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    Black Ajax
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    Black Ajax
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    Black Ajax
    Ebook334 pages5 hours

    Black Ajax

    By George MacDonald Fraser

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    In the spirit of Flashman and in the inimitable George MacDonald Fraser style comes a rousing story of prize fighting in the 19th century.

    When Captain Buck Flashman sees the black boxer catch a fly in mid-flight he realizes that he is in the presence of speed such as the prize ring has never seen. Tom Molineaux may be crude and untutored, but if ‘Mad Buck’ knows anything, this ex-slave is a Champion in the making. Under his ambitious patronage, the ‘Black Ajax’ is carried on a popular tide of sporting fever to his great dream: to fight the invincible, undefeated Champion of England, the great Tom Cribb.

    Told through funny, colourful voices, this novel paints a portrait of a flawed hero who surmounted the barriers of ignorance, poverty and racial hatred to bring the prize ring a lustre it had never known before, and may never again.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateJun 28, 2012
    ISBN9780007325641
    Unavailable
    Black Ajax
    Author

    George MacDonald Fraser

    The author of the famous ‘Flashman Papers’ and the ‘Private McAuslan’ stories, George MacDonald Fraser has worked on newspapers in Britain and Canada. In addition to his novels he has also written numeous films, most notably ‘The Three Musketeers’, ‘The Four Musketeers’, and the James Bond film, ‘Octopussy’. George Macdonald Fraser died in January 2008 at the age of 82.

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    Reviews for Black Ajax

    3.5/5

    47 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Interesting look a social history from this wonderful historian/author. Cleverly told account of black American bear-knuckles boxer Tom Moulineaux trying to become the English/World champion in the early 19th century. The story is told as seen through the eyes of a dozen witnesses who were there at the time. Harrowing at times.
    • 4/5
      If you just finished the Flashman papers and are going through GMF withdrawal, don't fret, you will like this. Flashman's father is a great side character and while it took me a while to get used to the 1810s language it is another well written classic historical novel by Fraser.
    • 4/5
      After having read the twelve Flashman novels and enjoying them immensely, I order this book, penned by the same author. Written much in the style of the Flashman works, it takes a little getting used to, given the author’s phonetic spelling of heavy British accents. The story revolves around a former slave named Tom Mollineaux, who developed boxing skills in the process of being emancipated. He goes to England to seek the heavyweight championship, quite a feat for the time. The story is told through several different narrators, including Harry Flashman’s father. Harry, it turns out, was a chip off the old block.The story is amusing, though not to the level of Flashman. As an aide, if you are offended to see the “n” word in print, you might avoid this one. It is written with historically accurate epithets and labels.
    • 3/5
      Fine, but by far the weakest of GMF's novels that I've read.
    • 3/5
      Interesting reading by a good evoker of the Victorian period. The tale of Tom Moulineaux, one of the first black boxing champions. Not a happy book, but interesting.