Beau Ideal (novel)
Beau Ideal is a 1927 novel by P. C. Wren. It was the second sequel to Beau Geste.[1]
It was adapted into the 1931 film Beau Ideal.
Plot
The tale of Otis Vanbrugh, brother of Hank and Mary Vanbrugh, who feature in Beau Sabreur. Otis and Mary go away from a despot father in Wyoming and make the Grand Tour, which after meeting a French Colonel extends to Africa, there adventures starts and get closely knit with those narrated in Beau Sabreur and Beau Geste, in this third volume and second sequel we definitely know what happened the night the Blue Water was stolen and by whom (Wren will elaborate this part again in Spanish Maine). As always secondaries are great aka Raoul d'Auray de Redon an unsung hero of the French Secret Service.This is the "American" novel of the so called trilogy (which in fact spreads through five books), as Beau Geste is the "British" novel and "Beau Sabreur" is the "French" novel. It is a tale of platonic love.
Mainly the plot revolves around the devotion of Otis for Isobel, he is asked by Isobel Geste to find her husband John, who has disappeared in Africa trying to find his old friends Hank and Buddy (The adventures of Hank and Buddy could have been an alternative title for the three first books). Otis, who was a childhood playmate of John and who is in love with Isobel, enlists in the French Foreign Legion with the idea of committing a fault who will sent him to rejoin the penal battalion (les Joyeux) and so find John and try to rescue him.
Arabs raid the section of the penal battalion and capture Otis and John. The Arab girl the Death Angel falls in love with Otis and provides or open the line for the ending of the saga, until rehashed in "Spanish Maine".[2]
All is stitched and finished (with an elaborated and convoluted detail of what really happened the night the Blue Water was stolen) in "Spanish Maine". Fifth volume of the adventures of John Geste (the fourth "Good Gestes" is a collection of short stories, and there is also another short one in "Flawed Blades").
References
- "LI[?]S". The Australasian. Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 23 July 1927. p. 62 Edition: METROPOLITAN EDITION. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
- Review of book accessed 21 December 2014