Henry de Vere Stacpoole (1863–1951)

I have read many of the classic “ship wrecked on a desert isle” books including Swiss Family Robinson and The Coral Island but somehow I had missed The Blue Lagoon by Henry de Vere Stacpoole. I had the idea that this book was written more as a salacious look at two young people discovering sex, but in actuality, I found this to be a fascinating story of survival.

Two young cousins, Dick and Emmeline are stranded on a remote South Pacific Island. They are cared for by an elderly Irish show more sailor, Paddy Button, who teaches them the art of survival. Paddy dies after two years on the island when the children are about thirteen. Distraught and uncertain, they carry on without him, living well on fruits they gather and fish they catch. Another few years pass and during this time the children mature and, yes, do discover each other sexually. This is handled very discreetly and Emmeline goes on to have a baby. Meanwhile Dick’s father has never given up hope that the children are alive and continues his search for them.

Originally published in 1908, this is a short book with a lot of story packed into it. The author himself had spent time at sea in the South Pacific so his descriptions were accurate and his writing lyrical. Parts of the story were quite dated and parts required the reader the stretch his imagination (I am thinking of Emmeline giving birth), but I particularly loved the ambiguous ending. The Blue Lagoon was a very good read and deserves a place of honor on my Desert Island shelf. show less

This novel published in 1908 has been described as a coming of age romance novel, and so it is, though with a difference. Child cousins Dick and Emmeline are left stranded on a tropical paradise island after a shipwreck leaves them there with just the ship's cook. The latter looks after his charges for a couple of years as they start to grow up, but then is killed by a shark after getting drunk on a stash of rum he uncovers on the island. Dick and Emmeline grow up and the novel's pace slows show more down as they become more accustomed to and integrated into a rather implausibly idyllic lifestyle. There are some beautiful descriptions of the colours and light on their island. The young couple fall in love and go through a form of marriage ceremony (to accord with the mores of the time of writing) and surprise themselves by having a baby, or rather the baby appears from nowhere to Dick's astonishment. They survive a devastating cyclone, but their island idyll eventually comes to an end when, after an accident, they and the baby are blown out into the open ocean in their dinghy. The final section shows what happened to the few other survivors of the shipwreck, including Dick's father and Emmeline's uncle and guardian, Arthur Lestrange. Years later and rather implausibly Arthur finds a clue to his young relatives' fate and hires a ship and eventually finds the dinghy containing their seeming sleeping forms... but the story ends on a cliffhanger. I found out subsequently the author wrote two sequels later on in the 1920s, which I shall obtain as I rather enjoyed this rather different novel. show less

If I didn’t know beforehand that this was first published in 1898, I would’ve guessed it was penned no earlier than the 1950s. Although it doesn’t feel like a modern novel, it feels ahead of its time owing to the way it’s written.

The author creates a vivid picture of what’s going on without being over-descriptive. For most of the time, we see life from the lead female character’s viewpoint, who is in no way one-dimensional.

This story is not likely to leave any reader scared out show more of their wits, but the tone is notably eerie for much of the time. The supernatural element involves a long-standing curse and two of the characters having flashbacks of themselves as different people living about 200 years earlier. The author manages to convey all this very well.

The first half or more of the book gripped me, and although the last few chapters were engaging, they didn’t hold me in the same way, which is why I've rated it four stars instead of five. show less

Very entertaining. Guy gets swapped into the position of his aristocratic lookalike, who has a rubbish reputation, massive debts, and an estranged wife. The aristocrat then goes off and gets himself killed, leaving the clueless stranger (Jones) to carry his name and make whatever he can of this dubious life. Fortunately, Jones is bold and decisive, just the man to redeem a reputation that had gone to the dogs. (If he can also handle the lunatic asylum he gets thrown into.)