The Garden of God (1923) is a novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. The second in a trilogy of novels including The Blue Lagoon (1908) and The Gates of Morning (1925), The Garden of God is a story of romance and adventure inspired by the author’s travels in the South Pacific. The novel was adapted into the film Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991), a sequel to the 1980 hit drama starring Brooke Shields. “The whale boat and the dinghy lay together, gunnels grinding as they lifted to the swell. […] [B]eyond and around from sky-line to sky-line the blue Pacific lay desolate beneath the day. ‘They are dead.’ He was gazing at the forms on the dinghy, the form of a girl with a child embraced in one arm, and a youth. Clasping one another, they seemed asleep.” Aboard the whaling vessel Raratonga, Arthur Lestrange discovers his long-lost son and niece after years of searching. As they pull up alongside their fishing boat, however, he realizes they are too late—the shipwrecked youths have succumbed to the elements. Between them, a child lies asleep, offering some hope to the devastated father and crew. Visited by Dick and Emmeline in a dream, Arthur endeavors to return to Palm Tree, the island where they raised their son in peace. There, the boy is brought up by his grandfather and a crewmember named Jim Kearney, who keep him safe and teach him the ways of survival. When a beautiful Kanaka native named Karolin arrives from a nearby atoll, he discovers something no one could have prepared him for: love. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Henry De Vere Stacpoole’s The Garden of God is a classic of British literature reimagined for modern readers.
