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.
The pivotal event that launches the story is the disappearance of a precious jewel known as the Blue Water. Suspicion falls on the band of young people, and Michael 'Beau' Geste 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 Touaregs prevents mutiny and mass desertion (only the Geste brothers and a few loyalists are against the plot).
In Beau Ideal (1929), Wren details what happened on the night of the theft of the Blue Water. Good Gestes extends the saga in a collection of short tales, half of which are about the Geste brothers and their American friends Hank and Buddy, who also feature prominently in the story.