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Title: Beau Geste by Percival C. Wren ISBN: 0-89968-135-2 Publisher: Lightyear Pr Pub. Date: December, 1976 Format: Library Binding Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.47 (19 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: truly thrilling
Comment: 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-
Rating: 2
Summary: Not as good as its reputation
Comment: I don't share most reviewers' enthusiasm for Percival Wren's book. The framework story unfolds at a painfully slow pace and the adventurous part of recruitment, training and life of the Geste brothers in the Foreign Legion is not broad enough.
Too bad, because the French Foreign Legion, shrouded in the myth of secrecy and adventure, fascinates many to this day (including myself) and deserves to be object of a more suspenseful novel. The Foreign Legion garrison heroically defending Fort Zinderneuf against the Arabic attacks is undoubtedly the most memorable image of Wren's story. It is at the heart of the adventure for which the book is famous and Wren deserves the credit for the idea. But he spends too much time on minor characters and inconsequential dialogue. The characters are awfully stereotypical (the cunning and deceitful Italians, the brutal and primitive Germans, the noble and chivalrous English, the lighthearted and naïve Americans and the greedy and egotistical French - oh brother).
Maybe many book reviewers are influenced by the great movie from 1939 (with Gary Cooper and Ray Milland). It is pretty true to the novel but focuses on the part of the story I was looking for and is well paced. In Wren's book, you have to read through more than 100 pages of turgid story telling before the Geste brothers even get to the Foreign Legion. Its longwinded explanations and speculations on the characters' motivation and the possible outcome of the inherent intrigues seem terribly old fashioned for the 21st century reader. This shortcoming of Wren's story telling ability diminishes the enjoyment of the book. Wren is no Alexandre Dumas who can write a novel of 1400 pages ("The Count of Monte Cristo") and still make it easy reading.
Rating: 5
Summary: My favourite adventure book from all time!
Comment: My favourite adventure book from all time... 8 November, 2003
Let's be fair, I am very biased in favor of it, so you are in for a very one-sided opinion... If you have seen the film (wathever the one, either the one with Ronald Colman (seems is good but very hard to find), the one with Gary Cooper&Ray Milland is I think the best known... and do not miss the excellent miniseries by the BBC...)OK, enough about films!
The films are good but tend to miss the point completly, I acknowledge is very difficult to adapt a novel to film, but in this special case (even if it has been done brilliantly) THEY DO NOT DO JUSTICE TO THE BOOK...
So, I must recommend to you to read the book and judge for yourself... if delighted follow on with "Beau sabreur", "Beau Ideal", "Good Gestes" and "Spanish Maine"...
Actually the prejudice shown by P.C.Wren to italians, spaniards and specially germans HAS TO BE READ IN CONTEXT, it has not in the least provoked the book to be a flop in those countries (but sure it has not help it to be a success either...).
P.C.Wren did not like very much other races (see his works set in India and you'll understand the comment...) and his prose tends to be a little "British race superior" infected, well if you are british probably THAT will no bother you at all mind... but even if not british at all YOU WILL DELIGHT IN THE DEFENSE OF THE VALUES OF BROTHERLY LOVE; HONOR, DUTY, FRIENDSHIP ETC, wich are quite international do not forget...
I am against revealing plots, there are a lot of other reviewer who do, I am just satisfied to tell you I have read this book countless times and still remains in my top one for all times...
A huge P.C.Wren fan since childhood (I think I read "Beau Geste" for the first time when I was nine years old... if not sooner, I can recall...), I have chased in secondhand bookshops and specialized dealers for the rest of his production, and happy to say I've read them all!, probably the novels set in India and his tales about the merchant navy aren't as good (or SO MUCH good) as the one's dealing with the french foreign legion but still above average.
A part from the books mentioned I found "Soldiers of misfortune" and "The Uniform of Glory" the best from the rest.
Enjoy.
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Title: Beau Sabreur by Percival C. Wren ISBN: 999752084X Publisher: Stokes Pub Co Pub. Date: June, 1926 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: The Four Feathers by A. E. W. Mason ISBN: 0743448219 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Prisoner of Zenda/Rupert of Hentzau (Penguin Classics) by Anthony Hope ISBN: 014043755X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: Life in the French Foreign Legion: How to Join and What to Expect When You Get There by Evan McGorman ISBN: 1555716334 Publisher: Hellgate Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Legionnaire: An Englishman in the French Foreign Legion by Simon Murray ISBN: 0330485806 Publisher: Pan Books Ltd Pub. Date: February, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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