Other editions of book Beau Geste

A shot rang out. The Arabs surged forward under a savage fusillade of heavy fire. Nearer and nearer they came, shouting with hate and blood-lust. Geste rushed up and down his side of the roof, pausing only long enough to load his rifle and fire into the shrieking mob below, hoping to trick the Arabs into believing the fort was heavily manned. Load, aim, and fire, ignoring the cries and curses of the wounded, the dead sprawled out in their own blood. Of all those hard-bitten veterans who had yelled their defiance at the first Arab onslaught, who had shouted with joy at the order of "Aux Armes!", only 10 remained, 10 legionnaires against a thousand Arabs. Beau Geste is the world-famous novel of suspense and adventure, love and glory, courage, and treachery. It is the thrilling story of three men who braved the hellish brutality and ruthless savagery of the French Foreign Legion to protect the honor of a woman they loved more than their lives.

A cavalry unit, having crossed the Sahara to relieve a besieged French Foreign Legion fort, arrives to an eerie silence — the enemy has vanished, and the post's walls and ramparts are defended by dead men. The fort's commander, slain by a bayonet through the heart, clutches a letter that links the riddle of the desert massacre to another mystery, the long-ago and far-away theft of a sapphire known as the Blue Water. It was the scandalous disappearance of the Blue Water that led to the self-exile of Beau, the oldest of the Geste brothers. John and Digby couldn't believe that Beau was a thief and refused to allow him to shoulder the blame alone. Thus all three Gestes turned up in North Africa, among the ranks of the Foreign Legion. Their story of suspense, betrayal, and bravery has inspired several movie versions and remains a favorite with readers who relish a classic adventure.

Percival Christopher Wren (1 November 1875[1] – 22 November 1941) was an English writer, mostly of adventure fiction. He is remembered best for Beau Geste, a much-filmed book of 1924, involving the French Foreign Legion in North Africa. This was one of 33 novels and short story collections that he wrote, mostly dealing with colonial soldiering in Africa.Wren was a highly secretive man, and his service in the Legion has never been confirmed. When his novels became famous, there was a mysterious absence of authenticating photographs of him as a legionnaire or of the usual press-articles by old comrades wanting to cash in on their memories of a celebrated figure. It is now thought more likely that he encountered legionnaires during travels in French North Africa, and skillfully blended their stories with his own memories of a short spell as a cavalry trooper in England. While his fictional accounts of life in the pre-1914 Foreign Legion are highly romanticised, his details of Legion uniforms, training, equipment and barrack room layout are generally accurate. This may, however, simply reflect careful research on his part. The descriptions of Legion garrison life given in his work The Wages of Virtue, written in 1914, closely match those contained in the autobiographical In the Foreign Legion by ex-legionnaire Edwin Rosen, published by Duckworth London 1910.

A French officer rides his camel toward a lonely fort in the Sahara. At each break in the parapet a soldier stands, rifle at the ready. Yet no bugle is sounded; no challenge is called; no sound of any kind echoes across the vast desert. There is only silence. And those staring men. . . So begins P.C. Wren's unforgettable mystery concerning the theft of a priceless sapphire and the remarkable adventures of the three Geste brothers. The illustrations in this volume of Beau Geste were produced by Helen Madeleine McKie for a 1927 edition of the book published by John Murray of London. Afterword by Brian Stableford. This is from the Reader's Digest World's Best Reading series. The text is complete and unabridged.

Michael "Beau" Geste is the protagonist. The main narrator is his younger brother John. The three Geste brothers are portrayed as behaving according to the British upper class values of a time gone by, and "the decent thing to do" is, in fact, the leitmotif of the novel. The Geste brothers are orphans and have been brought up by their aloof aunt Lady Patricia at Brandon Abbas. The rest of Beau's band are mainly Isobel and Claudia (apparently illegitimate daughter of Lady Patricia) and Lady Patricia's relative Augustus (caddish nephew of the absent Sir Hector Brandon). John and Isobel are devoted to each other and it is in part to spare her any suspicion of being a thief that he takes the extreme step of joining the Foreign Legion. When a precious jewel known as the "Blue Water" goes missing, suspicion falls on the young people, and Beau leaves Britain to join the French Foreign Legion in Algeria, followed by his brothers, Digby (his twin) and John. After recruit training in Sidi Bel Abbes and some active service skirmishing with tribesmen in the south, John and Beau are posted to the little garrison of the desert outpost of Fort Zinderneuf in the French Soudan. Their commander there is the sadistic Sergeant Major Lejaune who drives his abused subordinates to the verge of mutiny. Only an attack by Tuaregs prevents mass desertion (only the Geste brothers and a few loyals are against the plot). Throughout the book and adventures, Beau's behaviour is true to France and the Legion, and he dies at his post. Digby, detached for service with mule−mounted infantry and part of the relief column that reaches Fort Zindeneuf, is subsequently killed in a skirmish. At Brandon Abbas, the last survivor of the three brothers, John, is welcomed by their aunt and his fiancée Isobel, and the reason for the jewel theft is revealed to have been a matter of honour, and to have been the only "decent thing" possible.