Flashman's Fillies Trivia Quiz

Answer: His father's mistress

Judy indulges herself by having a sexual encounter with Flashman. When he returns for more, she refuses as she doesn't want to endanger her position as his father's mistress. They have a physical fight, and are sworn enemies after that.

"Flashman" opens in 1839. Queen Victoria had only recently ascended the throne and as Flashman points out, some of the old wild Regency ways still lingered. Judy lives openly in the Flashman household without causing a scandal.

Answer: He has to fight a duel

Flashman makes oblique references to his conquest to Josette's lover, Bernier. They quarrel, and Bernier challenges Flashman to a duel. Flashman arranges the duel so that neither party is harmed but he comes up smelling of roses. As a result of the scandal, he is sent to Scotland to assist in quelling civil unrest, until the scandal blows over.

Answer: Blonde, talkative and dim-witted

Whilst in Scotland, Flashman is quartered in the Morrison household. There are four Morrison daughters, with Elspeth being the beauty. Flashman and Elspeth have a sexual liaison, after which Elspeth comments "Was that what the minister means when he talks of fornication?". When Flashman replies in the affirmative, she muses "Mmm, why has he got such a down on it?". It's at this point that Flashman starts to question her intellectual capabilities.

Elspeth innocently mentions her encounter to one of her sisters, who tells their parents. Elspeth's uncle gives Flashman the option of another duel, or marriage to Elspeth. Flashman chooses the latter, on the basis that he could do worse than a beautiful blonde with a rich father.

Answer: She teaches him Hindi

The snobbish Lord Cardigan says he cannot allow Flashman to stay in the regiment after his marriage to a merchant's daughter. Flashman joins another regiment and is sent to India. He has a talent for learning languages and reckons that the best way to do so is in bed with a native woman. "I'd have got more of the classics from an hour's wrestling with a Greek wench than I did in four years from Arnold".

The unfortunate Fetnab is sold on once Flashman travels to Afghanistan.

Answer: She comes close to torturing him and relieving him of some cherished bodily parts

Narreeman is presented to Flashman by a local chieftain. Once in the bedroom, she is unwilling and Flashman commits rape, for the first and only time in his life. Some time after this incident, Flashman is held prisoner by Narreeman's husband, who is intent on allowing Narreeman to exact her revenge on Flashman. Fortunately, Flashman manages to escape before she can set to work.

Answer: She has previously allowed him to squeeze her bosom

Betty Parker is married to a man some years older than herself. Whilst still in Kabul she flirts with Flashman, and he gives her bosom a squeeze whilst they are briefly alone. She does not protest, so Flashman takes this as a sign of interest. Flashman instigates an opportunity to visit Betty's tent at night while her husband is absent. Though she welcomes him into her tent, she is less than welcoming when Flashman dives under the covers with her.

He apologises, but says he feels misled that she had previously allowed him to squeeze her bosom. Betty says that Flashman is a brute, and that "All gentlemen do that, as a sign of affection".

She believes it is the same as shaking hands!

Answer: Elspeth has very likely been unfaithful to him

Elspeth doesn't seem quite the same as she did before Flashman's departure. One day, she claims to have been out riding with a young army captain. It has poured with rain all afternoon, yet Elspeth's riding habit and boots are perfectly clean and bone dry.

As Flashman's father has lost all his money, and Elspeth's father is funding the Flashman household, Flashman decides that he can probably overlook Elspeth's occasional infidelity.

Answer: Lola Montez

Flashman has a brief but passionate liaison with Mrs James. However, her temper and her demanding ways soon cool his ardour. They part company somewhat acrimoniously. She later appears on the London Stage as a Spanish dancer, Donna Lola Montez. Flashman arranges her exposure as plain Rosanna James, and she is booed off of the stage.

A similar incident did happen to the real Rosanna/Lola. She later went on to become the extremely powerful mistress of Ludwig I of Bavaria. After he abdicated she travelled in Europe, The United States and Australia, scandalising and delighting audiences with her dancing. She died in New York at the age of 39. Lola once told Flashman that her ambition was to live as she pleased, love as she pleased and to never grow old, and she seems to have achieved her ambitions.

Answer: Impersonate a Danish Prince

Flashman has travelled to Bavaria at the invitation of Lola Montez, who is now Countess of Landsfeld. She is vague as to the purpose of her invitation, and Flashman is vain enough to imagine that she has forgotten past slights. Whilst expecting an amorous encounter with Lola, Flashman stumbles across a large German countess. She seems willing enough, but they are caught in a compromising position by court officials and Flashman is accused of rape.

This is all part of a plot by Otto Von Bismarck (whom Flashman has alienated some years previously) to blackmail Flashman into impersonating Prince Carl Gustaf of Denmark, who is Flashman's double.

Answer: To marry Duchess Irma

Bismarck has told Flashman that Prince Carl Gustaf has a rather personal illness (colourfully described by Flashman as "Cupid's measles") and so cannot possibly go through with his arranged marriage to the lovely Duchess. Flashman is to impersonate Carl Gustaf in order to marry Duchess Irma, and is supposed to quietly swap places once the prince has recovered.

However, the plot has been arranged by Bismarck for political purposes, the beginning of his plans for the unification of Germany.