increasingly tamped down. And definitely go for the audiobooks, they turned Sulla's excerpts from my least favorite part to a highlight.
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# ? Apr 12, 2021 05:51 |
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Hunterhr posted:Yeah to be honest, the Caine books get a bit repetitive because he is so much of an actual real hero. Flashman kept me riveted because he's so much of a loving rear end in a top hat. And then you compare him to the assholes like Johnny Nicholson in the last set of excerpts and suddenly he doesn't seem so bad in comparison, even if you'd still prefer to avoid him given half a chance...
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# ? Apr 12, 2021 09:27 |
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Arbite posted:
I can't work out what a "peg" is from this context, I'd assume it meant a shot or something but I haven't heard that expression before and considering everything else going on in this scene it could be drat near anything.
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# ? Apr 12, 2021 16:45 |
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I believe it's a glass of spirits. Like a 'tot of rum'. Probably arrack in this case.
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# ? Apr 12, 2021 18:45 |
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quote:Whatever his prayers accomplished for my solid flesh, his talk about Jhansi had done nothing for my spirits. "A strange wild place," he'd said, and talked of the Pindari bandits and Thugs and Maharatta scoundrels well, I knew it had been hell's punch-bowl in the old days, but I'd thought since we'd annexed it that it must be quieter now. Mangles, at the Board of Control in London, had described it as "tranquil beneath the Company's benevolent rule", but he was a pompous rear end with a talent for talking complete bosh about subjects on which he was an authority. In three paragraphs we get the prevailing attitudes, surrounding geography, the politics, a strategic summary of the area, and a recap of the perceived threats. quote:My first task was to look up Skene, the political whose reports had started the whole business, so I headed down to the cantonment, which was a neat little compound of perhaps forty bungalows, with decent gardens, and the usual groups already meeting on the verandahs for sundown pegs and cordials; there were a few carriages waiting with their grooms and drivers to take people out for dinner, and one or two officers riding home, but I drove straight through, and got a chowkidar's direction to the little Star Fort, where Skene had his office he'd still be there, the chowkidar said, which argued a very conscientious political indeed. So then all's well and the pages of foreboding were a fakeout. Phew. Now about that "Old bitch." quote:"There's the other thing," I went on. "The Rani. I have to try to talk some sense into her. Now, I daresay there isn't much I can do, since I gather she's shown you and Erskine that she's not disposed to be friendly, but I'm bound to try, you see. So I'll be obliged to you if you'll arrange an audience for me the day after tomorrow I'd like to rest and perhaps look around the city first. For the present, you can tell me your own opinion of her." 'Be grateful I've only robbed you of this.' What they're referring to is the Doctrine of Lapse, which the British were using to devour every Indian state they found convenient. quote:"Interesting lady," says I. "Dangerous, d'you think?" Now to chat up the old widow.
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# ? Apr 13, 2021 18:10 |
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quote:"I I thought in the circumstances of your visit," says Skene, apologetically, "that you might think it best to comply." A syce is an Indian groom. quote:Jhansi city lies about a couple of miles from the cantonment, and I had plenty of time to take in the scenery. The road, which was well-lined with temples and smaller buildings, was crowded into the city, with bullock-carts churning up the dust, camels, palankeens, and hordes of travellers both mounted and on foot. Most of them were country folk, on their way to the bazaars, but every now and then would come an elephant with red and gold fringed howdah swaying along, carrying some minor nabob or rich lady, or a portly merchant on his mule with a string of porters behind, and once the syce pointed out a group who he said were members of the Rani's own bodyguard a dozen stalwart Khyberie Pathans, of all things, trotting along very military in double file, with mail coats and red silk scarves wound round their spiked helmets. The Rani 'night not have a army, but she wasn't short of force, with those fellows about : there was a hundred years' Company service among them if there was a day. Oh poo poo. quote:Now, close by the gate there happened to be a number of booths and side-shows set 'tip the usual things, lemonade-sellers, a fakir with a plant growing through his palm, sundry beggars, and a kind of punch-and Judy show, which was being watched by a group of ladies in a palankeen. As a matter of fact, they'd already taken my eye, for they were obviously Maharatta females of quality, and four finer little trotters you never saw. There was a very slim, languid-looking beauty in a gold sari reclining in the palankeen, another plump piece in scarlet trousers and jacket beside her, and a third, very black, but fine-boned as a Swede, with a pearl headdress that must have cost my year's pay, sitting in a kind of camp-chair alongside even the ladies' maid standing beside the palankeen was a looker, with great almond eyes and a figure inside her plain white sari like a Hindoo temple goddess. I was in the act of touching my hat to them when the Pathan started expectorating. At this the maid giggled, the ladies looked, and the Pathan sniffed contemptuously and spat again. A great sequence. quote:"Sher Khan, havildar, lately of Ismeet Sahib's company of the Guides, as your honour says," croaks he. "Now, shame on me and mine that I put dishonour on Bloody Lance, and knew him not! Think not ill of me, husoor, for " The man knows his crowds. quote:It was a