Beau Geste

By: P.C. Wren

Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard

Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

(P)1997 Blackstone Audiobooks

Definitely a classic.

I have concluded that there is a reason why classic books are classics.

Beau Geste is a great story, with adventure, mystery, and a smattering of romance. I was expecting a desert war story, but got what turned out to be mostly a mystery.

This book is extremely well read and the audio quality is also excellent. I highly recommend it.

Intriguing, wonderful tale, very well told.

To start off, the narration of this work is among the very best I have heard. It is stellar. The story itself is marvelous. One of those stories that truly transports you to another place and time; in this case, in the hot deserts of African and among the French Foreign Legion. Having never read the novel, it was a total delight to come across such a fine work of story telling. If you like adventure stories and rich prose, you will like this book very much.

The story was good but the narrator was perfection

This was one of those books that I might have dismissed if not for the narrator. The story isn't all that appealing to a sixty something woman, really more the daring do for pre adolescent boy. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it and I'm glad I got it, but I can see how this book would be a male favorite. The thing that made it great for me Geoffrey Howard. I enjoyed him so much I'm back to Audible looking for other books he's narrated.

Pleasantly surprised

I did not know anything about this book other than I had heard the name. I was pleasantly surprised by the story, fascinated by the narrative and interested by the author's approach to logical dilemas. Toward the end, the story was slightly slow but interesting nonetheless. It is mostly a war narrative with some interesting characters and an underlying mystery. Perhaps not recomended for those not interested in learning more about the French Foreign Legion or reading about battles. But even in that case, the issues the characters dealt with were more about the decision making process than the fighting.

My favorite audio book

My favorite adventure story and favorite narrator! Beautifully written cliff hanger! If you like the sound of the sample, you will love this book.

Death and casual racism in the Sahara

First off, this is listed as a kid's book. Beware! The book starts with tableau of death, the killing of an enlisted man by an officer, and a nightmarish scene of dead men posed to defend a fort. It continues with a tale of rich white aristocracy in the United Kingdom and the duty that they had to their tenants. Finally, we have a long trek through the Sahara, replete with casual racial slurs, such as "nigs" and something that is today a disparaging term, "Musselman" to indicate Muslim.

I certainly would not hand this book to a typical 12 year old, and in all candor, I don't think I would have liked it at 16, and I had my own digs at that age. Maybe 25, when I was more understanding of what a period piece was.

All that said, it was a good story, and I'm trying to review without spoilers here. But if you grabbed this because it is free and you want to use it to read your kids to sleep from the echo dot, there are better choices.

Excellent adventure and a worthy story

The author took time in the first chapters of the book to build out the context of the characters and relationships involved in a rather complex story, so the reader would have a fuller understanding of the implications of the events as the story unfolded. If the reader is patient to read or listen carefully on the front end, he or she will be more that amply rewarded in the end. This is a tale rich in the telling of romance, tragedy, and adventure. Last year I listened to 68 audio books, including a number of immense tomes. I am generally quite over particular concerning the narrator of an audio book, believing that a skilled reader can make a poor book tolerable to listen to just as a poor reader can make a good book a wretched experience. Geoffrey Howard is a master interpreter employing the right pacing, inflection, accents, and natural articulation. He was consistent in his reading, while differentiating his characters well. The publishers could not have chosen a better narrator for this particular story.

Great mistery book!

I liked this book a lot. It combines a mistery and historical description with colorful details of the time. I also enjoyed wonderful narration. G.Howard has a very pleasant voice and did amazing job on different accents and languages! Listening to this audio book is almost like watching a movie, I could imaging everything very vividly! I know that there are 3 movies filmed based on this novel. The mistery kept me on the edge of my seat till the last page!

A dated thriller

An uneven book with some quite interesting and exciting portions mixed with protracted dull parts that do not contribute to the main story. The dialogue is at times repetitive and dull.
Old British Empire superiority and a short anti semantic portion are a little hard to take.
I don't recommend it.

GOOD ADVENTURE

Do not miss this book if you like well written,old fashioned adventure stories. I was sorry when it came to an end. The narrator mr. Geoffrey Howard is just the right voice. Thanks to everyone involved, JK

Superb reading of a classic adventure

Beau Geste is a rich mystery adventure story. The tragic heroic acts central to the narrative would not be out of place in a Dumas novel, with the title character's destiny being particularly heart-rending.

Although unconfirmed, speculation at the time of publication was that the author had himself served in the French Foreign Legion. His vignettes of life in the Legion are fascinating, entertaining and educational. A true classic in the boys own adventure genre.

The narration in this recording is excellent with the author coping admirably with the French and Arabic vocabulary.

Very highly recommended.

Glorious, heroic- but traumatic too.

This is superb- a gripping mix of mystery, the sahara, the macabre and adventure- though more than anything else it is a celebration of esprit de corps and 'doing the right thing'.

In short it is everything that one might want from an audiobook- and the narration could hardly be better.

On the other hand, I was left with a bitter taste- (not to give the plot away)- I found the over-arching mystery less interesting and less significant than the second mystery that was caused by/ contained within it.

It's no plot spoiler to reveal that the first-person narrator survives to the end and that everything is cleared up- but it comes as rather an anti-climax and a hollow victory. I was left feeling rather annoyed with P.C Wren for having put my emotions through the wringer to, ultimately, so little purpose.

I expected that with an adventure story of this vintage and this classic status I would be reassured in the end that all the suffering was worthwhile- and I was cheated out of that comfort and the joy of 'boy gets girl' was not enough to blot out the (plot-wise rather needless) trauma of the last third of the adventure

A brilliant book

A very exciting story, gripping from beginning to end, performed perfectly. Both the English and the French are read very well. Fascinating detail of life in the Foreign Legion and Algeria. A very positive story. It makes you feel proud to be English. I’m sorry that I’ve come to the end of the book but I’m sure that I will listen to it again.