Flashman

It was common custom at that time, in the more romantic females, to see their soldier husbands and sweethearts as Greek heroes, instead of the whore-mongering, drunken clowns most of them were. However, the Greek heroes were probably no better, so it was not far off the mark.

From Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser.

I finally got around to reading this hilarious classic. It sometimes takes the death of an author to goad me into reading his works, for some reason.