Beau Geste (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) [Hardcover]

Percival Christopher Wren (Author), Gary Hoppenstand (Author)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics | Publication Date: August 2000

Three noble English brothers battle a sadistic sergeant, fight violent desert tribes in North Africa, and unravel the mystery of a stolen jewel.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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11 1.5-hour cassettes --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Percival Wren was a British writer, mostly of adventure fiction, who is remembered best for Beau Geste, a much-filmed book involving the French Foreign Legion in North Africa, and its sequels, Beau Sabreur and Beau Ideal.Born in Devonshire England in 1885, Wren was a collateral descendant of the famous British seventeenth-century architect Sir Christopher Wren. His literary influences included Frederick Marryat, R. M. Ballantyne, G. A. Henty, and H. Rider Haggard. After graduating with an MA from Oxford, Percival traveled the world for five years before joining the British Calvary. From there, he went on to join the French Foreign Legion, working in India for the Bombay government for ten years. World events saw him returning to active service during World War I with the India Army in East Africa, after which he settled and married in London in 1917. He lived out the remainder of his life in England concentrating on his literary career. He died in 1941.Wren produced almost fifty titles during his lifetime, including The Snake and The Sword, Sinbad the Soldier, The Disappearance of General Jason, and The Uniform of Glory. A highly respected and enthusiastic audiobook narrator, David Case specialized in creating unique and interesting character voices. AudioFile magazine named him a Golden Voice, writing after he died in 2005 that "David's cultured British voice, his flair for accents and dialects, and his comedic timing made him one of the industry's most sought-after narrators." He narrated over 700 audiobooks. In one of his last interviews, David said, "I really believe I was born to record audiobooks." Fans everywhere tend to agree.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Penguin USA (August 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141181516
• ISBN-13: 978-0141181516
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,817,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a throwback, October 11, 2000

By 

Orrin C. Judd "brothersjudddotcom" (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beau Geste (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) (Hardcover)

Somehow I doubt that the generation of kids growing up today, whelped on Doom and Lara Croft, have the same romantic love of the French Foreign Legion that we did when we were kids. The concept of this fighting force made up of desperate men of all nations, given a new lease on life because they did not have to give their real name or background when they signed up, lent itself easily to fiction and to childhood fantasy. I don't remember all of the Foreign Legion movies we watched but Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950) and March or Die (1977) [bad movie, great tagline: "In the French Foreign Legion, you march or you die!"] spring to mind, and of course the greatest of them all was Beau Geste (1939). Directed by William Wellman and starring Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy and Susan Hayward, it was one of those movies you had to watch every time it was on. Happily, the original novel is nearly its equal.

The three Geste brothers, orphaned early in life, are raised by an Aunt. Their raucous youths are filled with the literature of adventure and ritualized horseplay centered around these myths and legends. So when the family's prized Blue Water sapphire turns up missing, each of the young men confesses to being the thief in order to protect the others and one by one they head off to join the French Foreign Legion. As luck would have it, they meet up in the deserts of Africa where they fall under the command of the malevolent Sergeant Lejaune. Not content to merely be a martinet, Lejaune sets his sights on stealing the jewel, which rumor holds to be in their possession. Meanwhile, the unruly troops he commands are planning a mutiny and the marauding Tauregs pin this badly outnumbered and bitterly divided unit of Legionnaires at Fort Zinderneuf. The ensuing drama plays itself out as the French forces battle overwhelming odds. Ultimately, only a handful of men survive to discover the truth behind the Blue Water's disappearance.

It just doesn't get any better than that central story. Wren combines a classic mystery and a desert adventure. The Gestes are living embodiments of the tales on which they were weaned--generous, noble, brave and loyal. My only real complaint is with the framing device which surrounds the story. The novel opens with a major who lead the relief column sent to Zinderneuf describing what he found there and concludes with an overlong dénouement getting the story back to England and the jewel mystery. But these are minor quibbles when set against the truly thrilling story at the heart of the novel. Read the book, but be sure to see the movie.

GRADE: A-

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars one of the ulitimates in adventure stories, May 7, 2003

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This review is from: Beau Geste (Gateway Movie Classics) (Paperback)

I first saw the 1966 (starring Telly Savalas as the evil Sergeant Major) remake of Beau Geste in my early teens. It was not the best version of the story, with only 2 brothers in the story, and no mention of the stolen jewel, but it was action packed and the uniforms were awesome to a young teenage boy. Since then I have seen the 1939 (far superior) movie version, read the boooks and then read anything else I could get my hands on about the Legion in the early 20th century.

This book is the epitome of grand adventure stories, rivalled only by two others: The Prisoner of Zenda and Kind Solomon's Mines. It's a book that appeals to your imagination and sense of adventure when you are young, and then you never outgrow it. I won't rehash the story here, but I suggest you get a copy, turn off all your modern, grown-up cycnicism and enjoy escapist literature at its very best.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, December 21, 2005

By 

Dmen "Stand beside.or stand aside" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beau Geste (Hardcover)

The book was written so brilliantly. It was almost like reading poetry at times. Just the way Wren managed to convey his ideas with the right words was incredible. I highly suggest this book for people intrested in romance and war. A well rounded book. I only wish there were more books like this about the French Legionnary