![Book Cover of The Blue Lagoon](/image/book/the-blue-lagoon.webp)
The Blue Lagoon
'The Blue Lagoon' 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, they do not understand or know how to express their physical attraction to one another. Eventually, they consummate their relationship. The author, Henry De Vere Stacpoole, 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."
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 and other natural hazards of island life.
Back in San Francisco, 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.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1908Author
![H. De Vere Stacpoole image](/thumbs/image/author/h-de-vere-stacpoole.webp)
H. De Vere Stacpoole
Ireland, United Kingdom
Henry de Vere Stacpoole 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 th...
More on H. De Vere StacpooleDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
![The Wailing Octopus Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/the-wailing-octopus.webp)
The Wailing Octopus by Harold L. Goodwin
It follows the journey of a marine biologist, Dr. Terry Kent, as he investigates a mysterious and deadly creature terrorizing a small island in the Pa...
![Captain Salt in Oz Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/captain-salt-in-oz.webp)
Captain Salt in Oz by Ruth Thompson
A voyage on the famous Nonestic Ocean! What could be more thrilling than that? We—many of us—have taken trips on the prosaic Atlantic or even Pacific,...
![Fifty Famous Stories Retold Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/fifty-famous-stories-retold.webp)
Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin
King Alfred and the Cakes. Damon and Pythias. The Sword of Damocles. Bruce and the Spider. These are stories that many people who grew up in the last...
![Tom Swift and His War Tank Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/tom-swift-and-his-war-tank.webp)
Tom Swift and His War Tank by Victor Appleton
Tom Swift and His War Tank, Or, Doing His Bit for Uncle Sam, is Volume 21 in the original Tom Swift novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap.
![The Adventures of Maya the Bee Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/the-adventures-of-maya-the-bee.webp)
The Adventures of Maya the Bee by Waldemar Bonsels
Maya the Bee (German: Die Biene Maja) is the main character in The Adventures of Maya the Bee, a German book written by Waldemar Bonsels and published...
![The Princess and the Goblin Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/the-princess-and-the-goblin.webp)
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
The Princess and the Goblin is a children's fantasy novel by George MacDonald. It was published in 1872 by Strahan & Co., with black-and-white illustr...
![Maoriland Fairy Tales Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/maoriland-fairy-tales.webp)
Maoriland Fairy Tales by Edith Howes
Most of the tales have some basis in history. It is an oral language so all histories have to be remembered and retold. To help with this memory retel...
![Bowser the Hound Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/bowser-the-hound.webp)
Bowser the Hound by Thornton Burgess
Old Man Coyote craftily leads Bowser the hound away from home, and Bowser gets lost. Will Bowser find his way back to Farmer Brown's? Will Reddy Fox f...
![Go She Must! Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/go-she-must.webp)
Go She Must! by David Garnett
"Go She Must!" by David Garnett is an engaging and adventurous book that captures the imagination of young readers. Written by the acclaimed English w...
![Bannertail: The Story of a Graysquirrel Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/bannertail-the-story-of-a-graysquirrel.webp)
Bannertail: The Story of a Graysquirrel by Ernest Thompson Seton
In the heart of an enchanting forest, a tale of courage, friendship, and the wonders of nature unfolds. "Bannertail: The Story of a Graysquirrel" by E...
Reviews for The Blue Lagoon
No reviews posted or approved, yet...