Ghost of a flea: The greatest thing that ever happened to an undeserving world

? Bryan Ferry: Price Of Love | Main | Slivercasting ?

March 20, 2006

The greatest thing that ever happened to an undeserving world

Christopher Hitchens celebrates "part James Bond, part Bertie Wooster" Brigadier-General Sir Harry Paget Flashman and his accidental biographer, George MacDonald Fraser. He argues both offer insight into the latest incarnation of the Great Game.

Victorian empire ("the greatest thing that ever happened to an undeserving world," Fraser asserts) was largely dedicated to Lord Macaulay's belief in progress and improvement: a civilizing mission that would gradually spread light into the dark places of the earth. It involved the Whig theory of history and was supposed to operate according to a near-providential plan. Well, that's all balls for a start, as Flashman stoutly observes: "In my experience the course of history is as often settled by someone's having a belly-ache, or not sleeping well, or a sailor getting drunk, or some aristocratic harlot waggling her backside."

Flea-readers with an Atlantic Monthly subscription can also enjoy "Bottoms Up"; Hitchens on Ian Fleming as "a sadist, a narcissist, and an all-around repressed pervert" with some important insights of his own.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at March 20, 2006 08:53 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.ghostofaflea.com/cgi-bin/mt/trackback-engine.cgi/5873

Comments

I was at one time a big Flashman fan.I had nearly all the books but with moving and life changes most of them are gone. I still reread the ones I have left. The stories are timeless.Thanks for your post of Hitchens article

Posted by: DanToom at March 20, 2006 12:33 PM