 First edition | |
| Author | George MacDonald Fraser |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
Publication date | 1994 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 400 |
| ISBN | 0-00-273015-4 |
| OCLC | 31331024 |
| Preceded by | Flashman and the Mountain of Light |
| Followed by | Flashman and the Tiger |
Flashman and the Angel of the Lord is a 1994 novel byGeorge MacDonald Fraser. It is the tenth of theFlashman novels.[1][2]
Presented within the frame of the supposedly discovered historical Flashman Papers, this book describes the bully Flashman fromTom Brown's School Days. The papers are attributed to Flashman, who is not only the bully featured inThomas 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 afterFlashman in the Great Game and beforeFlashman and the Dragon. It details Flashman's involvement withJohn Brown and his raid onHarper's Ferry, West Virginia, from 1858 to 1859.
At the start of the novel, Flashman leavesCalcutta before the wrath of acuckolded 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 inFlash for Freedom! and seen shanghaied inFlashman 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 theUnderground Railroad fromFlash 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 theKu Klux Klan. They also want Flashman to help Brown, but in order to start a civil war. One last double-cross exists: the wife of the leader of the Kuklos works forAllan Pinkerton, who brings Flashman to meetWilliam 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.
