Royal Flash

Royal Flash
1st edition cover
Author(s)	George MacDonald Fraser
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Historical novel
Publisher	Barrie & Jenkins
Publication date	1970
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	256
ISBN	978-0-257-66799-7
OCLC Number	29733
Dewey Decimal	823/.9/14
LC Classification	PZ4.F8418 Fp PR6056.R287
Preceded by	Flashman
Followed by	Flash for Freedom!

Royal Flash is a 1970 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. It is the second of the Flashman novels. It was made into the film Royal Flash in 1975.

Plot summary

Royal Flash is set during the Revolutions of 1848. The story features Lola Montez, and Otto von Bismarck as major characters, and fictionalizes elements of the Schleswig-Holstein Question, 1843, 1847 and 1848. It is set in the fictional Duchy of Strackenz, making it the only Flashman novel to be set in a fictitious location.

Other characters include Prince Edward, Lillie Langtry, Ludwig I of Bavaria, John Gully, Nicholas Ward, Lord Conyngham, Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt, Oscar Wilde, Henry Irving, Karl Marx, Lord Palmerston, Viscount Peel, Jefferson Davis.

The book is loosely based on the plot of The Prisoner of Zenda. Flashman explains that this is because the story was plagiarised from him by its author, Anthony Hope.

Trivia

• Flashman's image on the book's front cover of the 1999 edition is evidently modelled upon a famous painting of Edward VII complete with medal-clad military uniform, the cape and sceptre.

• The map of the Duchy of Strackenz in the book is an inverted outline of the Isle of Man which became the author's residence the year the book was first published.