Summary
Summary of Barbarians
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Waiting gives way to action
On a hot wharf, twelve men board a mule transport bound for France. They differ in work, education and experience, but share disgust at the slaughter in Europe and the politicians at home who refuse to act. Soldiers, a painter, a doctor, mule handlers and unnamed waiters begin the same journey.
Their common departure sets the tales in motion. Each wants to stop waiting, yet none knows where the war will take him. Chance will turn their shared resolve into very different personal tests.
Key idea 2
Silence turns comrades against each other
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Key idea 3
Friendship meets the claims of war
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Key idea 4
A stranger tests familiar kindness
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Key idea 5
Old omens surround a present danger
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Key idea 6
Private greed follows men into battle
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Key idea 7
Bells bring affection close to danger
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Key idea 8
Small clues awaken Maryette's suspicion
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Key idea 9
Small details carry the larger struggle
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
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 this book is
Barbarians is a wartime book of linked tales by Robert W. Chambers, the American novelist, written while the First World War was still raging. It begins with a dozen men who are sick of waiting for their government to act. They sail for Europe on a mule transport to find a fight worth joining. Chambers wants his readers to feel what the invasion of France and Belgium means, and he builds his stories to rouse that feeling.
Each tale follows one passenger, or one small group, into a different corner of the war. You visit a snowbound observation post in the Vosges, a mountain pasture in the Carnic Alps, a lonely Breton moor, a mossy house with a haunted moat, a trench near the front, and a quiet French town whose carillon of bells can be heard in the lines. Some of these stories are short and grim. The longest belongs to three American mule handlers and a young woman who plays the bells.
Along the way you meet clocks that strike the wrong hour, a butterfly collector with sharp eyes, a doctor facing a slow poison, a ward boss in a Foreign Legion trench, and a refugee student who studies moths. The book takes its side openly. It gives you adventure, ghost story, spy plot and love story in one volume. Let us start with the twelve men on the hot wharf.
In this summary
- 1Twelve fed-up men sail for the warFree
- 2Silence on Falcon Peak breeds madness
- 3An old classmate on the alp
- 4The wounded airplane over the Breton moors
- 5Neeland and the shadow in the moat
- 6Dr. Vail and the ward boss in the trench
- 7Burley and the carillon girl of Sainte Lesse
- 8The bells of Nivelle and a plan of vengeance
- 9A gardener who studies moths
- 10What the tales say about war and how they are told
Key point 1 of 10
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.
The painter Neeland greets Wayland, and Dr. Vail studies the lame man with a physician's eye. Below deck are three muleteers, Jack Burley, Sticky Smith and Kid Glenn, who wear khaki uniforms that no army has issued them. One of them invented the costume. All three are fighters by temper, and all three want to hit something, even if it is only a mule.
The last four men are French and Belgian waiters from New York, who keep to themselves and vanish into the flow of troops at Calais. Nobody ever learns their names. They show the narrator's point that the fed-up men include the nameless as well as the notable.
Chambers then promises what the rest of the book delivers. Fate, Chance and Destiny will each take hold of a passenger and lead him somewhere he never planned to go. The muleteers think their business is mules and nothing else. Things they could not have dreamed of, even when drunk, are waiting for them. Carfax's story comes first, and it begins on a mountain top where the war cannot reach.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
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Check yourself
What unites the men who board the mule transport?
Right. “They are sick of the slaughter in Europe and sicker of the politicians at home who will not act.”Not quite. “They are sick of the slaughter in Europe and sicker of the politicians at home who will not act.”
What does Vail's encounter with Duck Werner set against wartime sacrifice?
Right. “The tale shows Chambers's habit of setting small human greed against the huge scale of the war.”Not quite. “The tale shows Chambers's habit of setting small human greed against the huge scale of the war.”
What do the bells chiefly symbolize across the tales?
Right. “Bells above all become a symbol of hope and of resistance, and the Brabançonne and the great bells named Bayard and Clovis carry the feeling of a whole nation.”Not quite. “Bells above all become a symbol of hope and of resistance, and the Brabançonne and the great bells named Bayard and Clovis carry the feeling of a whole nation.”
Questions about Barbarians
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.
When was Barbarians written and is it a true story?
Chambers wrote it during the First World War, and it is fiction. Its tales use real events, such as the shelling of Belgian bell towers, as the backdrop for invented characters and plots.
Is Barbarians easy to follow?
Yes, the tales are short and clearly separated, each centered on a few memorable characters and places. The vivid scenes, lively dialogue and recurring images of bells and moths make it simple to keep track.
