The Garden of God
| Author | Henry De Vere Stacpoole |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Blue Lagoon trilogy |
| Genre | Romance |
| Publisher | Hutchinson |
|
Publication date
|
1923 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 288 pp |
| Preceded by | The Blue Lagoon |
| Followed by | The Gates of Morning |
The Garden of God is a romance novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole, first published in 1923. It is the first sequel to his best-selling novel The Blue Lagoon (1908), and continued with The Gates of Morning (1925). The Garden of God was adapted into the film Return to the Blue Lagoon.
The sequel picks up precisely where the first book left off, with Arthur Lestrange in the ship Raratonga discovering his son Dicky and niece Emmeline with their own child, lying in their fishing boat which has drifted out to sea. While the last line of The Blue Lagoon states that they are not dead but sleeping, the first line of the sequel is "No, they are dead", and we are told that they have stopped breathing. The child is drowsy but alive, and is picked up by the sailors.
Arthur is shaken, but at the same time relieved. He can see that Dicky and Emmeline were healthy, that they must have lived in peace. He feels it's better that they died while still in a savage state and did not have to return to civilization. He has a dream-vision of the pair; they ask him to come to Palm Tree, the island where they lived, and promise he will see them again.
Their child becomes quite popular with the Raratonga's crew. His favorite among the sailors is a rascally quasi-pirate called Jim Kearney. Because the child says "Dick" and "Em" while playing with the sailors, Kearney calls him Dick M.
Captain Stanistreet has been concerned for Arthur's sanity since they found Dicky and Emmeline, but he appears calm when they get to Palm Tree, investigating the things the couple left behind. Only when he enters the house and finds the flower decorations and neatly arranged supplies—unmistakably the work of Emmeline—does he break down in tears.
Arthur plans to stay on the island with Dick M, and the captain of the Raratonga asks for volunteers from among his crew to stay also. Jim Kearney volunteers. The captain says they'll return the following year, but the ship is promptly swallowed up in a storm out at sea. Arthur believes his dream-vision is partly fulfilled when he looks at Dick and notices characteristics of both Emmeline and Dicky in him. Kearney does most of the parenting for Dick.
Years pass; Arthur dies quietly while walking in the forest, and his body is never found. Kearney and Dick are left to their own devices, until an intruder enters: a young woman named Katafa (her name means "Frigatebird"). She hails from the island of Karolin, forty miles away, which is populated by Kanaka natives. It is a huge, almost treeless coral atoll, with no water source other than rain. Dicky and Emmeline were aware of the Kanaka's existence, but never encountered them—for many reasons, they stay away from Palm Tree and believe it's haunted. Katafa is actually the daughter of a Spanish sea captain who was killed to prevent his taking water from their wells during a drought. Raised by priestess Le Juan, and psychologically conditioned as a taminan untouchable, she can talk and interact with Karolin natives, but cannot touch or be touched by them. She is on Palm Tree only because a storm blew her fishing boat off course. She makes friends with Dick and teaches him her language, naming him Taori, but Kearney is suspicious of her, particularly when he finds she evades touch. She is likewise antagonistic toward him for having tried to touch her.
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