Just wondered if anyone had any preliminary thoughts. My only observation on rereading is that it takes rather longer to get to the meat of the story than I remember. Some of the others in the series are straight into the historical part after about two or three pages (as the most recent one is) but this one takes an extraordinary time in getting Flashman into position in the US before really getting down to business.

I finally have read a significant part of it, though I am not finished. I have to admit, I didn't think I'd like it. However, I am finding it delightful. I love the humor. I also thought the footnotes would be tedious, but instead I find them very elucidating.

Not being a history buff, I have learned a lot. I have a couple of questions. First, did Benjamin Franklin really work for British Intelligence during his time at the American Embassy in Paris, causing heavy American ship losses? I know that he gave one source for it, but I am surprised this isn't widely known. Or is it, and I've missed it?

Also, on page 22 (with no footnote) he said that Lincoln once said that if the United States could only be preserved by maintaining slavery, that was all right with him. Is that the case?

My book is from the library so I am hampered in that I can't mark parts that I want to talk about. I had lots of other questions, too!

Good book, Bob!

Never heard that Franklin was a spy. I guess his humliation at the court of George III was an excellent cover story. I've heard that Lincoln said something like that (i.e., preserving the Union either way) before. It may have been in a letter.

[Seems there was a book published in 1972 by Cecil Currey called Code Number 72 Ben Franklin: Patriot or Spy? whose theme was that Franklin was a spy for the British.]

[Added extra paragraph.]
[Corrected typo.]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,

Does anyone feel a slight anti-American attitude when reading this book? I sometimes wonder if it was written by Richard.

It's not really anti-American is more just plain misogenystic. Flashman has the same equally jaundiced view of just about everywhere and everyone including the British. When you've finished this one dip into one of the Indian ones and you'll see what i mean.

Actually some of the few characters Flashman has any affection or respect for are Americans. Lincoln for example.

quote:

It's not really anti-American is more just plain misogynistic.

On the contrary, Flashman seems to have been very fond of the female species. You mean misanthropic, surely?

I most certainly do. Put it down to writing replies in way too much of ahurry to think about what I'm doing.

My impression, at least from this book, is that he doesn't think Lincoln really cared that much about stopping slavery. He has said a few times that Lincoln wanted to keep the union together, at all costs. Also, I found it very interesting that Flashman actually said that America (which is what he calls it) would have been better off if they wouldn't have won the Revolutionary War. He said that, after all, England forbade slavery in the 1830s.