Rogue, drunkard and womanizer, Fraser's anti-hero Harry Plaget Flashman was apparently involved in every significant event in late 19th-Century British imperial history. In this, the first of the series, Flashman (after being kicked out of school for public drunkenness) gets himself mixed up in the disastrous First Afghan War, notably the humiliating retreat from Kabul (where we find our hero more interested in the ladies than his hide). Naturally, Fraser's version of the last stand of the 44th Regiment at Gandamack on January 13th, 1842 features our hero. It's a rip-roaring tale, meticulously researched and painfully funny. In another of the series "Flashman and the Great Game," a character asks of Flashman (not unreasonably), "Do you not see that it is better to leave people be -- to let them alone?" Every bit as wicked, entertaining and informative as the Patrick O'Brien novels, Fraser has thus far issued eleven installments of the Flashman papers.  (CAS83, $14.00)

The Flashman Papers