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 big-hearted friendships, schooldays remembered with affection, Victorian Paris and London, music and painting, and a touch of the uncanny woven into an ordinary life.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A new boy charms a Paris school
- A boy who can feel where north lies
- Revolution, a quarrel and a country summer
- London brings pleasure, a girl and a loss
- A poor artist and an old friend
- Going blind in Belgium
- A voice in the night saves a life
- Two women and one hard choice
- A friendship, a memory and a doubtful marvel
Who’s who
- Barty JosselinA tall, beautiful, musical English boy with a French mother, who clowns, draws and sings, and feels the pull of north.
- Robert MauriceBob, the narrator, a thickset schoolmate who becomes a rich wine merchant and politician and loves his friend and the friend's family.
- Leah GibsonA tall, black-eyed furrier's daughter, calm and capable, who runs her family's shop.
- MartiaA mysterious voice that writes to Barty in his own hand while he sleeps and urges him toward fame.
- Lady Caroline GreyBarty's devout, warm aunt who nurses him in Belgium and stands by his side.
- Julia RoyceA fair, radiant heiress in Germany who is drawn to Barty, and whom Martia wants him to marry.
- Monsieur BonzigA near-sighted usher who dreams of seeing the sea and paints ships he has never watched sail.
- Ida MauriceBob's sister and Leah's best friend, who loves Barty like a brother and plays the piano for him.
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- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 15 h 3 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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The Martian: A Novel
by George Du Maurier · 1897
A schoolboy pulls a white mouse from his pocket in a Paris classroom and wins the whole school's heart.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What would you do if a voice wrote to you in your own handwriting while you slept? George du Maurier's novel, The Martian, tells the life of Barty Josselin, a funny, beautiful, gifted man, through the eyes of his lifelong friend Bob Maurice.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A new boy charms a Paris school
The story is told by Robert Maurice, called Bob, who is a rich wine merchant and politician in old age. He sets out to write the life of his dearest friend, Barty Josselin, whom he thinks the finest writer of the century. He begins in the summer of 1847 at the Institution Brossard, a private school near the Bois de Boulogne.
Bob is sitting in the junior study hall when the headmaster leads in a fair English boy of thirteen. The boy winks at Bob and draws a fat white mouse from his jacket. Later Bonzig draws a seemingly endless handkerchief from the boy's mouth. The stern usher Bonzig is furious, yet by recess he is sharing chocolate drops with the boy and minding the mouse. Before the day is over, Barty has also punched a bigger boy who mocked him.
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What is The Martian by George du Maurier about?
It follows Barty Josselin from a Paris school through London, Paris and Belgium, as told by his friend Bob Maurice. Mixed in is a mysterious spirit named Martia who guides Barty through his sleep.
Who is Martia in The Martian?
Martia is a voice that writes letters in Barty's own handwriting while he sleeps. The book leaves open whether she is real or a creation of his own mind.
What does the north sense mean in The Martian?
Barty can sometimes feel exactly where north lies, as if a compass trembled inside him. The sense comes and goes and is tied to Martia's presence. It marks him out from the people around him.
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.
More by George Du Maurier
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