Far Easters

“Cigar? Or cheroot? You Far Easters like ’em black, I believe . . . go on, man — utrum horum mavis accipe,*…”


*Take whichever you prefer.


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.57, Harper Collins, 1995.




Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, cigar.

With the aid of a stick

I began by pointing out that I was an invalid — I’d only been able to limp into his presence with the aid of a stick — and that my first need was food, drink, and a doctor to look at my ankle. That took him aback — it always does, when you remind an Oriental of his manners…



Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.218, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, manners.

The deuce of a row

Now, you may not credit this, but I’m not much of a hand at orgies. I ain’t what you call a prude, but I do hold that an Englishman’s brothel is his castle, where he should behave accordingly — as many flash-tails as he likes, but none of these troop fornications that the Orientals indulge in. It’s not the indecency I mind, but the company of a lot of boozy brutes hallooing and kicking up the deuce of a row when I want to concentrate and give of my best.


Flashman and the Mountain of Light, pp.92-3, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, indecency.

Elgin's fads

      “Synonymous be damned!” snaps Elgin. “H.M.G will not be drawn into war against the Taipings. We’d find ourselves with a new empire in China before we knew it.” He heaved up from the table and poured coffee from a spirit kettle. “And I have no intention, Parkes, of presiding over any extension of the area in which we exhibit the hollowness of our Christianity and our civilization. Coffee, Flashman? Yes, you can light one of your damned cheroots if you want to—but blow the smoke the other way. Poisoning mankind!”
      There you have three of Elgin’s fads all together — he hated tobacco, was soft on Asiatics, and didn’t care for empire-building. I recall him on this very campaign saying he’d do anything “to prevent England calling down God’s curse on herself for brutalities committed on yet another feeble Oriental race.” Yet he did more to fix and maintain the course of the British empire than any man of his day, and is remembered for the supreme atrocity. Ironic, ain’t it?


Flashman and the Dragon, pp.163-4, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, Elgin.

Unwelcome news

If there’s one thing that can make me puke with terror, it’s having an Oriental despot tell me I’m inconvenient.



Flashman and the Dragon, p.130, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, inconvenient.

Professor Flashy and Orientalism

‘Ah, believe me, until you have anchored off Singapore, or cruised the tropical coasts of Sumatra and Java and Borneo, and seen the glorious China Sea, where it is always morning – oh, my dear, you have seen nothing!’
      Nonsense, of course; the Orient stinks. Always did.

Flashman's Lady, pp.53-54, Pan edition, 1979.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, orientalism.