The Gates of Morning (1925) is a novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. The
third in a trilogy of novels including The Blue Lagoon (1908) and The
Garden of God (1923), The Gates of Morning is a story of romance and
adventure inspired by the author's travels in the South Pacific. The
trilogy led to two major Hollywood adaptations, including the 1980 hit
drama The Blue Lagoon starring Brooke Shields and Return to the Blue
Lagoon (1991) starring Milla Jovovich. "Dick standing on a ledge of
coral cast his eyes to the South. Behind him the breakers of the outer
sea thundered and the spindrift scattered on the wind; before him
stretched an ocean calm as a lake, infinite, blue, and flown about by
the fishing gulls--the lagoon of Karolin." Following the deaths of his
mother and father, Dick Lestrange is raised on the island of Palm Tree
by his grandfather and a crewmember named Jim Kearney, who keep him safe
and teach him the ways of survival. In love with the adopted Spanish
daughter of the Kanaka people, he leaves home for the nearby island of
Karolin to live with Katafa. When disaster strikes, young Dick is
selected to lead the Kanakas against an uprising of Melanesian slaves.
Blending romance and adventure, Henry De Vere Stacpoole tells a story of
perseverance and survival intended to call attention to the destruction
of the South Sea Islands by European colonists and explorers. With a
beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this
edition of Henry De Vere Stacpoole's The Gates of Morning is a classic
of British literature reimagined for modern readers.
