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Audiobook edition · 10 h 2 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if love draws you beyond the ordinary world, toward a hidden kingdom at its edge?
In Romance Island, Zona Gale brings together adventure, mystery, and a love story that crosses strange borders. The promise is a world apart: an island romance where leaving familiar ground opens the way to hidden places and feelings tested by obstacles.
This early novel offers a different side of Gale from her quiet stories of small-town life. Here, love and mystery drive the pages. Its more formal sentences and period view of romance invite you to slow down and enter an old-fashioned adventure on its own terms.
What you’ll discover
- Beyond familiar shores Explore the appeal of an island romance, where the ordinary world gives way to somewhere apart.
- Love across strange borders Follow a love story whose pull comes from feelings that persist despite obstacles.
- The lure of mystery Let the promise of a hidden kingdom draw you into the story's unfamiliar world.
- Gale in an adventurous mood Discover Zona Gale's early work before her turn toward closely observed small-town stories.
- A slower kind of escape Settle into formal sentences and a view of romance shaped by its own time.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy adventure told with a smile, old-fashioned romance, newspaper life in New York, and a hidden kingdom where two young people fall in love.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A fortune cannot replace a story
- A silent woman opens the way
- An impossible kingdom offers real evidence
- Olivia sails into a concealed purpose
- The hidden island becomes a destination
- Olivia refuses the prince's chosen moment
- Love gives the island its meaning
- Ordinary habits travel among extraordinary wonders
- The search brings wonder close
Who’s who
- St. GeorgeA newspaper reporter who inherits a million dollars, buys a yacht, and sails to a hidden island to find the woman he loves.
- Olivia HollandA clear-eyed New York heiress who sets out for Yaque to find her missing father and meets every danger with wit.
- Toby AmorySt. George's drawling, pipe-smoking friend from the Sentinel, who joins the voyage and has a sharp eye for a story.
- Prince TabnitA white-haired island prince with a green jewel at his throat, who offers help and claims to rule through knowledge no one else has.
- Mrs. Medora HastingsOlivia's talkative aunt, who loses her side combs, quotes her late husband, and worries about everything except the real danger.
- Little CawthorneThe Sentinel's fiction editor, a gray-curled humorist who makes up songs and guards the yacht.
- RolloSt. George's solemn valet, who meets palaces, princes, and peril with a small saying and perfect calm.
- JarvoA small, quick islander with remarkable feet, who guides the Americans to Yaque and hopes to warn them of danger.
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Romance Island in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Romance Island
by Zona Gale · 1906
A newsman turned yacht owner follows an heiress to a hidden island beyond the Fourth Dimension.
Medium level5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What would you do if a million dollars landed in your lap? For St. George, a New York newspaper reporter, the answer is a steam yacht called The Aloha, a valet named Rollo, and a dinner for the whole day staff of the Evening Sentinel.
Romance Island at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 50 min4 h 40 min fast, 6 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 83,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1906by Zona Gale
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A reporter's windfall buys a yacht and dinner
St. George has spent two years writing about other people's yachts for the New York Evening Sentinel. Then a million dollars makes him the owner of one. He buys The Aloha, sends his mother off to Europe, and hires a valet.
The valet, Rollo, is a gray, solemn fellow who answers every question with a small saying.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1906
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 30 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Gale, Zona. Romance Island. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/romance-island.
Gale, Z. (2026). Romance Island. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/romance-island (Original work published 1906)
Gale, Zona. Romance Island. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/romance-island.
@book{gale2026romance,
author = {Gale, Zona},
title = {Romance Island},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/romance-island},
note = {First published 1906}
}
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What is Romance Island about?
It follows St. George, a newspaper reporter who inherits a fortune and buys a yacht. He chases the story of an attack on an heiress, Olivia Holland, and follows her to Yaque, a hidden island whose people claim to master the Fourth Dimension.
Who is Prince Tabnit?
Prince Tabnit is the head of the House of the Litany on the island of Yaque. He appears in a New York tenement, tells Olivia that her father is king of his island, and offers to take her there.
What does the crucified sphinx mean in Romance Island?
It is the emblem of Yaque, a Tyrian sphinx on an upright cross ringed by asps. It marks the objects Olivia's father sent home, and it leads St. George from the heiress's drawing room to the prince.
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