The Elegant Variation: OBIT: GEORGE MACDONALD FRASER

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January 02, 2008

OBIT: GEORGE MACDONALD FRASER

George MacDonald Fraser, author of the deeply politically incorrect but hilarious Flashman series (and the slightly less well-known but equally funny The Pyrates), has died.

Launched in 1969, the books reimagined the later life of the bully in Thomas Hughes' Victorian classic Tom Brown's Schooldays. Purportedly based on packages of "rediscovered" documents, the novels depict a vain and cowardly rogue who fights, drinks and womanises his way around the British empire. Despite his less than heroic behaviour, Flashman emerges from each adventure covered in glory.

You can read an excerpt from Flashman on the March here.

Posted at 09:21 PM in Obit | Permalink

Comments

I'll miss that rapscallion!

Posted by: Jim | January 03, 2008 at 10:13 AM

Sad news, considering that he was still writing and publishing. Went out with his boots on, I guess that means.

I just read my third Flashman novel a few weeks ago and had to force myself not to immediately start in on the next one. What disreputable fun they are!

Posted by: Levi Stahl | January 04, 2008 at 08:27 AM

The "Flashman" stories are great. Also, for those who want to read what military life was really like, get a copy of Fraser's great autobiographical account of his service in Burma in WWII - "Quartered Safe out Here." For a much less serious, but still accurate, account of the military, read his "McAuslan" stories based on Fraser's service as a junior officer with the Gordon Highlanders in the Middle East after WWII. He will be missed.

Posted by: steve | January 15, 2008 at 05:10 PM

I first read Flashman in Playboy, a two month serialization of the novel back in the early '70's I guess. A few years later, I met the father of one of my co-workers who said he was an avid reader as well, and wanted to know if I was interssed in reading the funniest books every written. He was way ahead of me in this department. I, in turn, passed those books he lent me onto a dozen different people who also started collecting GMF books.
My favorites however, are the McAuslin books. I've read them until bindings have cracked, and they still bring me out of hard times and make me laugh, and laugh damn hard.
I'm dying now, and have just started reading his last book the "Reavers" to keep my spirits up fighting this wicked, opportunistic disease. It's a good one too (the book, stupid. Not the cancer), and I highly recommend it.
I always wanted to send him a leter to tell him how much his books were appreciated by me and my friends all these years, but never went about it. I guess I'll have to tell him in person.

Posted by: Savannah | February 14, 2008 at 03:56 PM

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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The Elegant Variation

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January 02, 2008

OBIT: GEORGE MACDONALD FRASER

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MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
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SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

January 02, 2008

OBIT: GEORGE MACDONALD FRASER

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism