BEAU TRILOGY (BEAU GESTE, BEAU SABREUR, BEAU IDEAL) & 36 STORIES OF THE FOREIGN LEGION

by P.C. Wren

This volume contains the complete Beau Trilogy: BEAU GESTE; BEAU SABREUR and BEAU IDEAL, written by respected British writer P.C.Wren, involving the French Foreign Legion in North Africa, in which the author served.

At the beginning of the first novel, French Legionnaires find one of their fortresses manned by dead men. Who could have done it? A flashback unravels the mystery of the three English Geste brothers. A classic, rip-roaring tale of adventure...

This volume also contains 36 short stories of the Foreign Legion, grouped in four well known collection (now in one volume!):

STEPSONS OF FRANCE
Ten Little Legionaries
A la Ninon de L'Enclos
An Officer and--a Liar
The Deserter
Five Minutes
"Here are Ladies"
The MacSnorrt
"Belzébuth"
The Quest
Moonshine
The Coward of the Legion
Mahdev Rao
The Merry Liars

GOOD GESTES
What's in a Name
A Gentleman of Colour
David and His Incredible Jonathan
The McSnorrt Reminiscent
Buried Treasure
If Wishes were Horses
The Devil and Digby Geste
The Mule
Presentiments
Dreams Come True

PORT O' MISSING MEN
The Return of Odo Klemens
The Betrayal of Odo Klemens
The Life of Odo Klemens
Moon-rise
Moon-shadows
Moon-set

FLAWED BLADES
No. 187017
Bombs
Mastic--and Drastic
The Death Post
E Tenebris
Nemesis
The Hunting of Henri

Genres: Fiction, Adventure

Kindle Edition

First published April 12, 2010

About the author

Percival Christopher Wren (1 November 1875 – 22 November 1941) was a British 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, and its sequels, Beau Sabreur and Beau Ideal.

Born as plain Percy Wren, in Deptford, South London, England, Percy was the son of a schoolmaster. After graduation with a Master of Arts degree from St. Catherine's College, Oxford, a non-collegiate college for poorer students, Percy worked as a boarding school teacher for a few years, during which he married Alice Shovelier, and had a daughter (Estelle, born 1901). In 1903 he joined the Indian Education Service as headmaster of Karachi High School (now Pakistan). While in India, he joined the Poona Volunteer Rifles with the rank of Captain, before his service was terminated in October 1915 after sick leave. He resigned from the Indian Education Service in November 1917. It is presumed that his wife died in India, for no record of her return to Britain has been found; his daughter having died in England in 1910. From there it is claimed that he joined the French Foreign Legion for a single tour of five years though he would have been 42 years of age on enlistment, somewhat older that the usual recruit. He lived out the remainder of his life in England concentrating on his literary career. One of the few photographs of Wren known shows a typical British officer of the Edwardian era with clipped moustache, wearing plain dark blue regimental dress.

Wren was a highly secretive man, and his membership of 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 his extensive travels in Algeria and Morocco, 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 Duckworth London 1910.

Reviews

[Linda Chrisman · Rating 4 out of 5]

At this late date, it is amusing but I like stories of adventure and high deeds. Would have been proud to be called a "stout fellow".

[Bill Staley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wildly fun and diverting.

[Elizabeth Suzanne Emond · Rating 4 out of 5]

A splendid Romantic romp

A period piece from the tail end of the Age of Colonialism; chivalry in the desert. The characters are two-dimensional, but the intricate plot makes for a fine yarn.