Beau Geste - Tapa blanda

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 British upper class values of a time gone by, and "the decent thing to do" is, in fact, the leitmotif of the novel. The Geste brothers are orphans and have been brought up by their aloof aunt Lady Patricia at Brandon Abbas. The rest of Beau's band are mainly Isobel and Claudia (apparently illegitimate daughter of Lady Patricia) and Lady Patricia's relative Augustus (caddish nephew of the absent Sir Hector Brandon). 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 Foreign Legion. When a precious jewel known as the "Blue Water" goes missing, suspicion falls on the young people, and Beau leaves Britain 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, John and Beau are posted to the little garrison of the desert outpost of Fort Zinderneuf in the French Soudan. Their commander there is the sadistic Sergeant Major Lejaune who drives his abused subordinates to the verge of mutiny. Only an attack by Tuaregs prevents mass desertion (only the Geste brothers and a few loyals are against the plot). Throughout the book and adventures, Beau's behaviour is true to France and the Legion, and he dies at his post. Digby, detached for service with mule−mounted infantry and part of the relief column that reaches Fort Zindeneuf, is subsequently killed in a skirmish. At Brandon Abbas, the last survivor of the three brothers, John, is welcomed by their aunt and his fiancée Isobel, and the reason for the jewel theft is revealed to have been a matter of honour, and to have been the only "decent thing" possible.