 | |
| Author | P. C. Wren |
|---|---|
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | John Murray |
Publication date | 1924 |
| Media type | |
| Followed by | Beau Sabreur |
Beau Geste is an adventure novel by British writer P. C. Wren, which details the adventures of three English brothers who enlist separately in the French Foreign Legion following the theft of a valuable jewel from the country house of a relative. Published in 1924, the novel is set in the period before World War I. It has been adapted for the screen several times.
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 English upper-class values of a time gone by. The Geste siblings are orphans and have been brought up by their aunt Lady Patricia at Brandon Abbas. The rest of Beau's band are mainly Isobel and Claudia (possibly the illegitimate daughter of Lady Patricia) and Lady Patricia's relative Augustus (the caddish nephew of the absent Sir Hector Brandon). While not mentioned in Beau Geste, the American Otis Vanbrugh appears as a friend of the Geste brothers in a sequel novel. 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 French Foreign Legion (following in the steps of his elder brothers).
The inciting incident is the disappearance of a precious jewel known as the "Blue Water". Suspicion falls on the band of young people, and Beau leaves England 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, Beau and John are posted to the small garrison of the fictional desert outpost of Fort Zinderneuf, while Digby and his American friends Hank and Buddy are sent to Tanout-Azzal to train with a mule mounted company. The commander at Fort Zinderneuf (after the death of two more senior officers) is the sadistic Sergeant Major Lejaune, who drives his abused subordinates to the verge of mutiny. An attack by Tuaregs prevents mutiny and mass desertion (only the Geste brothers and a few loyalists are against the plot). Throughout the book, Beau's behaviour is true to France and the Legion, and he dies at his post. Digby, Hank and Buddy arrive with a relief column from Tokotu that reaches Fort Zinderneuf too late. Together with John (the last man left standing at Zinderneuf) they desert and experience a long trek during which Digby is killed in a skirmish with Arabs.
After becoming separated from his friends Hank and Buddy in the desert, John returns to Brandon Abbas. The last survivor of the three brothers, he is welcomed by their aunt and his fiancée Isobel. In a letter from Beau delivered by John to Aunt Patricia, the reason for the jewel theft is revealed to have been to prevent Aunt Patricia's exposure for having secretly sold the jewel to enable her to extend relief to Sir Hector's exploited tenants.
In Beau Ideal and other sequels P. C. Wren ties loose strings together, including recording that Michael Geste's original reasons for joining the Foreign Legion were not only honour but also his doomed and impossible love for Claudia. The French officer of Spahis Major de Beaujolais, who commands the relief column at Fort Zinderneuf, is the narrator of Wren's subsequent novel Beau Sabreur .
The phrase "beau geste" (pronounced [bo ʒɛst] ) is from the French, meaning "a gracious (or fine) gesture". [1] However, several references in the novel allude to the fact that the name can be taken to mean 'joke', or 'humorous remark' suggest that it is pronounced like English 'jest'.
In French, the phrase includes the suggestion of a fine gesture with unwelcome or futile consequences, [1] and an allusion to the chanson de geste , a literary poem celebrating the legendary deeds of a hero. [2]
P. C. Wren wrote the sequels Beau Sabreur (1926) (in which the narrator is a French officer of Spahis who plays a secondary role in Beau Geste) and Beau Ideal (1927). In this third volume Wren details what happened the night of the theft of the Blue Water. He also wrote Good Gestes, a collection of short tales (about half of them about the Geste brothers and their American friends Hank and Buddy, who also feature prominently in Beau Sabreur and Beau Ideal) and Spanish Maine (UK) (The Desert Heritage (US)), where loose ends are tied up and the successive tales of John Geste's adventures come to an end. Life in the Foreign Legion is also represented in some, but not all, of Wren's subsequent novels: Port O'Missing Men, Soldiers of Misfortune, Valiant Dust, Dead Men's Boots, Flawed Blades (which includes also two short tales of the Geste brothers in the Legion pre-Zinderneuf), The Wages of Virtue, Stepsons of France, and The Uniform of Glory. [3] [4] [5] [6]
The original novel, on which the various films are more or less loosely based, provides a detailed and fairly authentic description of life in the pre-1914 Foreign Legion, which has led to (unproven) suggestions that P. C. Wren himself served with the Legion. Before he became a successful writer Wren's recorded career was that of a school teacher in India. [7]
Beau Geste was also adapted for the stage in 1929 by British theatrical producer Basil Dean. The production featured Laurence Olivier in the lead role and fellow actors included Madeleine Carroll and Jack Hawkins. The play ran for just five weeks. [12]
Percival Christopher Wren 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.
John Waters was an American film director, second unit director and, initially, an assistant director. His career began in the early days of silent film and culminated in two consecutive Academy Award nominations in the newly instituted category of Best Assistant Director. He won on his second nomination, for MGM's Viva Villa!, and received a certificate of merit; the certificate was replaced with an Oscar statuette in 1965.
