Harry Flashman Harry Flashman Sir Harry Paget Flashman is a fictional character created by Thomas Hughes (1822–1896) in the semi-autobiographical "Tom Brown's School Days" (1857) and later developed by George MacDonald Fraser (1925–2008). Harry Flashman appears in a series of 12 of Fraser's books, collectively known as "The Flashman Papers", with covers illustrated by Arthur Barbosa. Flashman was played by Malcolm McDowell in the Richard Lester 1975 film "Royal Flash". In Hughes' 1857 book, Flashman (a relatively minor character) is portrayed as a notorious bully at Rugby School who persecutes Tom Brown, and who is finally expelled for drunkenness. Fraser decided to
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling live on happily with the blessings of Squire Western and Squire Allworthy. The main theme of the novel is the contrast between Tom Jones's good nature, flawed but eventually corrected by his love for virtuous Sophia Western, and his half-brother Blifil's hypocrisy. Secondary themes include several other examples of virtue (especially that of Squire Allworthy), hypocrisy (especially that of Thwackum) and villainy (for example, that of Mrs Western and Ensign Northerton), sometimes tempered by repentance (for instance Square and Mrs Waters "née" Jones). Both introductory chapters to each book and interspersed commentary introduce a long line of further themes. For