''The Blue Lagoon'' is a romance novel written by

Henry De Vere Stacpoole Henry de Vere Stacpoole (9 April 1863 – 12 April 1951) was an Irish author. His best-known work is the 1908 romance novel '' The Blue Lagoon'', which has been adapted into multiple films. He published using his own name and sometimes the pseud ...

and was first published by

T. Fisher Unwin T. Fisher Unwin was the London publishing house founded by Thomas Fisher Unwin, husband of British Liberal politician Jane Cobden in 1882. Unwin was a co-founder of the Johnson Club, formed 13 September 1884, to mark the hundred years since the ...

in 1908. It is the first novel of the ''Blue Lagoon'' trilogy, which also includes ''

The Garden of God ''The Garden of God'' is a romance novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole, first published in 1923. It is the first sequel to his best-selling novel ''The Blue Lagoon (novel), The Blue Lagoon'' (1908), and continued (and concluded) with ''The Gates of ...

'' (1923) and ''

The Gates of Morning ''The Gates of Morning'' is a romance novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole, first published in 1925. It is the third and final novel of the ''Blue Lagoon'' trilogy which began with '' The Blue Lagoon'' (1908) and continued with '' The Garden of God' ...

'' (1925). The novel has inspired several film adaptations, most notably the 1980 film '' The Blue Lagoon'' starring

Brooke Shields Brooke Christa Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress and model. She was initially a child model and gained critical acclaim at age 12 for her leading role in Louis Malle's film ''Pretty Baby'' (1978). She continued to model into ...

and

Christopher Atkins Christopher Atkins Bomann (born February 21, 1961) is an American actor and businessman, perhaps best known for his debut in the 1980 film '' The Blue Lagoon'' and playing Peter Richards in ''Dallas'' (1983–1984). Early life Christopher Atki ...

Plot summary

The story centers on two cousins, Dick and Emmeline Lestrange, who are marooned with a galley cook on an island in the South Pacific following a shipwreck. The galley cook, Paddy Button, assumes responsibility for the children and teaches them how to survive, cautioning them to avoid the "arita" berries, which he calls "the never-wake-up berries". Two and a half years after the shipwreck, Paddy dies following a drinking binge. The children survive on their resourcefulness and the bounty of their remote paradise. They live in a hut and spend their days fishing, swimming, diving for pearls and exploring the island. As the years pass, Dick and Emmeline grow into physically mature young adults and begin to fall in love. Ignorant of their

human sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

, they do not understand or know how to express their physical attraction to one another. Eventually, they consummate their relationship. The author,

, describes their sexual encounter as having been "conducted just as the birds conduct their love affairs. An affair absolutely natural, absolutely blameless and without sin. It was a marriage according to nature, without feast or guests".Stacpoole, H. de Vere. 1921. ''The Blue Lagoon''. Duffield Publishing. p.229. Accessed October 9, 2021
Book URL
Dick becomes very attentive toward Emmeline, listening to her stories and bringing her gifts. Over several months they make love often and eventually Emmeline becomes pregnant. The couple does not understand the physical changes happening to Emmeline's body and have no knowledge of childbirth. When the day comes for delivery, Emmeline disappears into the forest and returns with a child. They discover over time that the baby requires a name and they call him "Hannah" because they have only ever known an infant called by that name. Dick and Emmeline teach Hannah how to swim, fish, throw spears and play in the mud. They survive a violent

tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

and other natural hazards of island life. Back in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, Arthur, Dick's father and Emmeline's uncle, believes the two are still alive and is determined to find them, after recognizing a child's tea set belonging to Emmeline which was retrieved by a whaler on an island. Arthur finds a captain willing to take him to the island and they set out. Meanwhile, Dick, Emmeline and Hannah row their lifeboat to the place where they had once lived with Paddy as children. Emmeline breaks a branch off the deadly arita plant as Dicky cuts bananas on the shore. While in the boat with her son, Emmeline fails to notice that Hannah has tossed one of the oars into the sea. The tide comes in and sweeps the boat into the lagoon, leaving Emmeline and Hannah stranded. As Dicky swims to them, he is pursued by a shark. Emmeline strikes the shark with the remaining oar, earning Dick time to climb into the boat safely. Although they are not far from shore, the trio cannot get back without the oars and they are unable to retrieve them from the water because of the shark. The boat is then caught in the current and drifts out to sea; all the while Emmeline still grasps the arita branch. Sometime later, Arthur's ship comes across the lifeboat and finds the three unconscious but still breathing. The arita branch is now bare save for one berry. Arthur asks, "Are they dead?" and the captain replies, "No, sir. They are asleep". The ambiguous ending leaves it uncertain whether or not they can be revived.