trifling enough incident, and I forgot it with my first glance at the interior of the Rani's palace. Outside it had been all dust and heat and din, but here was the finest garden courtyard you ever saw a cool, pleasant enclosure where little antelopes and peacocks strutted on the lawns, parrots and monkeys chattered softly in the surrounding trees, and a dazzling white fountain played; there were shaded archways in the carved walls, where well-dressed folk whom I took to be her courtiers sat and talked, waited on by bearers. One of the richest thrones in India, Pam had said, and I could believe it there were enough silks and jewellery on view there to stuff an army with loot, the statuary was of the finest, in marble and coloured stones that I took to be jade, and even the pigeons that pecked at the spotless pavements had silver rings on their claws. Until you've seen it, of course, you can't imagine the luxury in which these Indian princes keep themselves and there are folk at home who'll tell you that John Company were the robbers! Hah! quote:Well, it didn't, of course. "What I have to say is for her highness alone," says I, solemnly, and he stuck his head round the screen and conferred, before popping back. When he bothers to prepare he can press every advantage thoroughly. Arbite fucked around with this message at 15:01 on May 26, 2021 |
# ? Apr 15, 2021 15:20 |
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classic what th coming up, though it's
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# ? Apr 15, 2021 21:10 |
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quote:It wasn't the gorgeously-carved golden throne, or the splendour of the furniture which outshone even what l'd left, or the unexpected sensation of walking on the shimmering Chinese quilt on the floor. Nor was it the bewildering effect of the mirrored ceiling and walls, with their brilliantly-coloured panels. The astonishing thing was that from the ceiling there hung, by silk ropes, a great cushioned swing, and sitting in it, wafting gently to and fro, was a girl the only soul in the room. And such a girl my first impression was of great, dark, almond eyes in a skin the colour of milky coffee, with a long straight nose above a firm red mouth and chin, and hair as black as night that hung in a jewelled tail down her back. She was dressed in a white silk bodice and sari which showed off the dusky satin of her bare arms and midriff, and on her head was a little white jewelled cap from which a single pearl swung on her forehead above the caste-mark. That's him alright. quote:"You have a gift to present," says she, speaking in a quick, soft voice which had me recollecting myself and clicking my heels as I presented my packet. She took it, weighed it in her hand, still half-reclining in her swing, and asked sharply: "Why do you stare at me so?" As we've seen and will see again and again and again the underestimation of those the British are imposing upon will bite them. Also I'm having trouble pinning down how much five sovereigns would be worth in 1856, nominally five pounds so £542 in todays money, but the coins were made of gold, and even a £542 bottle of perfume isn't going to wow royalty. quote:That took me aback; I muttered something about not calling on a queen every day of my life. I like her already. quote:I said I had the power to report direct to Pam, and she said that so, in effect, had Skene. Her agents in London had spoken direct to the Board of Control, without avail. Keeping Flash on the back foot. quote:"Oh, the subtlety of the British!" cries she. "Such delicacy, like an elephant in a swamp! Lord Palmerston wishes, for his own mysterious reasons of policy, to placate the Rani of Jhansi. So he invites her to repeat the petition which has been repeatedly denied for years. But does he send a lawyer, or an advocate, or even an official of the Company? No just a simple soldier, who will discuss the petition with her, and how it may best be presented to his lordship. Could not a lawyer have advised her better?" She folded her hands and came slowly forward, sauntering round me. "But how many lawyers are tall and broad-shouldered and aye, quite handsome and persuasive as Flashman bahadur? Not a doubt but he is best fitted to convince a silly female that a modest claim is most likely to succeed and she will abate her demands for him, poor foolish girl, and be less inclined to insist on fine points, and stand upon her rights. Is this not so?" Quite the introduction. She kept him off balance and on topic the whole way through.
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# ? Apr 17, 2021 13:29 |
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Flashman motorboat go brrrrrrrrr
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# ? Apr 17, 2021 14:00 |
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This is such quality characterization and dialogue. Efficient, entertaining, and conveys a ton. Just solid writing. Also lol
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# ? Apr 17, 2021 14:44 |
This is one of the best of the series, for my money. Also Flashie always at his best when hes pretending to be a bluff simple soldier.
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# ? Apr 17, 2021 15:10 |
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Arbite posted:Also I'm having trouble pinning down how much five sovereigns would be worth in 1856, nominally five pounds so £542 in todays money, but the coins were made of gold, and even a £542 bottle of perfume isn't going to wow royalty. Let's try thinking of it like this. It's hard to figure out what the median wage might have been in 1856. However, a police constable of the time would have been paid very roughly 20 shillings per week, or £52 per year. (Today, a constable's starting wage outside London is very close to the median wage.) Five sovereigns would have been about 10% of that annual wage. 10% of PC Smith's starting wage in 2021 is roughly £2,500. That tracks quite closely to some of the items on this Town and Country Magazine list of the world's most expensive perfumes. I think most of us would agree that anyone who can drop £2,500 buying perfume has *got* to be utterly loaded.
