15 h 3 minAudiobook8 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 if your greatest gifts come from another world—and your deepest longings begin before your birth?
Barty Josselin learns fast, moves boldly, and has a natural feeling for art and music. His close friend, a writer, sets out to tell his life with affection. In George du Maurier’s The Martian, school days, shared hopes, and the streets of Paris and London frame a question: where does Barty’s extraordinary talent come from?
The answer takes shape in Martia, a gentle being from Mars who speaks and acts through Barty. Around this strange bond, love, work, and friendship keep their human warmth. As the narrator tries to understand his friend, the novel explores reincarnation and asks whether the gifts and longings of one life might reach back into another.
What you’ll discover
- A remarkable friend Meet Barty through the fond memories of someone who knows him closely.
- A gentle otherworldly presence Encounter Martia, whose bond with Barty brings a different way of seeing the world.
- Art woven into life Follow a gifted boy whose feeling for art and music helps shape his days.
- The question of rebirth Explore the possibility that talent and longing have roots beyond a single childhood.
- Time for fond memories Settle into a leisurely voice, full of asides, jokes, and affection for a friend.
Who will love it
For readers who love Victorian storytelling, friendship woven with the supernatural, and ideas that sit between science and faith. Art, music, love and reincarnation give Barty's life its otherworldly pull.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A friend sets out to tell Barty's life
- A gifted boy grows up between two countries
- A voice from Mars enters the story
- Love, art and friendship shape Barty's days
- Reincarnation asks if we live more than once
- A gentle, old fashioned way of telling
Who’s who
- Barty JosselinA gifted, charming man whose talents seem to come from beyond himself, and whose life is the subject of the whole book.
- MartiaA gentle being from Mars who is bound up with Barty and speaks through him, bringing a different way of seeing the world.
- The narratorBarty's close friend and a writer, who records his life with affection and tries to understand what he saw.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Read and hear The Martian: A Novel 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.
The Martian: A Novel
by George Du Maurier · 1897
A being from Mars speaks through gifted Barty Josselin, opening the question of whether love reaches beyond one life.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A friend sets out to tell Barty's life
The story begins with the man who tells it. He is a writer and an old friend of Barty Josselin, and he says plainly that he wants to give a true account of a life he watched from close by. This gives the book the feel of a memoir, written with affection and a little awe. The teller is not the hero. He stands beside the hero, and he is the one who has to make sense of what he saw.
That choice matters. A friend can describe Barty from outside, with all the warmth of long years, and can admit when he does not understand. He cannot see into Barty's mind, so he must rely on what Barty said, wrote and did. When strange things happen, the reader meets them through an honest but puzzled witness.
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What is The Martian by George du Maurier about?
It tells the life of Barty Josselin, a gifted man, through the eyes of a close friend. The book links him to Martia, a being from Mars, and weaves in love, art and the idea of reincarnation.
Is The Martian by George du Maurier the same as the Andy Weir novel?
No. Du Maurier's book was published in 1897 and is a Victorian tale of friendship, love and the supernatural. Andy Weir's novel of the same name is a modern science story about survival on Mars.
When was The Martian by du Maurier written and published?
It was Du Maurier's last novel and appeared in 1897, after his death in 1896. It belongs to the late Victorian age, when spiritualism and the idea of life on Mars both fascinated the public.
The author
George Du Maurier
1834–1896 · British cartoonist and novelist
George du Maurier (1834–1896) was a French-British cartoonist and novelist. He was born in Paris and later lived in London, where he worked for Punch magazine. He wrote Peter Ibbetson (1891) and Trilby (1894). His novel The Martian appeared after his death, in 1897. He died in London.
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