YMMV / Beau Geste

• Glurge: Often seen as this by modern readers. Besides the story's constant efforts to sell Michael as a noble and heroic figure, it practically wallows in over-the-top sentimentality at the slightest provocation. Particularly gratuitous is Digby's death, which so manages to be both jarringly abrupt and ridiculously sentimentalized that it almost feels as though the author was just ticking off a list of emotional buttons to press.
• Lawful Stupid: Michael's actions, while honorable and courageous in intent, were almost certainly quite unnecessary, and all he really accomplished was to cause his family grief, get himself and his twin brother killed, and most likely leave John with lasting trauma.