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# ? Apr 17, 2021 17:56 |
drat she totally destroyed Flashy.
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# ? Apr 18, 2021 17:53 |
flashman stealing the perfume that his wife got as a gift from one of her guys on the side, to present to a queen that he presumes will be stupid and easily over-awed, only to be completely roasted by her is basically flashman.txt
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# ? Apr 18, 2021 18:52 |
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Arbite posted:Quite the introduction. She kept him off balance and on topic the whole way through. I feel like Fraser is very good about presenting actual non-British historical figures in these books. They're always presented basically in the same way that they are in their national mythology, but also he's very good at showing them as human and fully developed characters. I can't think of any historical figures that are presented as idiots or ones where Flashy stunts on them, and it makes me wonder if he was doing it deliberately to avoid pissing people off, or if that's just the dynamic that Flashman has with more powerful characters. Interestingly, that's not true for British characters - Cardigan is a consistent rear end, for example.
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# ? Apr 18, 2021 21:15 |
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Beefeater1980 posted:This is one of the best of the series, for my money. Also Flashie always at his best when hes pretending to be a bluff simple soldier. I honestly don't know why, but this one never connected with me that well. Maybe it's because the subject matter is so grim (once the actual mutiny starts) that the humour kind of seems out of place? I mostly remember it for getting extra credit on an exam for something I stole from this book. I really hope we get to the next one as Flashman's Lady is easily my favourite book in the series.
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# ? Apr 19, 2021 10:05 |
Notahippie posted:I feel like Fraser is very good about presenting actual non-British historical figures in these books. They're always presented basically in the same way that they are in their national mythology, but also he's very good at showing them as human and fully developed characters. I can't think of any historical figures that are presented as idiots or ones where Flashy stunts on them, and it makes me wonder if he was doing it deliberately to avoid pissing people off, or if that's just the dynamic that Flashman has with more powerful characters. Fraser was patriotic and had been a soldier so he had a bone to pick with lovely British senior officers is my guess.
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# ? Apr 19, 2021 10:48 |
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quote:I came away from that audience thinking no small diplomatic beer of myself. At least I seemed to have got further with her than any other representative of the Sirkar had ever done, even if I'd had to lie truth out of Jhansi to do it. God knew I'd not the slightest right to promise redress of any of her grievances against the Raj, and if I trotted back a list of them to London the Board would turn 'em down flat again, no question. But she didn't know that, and if I could jolly her along for a week for two, hinting at this or that possible concession, she might grow more friendly disposed which was what Pam wanted, after all. Her hopes would revive, and while they were sure to be dashed in the end, I'd be back snug in England by then. Seems neither got distracted from their true aims. quote:In the meantime, I had Pam's other business to attend to, so I spent the afternoon in the Native Infantry lines, looking at the Company sepoys to gauge for myself what their temper was. I did it idly enough, for they seemed a properly smart and docile lot, and yet it was a momentous visit. For it led to an encounter that was to save my life, and set me on one of the queerest and most terrifying adventures of my career, and perhaps shaped the destiny of British India, too. Fraser artfully uses non-English in a way that boosts immersion and still allows understanding through context. quote:Still, I found his simile coming to mind next day, when I attended her durbar again, and watched her sitting enthroned to hear petitions, dressed in a cloth-of-silver sari that fitted her like a skin, with a silver-embroidered shawl framing that fine dark face; when she moved it was for all the world like a great gleaming snake stirring. She was very grave and queenly, and her courtiers and suppliants fairly grovelled, and scuttled about if she raised her pinky; when the last petitioner had been heard, and a gong had boomed to end the durbar, she sat with her chin in the air while the mob bowed itself out backwards, leaving only me and her two chief councillors standing there and then she slipped out of her throne with a little cry of relief, hissed at one of her pet monkeys and chased it out on to the terrace, clapping her hands in mock anger, and then returned, perfectly composed, to lounge on her swing. Well... quote:...so I just looked amiable and said: Oh poo poo. Arbite fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Apr 19, 2021 |
# ? Apr 19, 2021 15:36 |
Kipling would be proud. The Rani's about to hilariously ruin Flashman again isn't she?
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# ? Apr 19, 2021 17:38 |
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quote:after being married to some prancing old quean, too quote:quean (plural queans) Not quite sure what to make of this but its interesting.
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# ? Apr 19, 2021 17:55 |
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# ? Apr 23, 2024 22:44 |
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Remulak posted:I didnt know that expression so I looked it up. He's calling him gay.
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# ? Apr 19, 2021 18:06 |