6 h 40 minAudiobook17 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What separates civilization from savagery when war puts duty, safety, and private wishes at odds?
In Barbarians, Robert W. Chambers turns to the First World War and the demands it places on ordinary people. Duty and sacrifice stand at the heart of this wartime fiction. Against a world in upheaval, personal comfort and safety come into conflict with obligations larger than the self.
The title raises an uneasy question: who deserves to be called a barbarian? Chambers explores what makes a person or a nation civilized when war tests those claims. Reading across a century, you also encounter attitudes toward nations and enemies that can feel forceful or one-sided today.
What you’ll discover
- Civilization under strain Explore the uncertain boundary between civilized ideals and savagery in a world at war.
- The demands of duty Consider what larger obligations ask of people whose comfort and safety are at stake.
- Sacrifice made personal Follow the tension between private wishes and the call to put something else first.
- A wartime American perspective Encounter an American writer's response to the conflict in Europe and its human demands.
- Questions across a century Reflect on how attitudes toward war, nations, and enemies shape the act of reading.
Who will love it
Readers who like war adventure, spy plots, ghostly omens and tender love stories set in French villages, and anyone curious how American writers pictured the First World War while it was being fought.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Twelve fed-up men sail for the war
- Silence on Falcon Peak breeds madness
- An old classmate on the alp
- The wounded airplane over the Breton moors
- Neeland and the shadow in the moat
- Dr. Vail and the ward boss in the trench
- Burley and the carillon girl of Sainte Lesse
- The bells of Nivelle and a plan of vengeance
- A gardener who studies moths
- What the tales say about war and how they are told
Who’s who
- Maryette CourtrayThe young mistress of the bells at Sainte Lesse, called Carillonnette, who cares for her crippled father and plays the carillon for her town.
- Jack BurleyA tall, loud, cheerful American muleteer who struggles with French, falls for Maryette, and wants to take a shot at the Germans.
- Sticky SmithBurley's dry, practical comrade, who watches over the inn with suspicion for strangers.
- Kid GlennA young former boxer and muleteer, loyal to Burley, who lends Maryette his pistol when she suspects a spy.
- Jacques WaylandAn American Foreign Legion soldier and children's writer who returns to the Breton moors to recover from a leg wound.
- Captain NeelandAn American painter serving in a Canadian battalion, sent in disguise to look into strange reports from the Breton coast.
- Countess of AulnesA young Breton noblewoman, alone in her moated house, who believes a shadow fish and wrong clocks warn of trouble for France.
- Dr. VailAn American surgeon who has served at the front and tells a story of a corrupt ward boss in the Foreign Legion.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 6 h 40 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 17 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Barbaren in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Barbaren
by Robert W. Chambers · 1917
A mule driver and a bell-mistress meet in a French town where the carillon can be heard near the front.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Barbarians is a wartime book of linked tales by Robert W. Chambers, the American novelist, written while the First World War was still raging.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Twelve fed-up men sail for the war
The book opens on a sun-scorched wharf, where a mule transport waits to sail for France. The men boarding it have little in common except disgust. They are sick of the slaughter in Europe and sicker of the politicians at home who will not act. Chambers tells us they come from every corner of the continent and every level of education, and that only two of them have ever met.
He introduces them one by one. Carfax is a young soldier of fortune who has left the Pennsylvania State Constabulary and hopes for a commission in the British service. Harry Stent is a wealthy, well-travelled hunter who has shot every kind of big game except a German. Jim Brown is a civil engineer who stands beside him at the rail. Jacques Wayland walks the deck on crutches, an American in the Foreign Legion who writes children's stories and is heading home to Brittany to heal his shattered leg.
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What is Barbarians by Robert W. Chambers about?
It follows a dozen men who sail for the First World War on a mule transport, then tells linked stories of their fates in the Alps, Brittany and France.
Who is Maryette Courtray in Barbarians?
She is the daughter of an innkeeper in Sainte Lesse, called Carillonnette because she plays the town's carillon. She befriends the American muleteer Jack Burley and uses her wits and courage to protect her town.
What is a carillon and why does it matter in the book?
A carillon is a set of fixed bells tuned to a scale and played from a keyboard. In the book it stands for hope and resistance, and its music becomes a signal to the troops.
The author
Robert W. Chambers
1865–1933 · American novelist and illustrator
Robert W. Chambers was an American writer whose 1895 collection The King in Yellow became a cornerstone of weird fiction, casting its influence over H.P. Lovecraft and generations of horror writers since. He was a successful popular novelist in his day, but this early work is what endures.
More by Robert W. Chambers
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