Plot Summary
Royal Flash is set during the Revolutions of 1848. The story features Lola Montez, and Otto von Bismarck as major characters, and fictionalises elements of the Schleswig-Holstein Question, 1843, 1847 and 1848. It is set in the fictional Duchy of Strackenz, making it the only Flashman novel to be set in a fictitious location.
Other characters include:
- Prince Edward,
- Lillie Langtry,
- Ludwig I of Bavaria,
- John Gully,
- Nicholas Ward,
- Lord Conyngham,
- Richard Wagner,
- Franz Liszt,
- Oscar Wilde,
- Henry Irving,
- Karl Marx,
- Lord Palmerston,
- Viscount Peel,
- Jefferson Davis.
The book is loosely based on the plot of The Prisoner of Zenda. Flashman explains that this is because the story was plagiarised from him by its author, Anthony Hope.
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