The Gates of Morning

The Gates of Morning Synopsis

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.