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George MacDonald Fraser

George MacDonald Fraser (1926–2008) was a Scottish English-language writer, author of the series of adventure novels about Harry Flashman. One of the works in the series (Flashman at the Charge) is set in Crimea during the Crimean War, where the hero takes part in the charge at Balaclava and is taken prisoner by the russians.

Overview

George MacDonald Fraser (1926–2008) was a Scottish writer, best known for a series of twelve adventure novels about Harry Paget Flashman, written between 1969 and 2005. Fraser borrowed this character from the classic Victorian novel by Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days (1857), in which Flashman is a school bully with a nick­name. A hundred years later Fraser "continued" Flashman's fictional biography: he enrolled him in a lancer regiment and sent him to all the fronts of the British Empire's struggle during the reign of Queen Victoria — from Afghanistan and India to the Crimean War.

The work most relevant to the Ukrainian-Crimean theme is the novel Flashman at the Charge (1973), part of whose action takes place in Crimea during the Crimean War. Flashman takes part in the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava on 13 October 1854 (on the order of Lord Raglan), is taken prisoner by the russians together with 57 other Britons, escapes via Kerch, the Sea of Azov, Taganrog, Henichesk, and the Arabat Spit (the Sivash is mentioned), is captured again, and ultimately flees as far as the Orenburg region, the Aral Sea, and Central Asia.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • Biography: A Scot, an English-language writer (1926–2008); author of twelve novels about Harry Flashman (1969–2005).
  • The character Harry Flashman: Borrowed from Thomas Hughes (Tom Brown's School Days, 1857); a cowardly anti-hero whom Fraser "enlists" into the lancers and throws onto the fronts of the British Empire.
  • The Crimean War in the series: The novel Flashman at the Charge (1973) presents Crimea as one of the theatres of war; the charge at Balaclava on 13.10.1854, captivity among the russians, escape via Kerch — Sea of Azov — Taganrog — Henichesk — Arabat Spit — Sivash.
  • Geography of Crimea and the Azov region: The work describes in detail the route of the prisoners and fugitives through Yalta, Kerch, Henichesk, the Arabat Spit, and the Sivash — an artistic reflection of the Crimean realities of the 19th century.
  • Central Asia and the "Great Game": Further on, Flashman flees through the Aral Sea and Central Asia, fights russian colonizers, and uses rocket weaponry (adopted by the British Army in 1812) against a russian squadron on the Amu Darya.
  • Crimea in the works of foreign literature: A lone warrior… if that warrior is a Warrior — an article by Valerii Verkhovsky in the newspaper Krymska svitlytsia (2019, No. 11-12), the main primary source on Fraser and the Flashman novel.
  • Crimean (Eastern) War of 1853–1856 in the Kherson region — the historical period artistically reflected in the novel Flashman at the Charge (the charge at Balaclava, 13.10.1854).
  • Arabat Spit (administrative-territorial history) — the locality through which the British prisoners escape in the plot.
  • Arabat Fortress (a landmark on the Arabat Spit) — the endpoint of the escape along the spit in the novel's plot.
  • Sea of Azov — the sea by which the prisoners are transported to Taganrog.
  • Jules Verne and Crimea — another article in the "Crimea in the works of foreign literature" section on the depiction of Crimea in foreign literature.
  • Jasper Fforde — an article in the same section about the British writer and an alternative Crimean War.
  • Beryl Bainbridge — an article in the same section about the British writer and the novel Master Georgie (the Crimean War).
  • Brian Garfield — an article in the same section about the American writer and the novel Kolchak's Gold with a Crimean plot.
  • Andrii Shchekun — the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Krymska svitlytsia, which published the article about Fraser.
  • Harold Lamb — an article in the same section about the American writer and the "Cossack cycle" about the Cossack Klit (the Crimean Khanate, influence on Robert E. Howard).
  • Heinrich Böll — an article in the same section about the German Nobel Prize–winning writer and his Crimean front-line experience (1943).
  • Colleen McCullough — an article in the same section about the Australian writer and the depiction of Mithridates / the Bosporus / Panticapaeum in The Masters of Rome.
  • Louis Boussenard — an article in the same section about the French novelist and the novel The Zouaves of the Malakhov Mound about the Crimean War.
  • Mark Twain — an article in the same section about the American writer who visited Crimea in 1867 and described his impressions in the book The Innocents Abroad (a bestseller of 1869).
  • Michael Moorcock — an article in the same section about the British science-fiction writer and the "Chronicles of Hawkmoon" cycle (techno-fantasy) with a Crimean plot (Simferopol, Kerch, "Ukrania").