Beau Hunks is a 1931 American Pre-Code Laurel and Hardy film, directed by James W. Horne. The title is a reference to the Beau Geste trilogy ; to the line in Beau Sabreur where Buddy says '"Sure thing, Son Hank — if a gang of Touareg Bohunks couldn't, French troops couldn't.. .. I s'pose it is us he's after?"'; or to bohunk, a common ethnic slur of the time in the United States. At 37 minutes, it is the longest Laurel and Hardy short. The French Foreign Legion scenario was reused in The Flying Deuces with Charles B. Middleton again playing their commanding officer.
"Le Boudin", officially "Marche de la Légion Étrangère", is the official march of the Foreign Legion. "Le Boudin" is a reference to boudin, a type of blood sausage or black pudding. "Le boudin" colloquially meant the gear that used to be carried atop the backpacks of Legionnaires.
The Last Remake of Beau Geste is a 1977 American historical comedy film directed, co-written and starring Marty Feldman. It is a satire loosely based on the 1924 novel Beau Geste, a frequently-filmed story of brothers and their adventures in the French Foreign Legion. The humor is based heavily upon wordplay and absurdity. Feldman plays Digby Geste, the awkward and clumsy "identical twin" brother of Michael York's Beau, the dignified, aristocratic swashbuckler.
Beau Peep was a popular British comic strip written by Roger Kettle and illustrated by Andrew Christine. The strip features the misadventures of the eponymous lead character, Beau Peep, an inept and cowardly British man who joins the tough and hardy French Foreign Legion in the deserts of North Africa to escape his terrifying wife Doris back home. There are also numerous surreal supporting characters.
This is a list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1920s, as determined by Publishers Weekly. The list features the most popular novels of each year from 1920 through 1929.
Beau Geste is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by Herbert Brenon and based on the 1924 novel Beau Geste by P. C. Wren. Ronald Colman stars as the title character.
Beau Geste is a 1939 American adventure film starring Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, and Susan Hayward. Directed and produced by William A. Wellman, the screenplay was adapted by Robert Carson, based on the 1924 novel of the same title by P. C. Wren. The music score was by Alfred Newman and cinematography was by Theodor Sparkuhl and Archie Stout.
Beau Geste is a 1966 adventure film based on the 1924 novel by P. C. Wren filmed by Universal Pictures in Technicolor and Techniscope near Yuma, Arizona and directed by Douglas Heyes. This is the least faithful of the various film adaptations of the original novel. In this version, there are only two brothers, rather than three, and there are no sequences showing Beau's life prior to his joining the Legion.
Beau Geste is a BBC television serial, based on the 1924 novel by P. C. Wren. The series aired on BBC1 from 31 October to 19 December 1982 and starred Benedict Taylor, Anthony Calf and Jonathon Morris as the three brothers.
Crock is an American comic strip created by Bill Rechin and Brant Parker depicting the French Foreign Legion. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip began in 1975 and ended in May 2012. As of January 2012, it appeared in 250 newspapers in 14 countries.
Beau Ideal is a 1931 American pre-Code adventure film directed by Herbert Brenon and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film was based on the 1927 adventure novel Beau Ideal by P. C. Wren, the third novel in a series of five novels based around the same characters. Brenon had directed the first in the series, Beau Geste, which was a very successful silent film in 1926. The screenplay was adapted from Wren's novel by Paul Schofield, who had also written the screenplay for the 1926 Beau Geste, with contributions from Elizabeth Meehan and Marie Halvey.
Beau Sabreur is a 1928 American silent romantic adventure film directed by John Waters and starring Gary Cooper and Evelyn Brent. Based on the 1926 novel Beau Sabreur by P. C. Wren, who also wrote the 1924 novel Beau Geste. Produced by Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation and distributed by Paramount Pictures, only a trailer exists of this film today. The released feature version is a lost film.
The Legion of Missing Men is a 1937 Monogram Pictures film about the French Foreign Legion set in the French protectorate of Morocco. Directed by Hamilton MacFadden, it stars Ralph Forbes who had also served in the cinematic Foreign Legion in Beau Geste (1926) and Beau Ideal (1931). Singer and actress Hala Linda was married to Richard Gump, the composer of the film's "The Legionnaires Song". It was the only film of Monogram's Marlene Dietrich imitator. The film features scenes reused from a silent film, presumably Under Two Flags.
Beau Ideal is a 1927 novel by P. C. Wren. It was the second sequel to his 1924 novel Beau Geste.
Beau Sabreur is a 1926 novel by P. C. Wren. It was the first sequel to his 1924 novel Beau Geste and was turned into a film in 1928.
Wages of Virtue is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by Allan Dwan and written by Forrest Halsey and Percival Christopher Wren. The film stars Gloria Swanson, Ben Lyon, Norman Trevor, Ivan Linow, Armand Cortes, Adrienne D'Ambricourt, and Paul Panzer. The film was released on November 10, 1924, by Paramount Pictures. It was shot at the Astoria Studios in New York.
The Beau Geste hypothesis in animal behaviour is the hypothesis that tries to explain why some avian species have such elaborate song repertoires for the purpose of territorial defence. The hypothesis takes its name from the 1924 book Beau Geste and was coined by John Krebs in 1977.
Digby is an English name of Old English and Old Norse origin, derived from a place in County Lincolnshire.