Characters

* Emmeline Lestrange: a shipwrecked orphan, the heroine * Dick Lestrange: Emmeline's cousin, a shipwrecked orphan, the hero * Paddy Button: the galley cook of the wrecked ship * Arthur Lestrange: Dick's father and Emmeline's uncle * Hannah: Dick and Emmeline's son

Films

Six films have been based on this novel: * '' The Blue Lagoon'' (1923), a silent film directed by W. Bowden and Dick Cruickshanks, starring

Molly Adair Mary Marguerite Potter (24 March 1905 – 9 September 1990), known professionally as Molly Adair, was an English stage and silent screen actress. She was married to Arthur James Siggins, a policeman who later became a writer, from New Zealan ...

and Dick Cruickshanks (lost) * '' The Blue Lagoon'' (1949), directed by

Frank Launder Frank Launder (28 January 1906 – 23 February 1997) was a British writer, film director and producer, who made more than 40 films, many of them in collaboration with Sidney Gilliat. Early life and career He was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, ...

, starring

Jean Simmons Jean Merilyn Simmons, (31 January 1929 – 22 January 2010) was a British actress and singer. One of J. Arthur Rank's "well-spoken young starlets", she appeared predominantly in films, beginning with those made in Great Britain during and afte ...

and

Donald Houston Donald Daniel Houston (6 November 1923 – 13 October 1991) was a Welsh actor whose first two films—'' The Blue Lagoon'' (1949) with Jean Simmons, and ''A Run for Your Money'' (1949) with Alec Guinness—were highly successful. Later in ...

; currently owned by

ITV Studios ITV Studios is a British multinational television production and distribution company owned by the British television broadcaster ITV plc. It handles production and distribution of programmes broadcast on the ITV network and third-party broadcas ...

through

The Rank Organisation The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribut ...

film library * '' The Blue Lagoon'' (1980), directed by

Randal Kleiser John Randal Kleiser (born July 20, 1946) is an American film and television director, producer, screenwriter and actor, best known for directing the 1978 musical romantic-comedy film '' Grease''. Biography John Randal Kleiser was born in Lebanon ...

, starring

and

; released by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

* '' Pengantin Pantai Biru'' (1983), an Indonesian adaptation * ''

Return to the Blue Lagoon ''Return to the Blue Lagoon'' is a 1991 American South Seas romantic adventure film directed and produced by William A. Graham and starring Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause. The film is a sequel to '' The Blue Lagoon'' (1980). The screenplay b ...

'' (1991), directed by William A. Graham, starring

Brian Krause Brian Jeffrey Krause (born February 1, 1969) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Leo Wyatt on The WB television series ''Charmed'' (1998–2006) and for portraying the lead role of Charles Brady in the 1992 horror film ''Sleepwalk ...

and

Milla Jovovich Milica Bogdanovna Jovovich; sr-Latn, Milica Bogdanovna Jovović; russian: Милица Богдановна Йовович; uk, Милиця Богданoвна Йовович ( ; born December 17, 1975), known professionally as Milla Jovo ...

; released by Columbia Pictures * '' Blue Lagoon: The Awakening'' (2012); produced by

Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Entertainm ...

for Lifetime

References

External links

* * *
Primordial, and Three Laws & the Golden Rule
' by

Morgan Robertson Morgan Andrew Robertson (September 30, 1861 – March 24, 1915) was an American author of short stories and novels, and the self-proclaimed inventor of the periscope. Early life Robertson was the son of Andrew Robertson, a ship captain on the ...

. These 1898 stories, which first appeared in '' Harper's'' monthly, are considered by some fans and scholars to be precursors to ''The Blue Lagoon''. Some editions of ''The Blue Lagoon'' include ''Primordial'' in the appendix, the editors believing that Stacpoole may have been inspired by it. * Fans of

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best-known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, he ...

also acknowledge Robertson's contribution to Stacpoole's work as they study how both stories influenced Burroughs in the creation of

Tarzan of the Apes ''Tarzan of the Apes'' is a 1912 story by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the first in the Tarzan series. It was first serialized in the pulp magazine '' The All-Story'' beginning October 1912 before being released as a novel in June ...

''The Ape-Man, His Kith and Kin''
by Georges Doddes, published in ''Erbzine'', is a collection of stories and references to stories about shipwrecked, feral children predating the Tarzan novels. ''The Blue Lagoon'' and ''Primordial/ Three Laws & the Golden Rule'' are reprinted in their entirety. {{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Lagoon, The 1908 British novels British romance novels Castaways in fiction Incest in fiction Irish novels adapted into films Novels by Henry De Vere Stacpoole Novels about survival skills Novels set in Oceania Novels set on islands Works about cousins Works about children Juvenile sexuality in books Fictional feral children Fictional English people Fictional children

Plot summary

Characters

Films

See also

References

External links