Try the Flashman Papers by George MacDonald Fraser, a twelve book series which are purportedly the memoirs of Harry Flashman, the bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays.
He grows up to be a cad and a coward who ends up (undeservedly) being a Victorian war hero.
He somehow ends up in many of the most interesting moments of the Victorian era, including the First Afghan War,the Crimean War, the slave trade and abolition movement in America, the Great Game in India, Malay pirates, the American West, the Opium Wars, and others.
http://www.amazon.com/George-MacDona...rnid=618072011