Like pistol cracks

      They gave her dinner, and she entranced and appalled the company by laying into the goods like a starving python; as Stanley reported: “She ate like a gourmande, disposing of what came before her without regard to the horrified looks . . . pudding before beef, blancmange with potatoes . . . emitting labial smacks like pistol cracks.”


Flashman on the March, p.283, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, starving.

Wink, wink

. . . in Ab society, which as I’ve told you is probably the most immoral on earth (Cheltenham ain’t in it), rogering the hostess is almost obligatory,  part of the etiquette, like leaving cards, and not at all out of the way in a country where it’s considered a mortal insult to praise a woman’s chastity, since it implies that she’s not attractive enough to be galloped. Say no more.


Flashman on the March, p.169, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, etiquette.