Audiobook14 hours
Beau Geste
Written by Percival Wren
Narrated by David Case
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5
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About this audiobook
A column of French Legionnaires finds one of their fortresses manned by dead men. It looks like the sergeant was killed by one of his own troops. Who could have done it?
A flashback then unravels the mystery of the three English Geste brothers. The 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. The three brothers 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 the brothers' 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.
A classic, rip-roaring tale of adventure!
A flashback then unravels the mystery of the three English Geste brothers. The 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. The three brothers 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 the brothers' 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.
A classic, rip-roaring tale of adventure!
Reviews for Beau Geste
Rating: 3.1146496815286624 out of 5 stars
3/5
157 ratings12 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This story had me hooked right from the beginning. I was very intrigued by the boyhood dream becoming reality. Though it is not the happiest of endings, it is a reminder that life is not a game. We need to be ready for whatever it may bring.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I enjoyed reading several of Wren's French Foreign Legion stories when young. I actually liked the short stores best, but this first caught my interest, about English gentlemen who join the Foreign Legion due to a misunderstanding, as I recall. This furnishes the "Fort Zinderneuf" setting in which Snoopy of Peanuts also serves.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Good brothers read as brothers are a key part of this story. Set in times past when communication was hard and soldiers were less part of a team and more following orders from the mad and powerful. There is a great puzzle in this story which is gripping and entertaining. I expect that when it was first published, it pleased the establishment as it heralds soldiers honesty and their following of military rules. I expect it was also a favourite amongst soldiers posted far from home too. There is lots of rich description and many interesting characters.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The French Foreign Legion. We have all heard about these men. The heroics and horrors of being among them. This is a work of fiction but it definitely builds the legend. Makes a young boy want to run of and join and and older man fear he's fate if forced to join.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5High adventure of the very best sort; the kind that morphs from ghost story to Victorian mystery, to Foreign Legion derring-do. So absorbing that I missed my bus as it came and went while I sat on the bench turning pages in a wicked October wind. At the time, the breathtaking anti-semitism didn't bother me as much as it would today, but I was 13 and my father's son.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The story is quite old fashioned, but I enjoyed the read.