7 h 22 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 22 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can two children learn about love and goodness when an island becomes their only world?
In H. De Vere Stacpoole’s The Blue Lagoon: A Romance, a shipwreck casts young cousins Dick and Emmeline onto a tropical island with sailor Paddy Button. Fresh water, fruit and fish offer a way to live. But Paddy’s fondness for drink makes the man who protects them a source of danger too.
As Dick and Emmeline grow, familiar rules give way to questions they cannot easily name. Their feelings change without the words or customs that might explain them. Around them lie reefs, fruit trees and a quiet lagoon; beyond them, passing ships keep the possibility of rescue alive. What does nature teach when society is far away?
What you’ll discover
- An island you can feel Linger over light on water, shifting clouds and the smell of the shore.
- A fragile kind of safety Meet Paddy Button, whose gentle loyalty sits uneasily beside habits that threaten his young charges.
- First love without a map Follow Dick and Emmeline as affection brings surprise, confusion and a growing dependence on each other.
- Innocence put to the test Explore whether goodness needs instruction through children growing beyond the reach of ordinary teachers.
- The sea beyond the reef Feel the pull of distant ships and the unanswered question of returning to the wider world.
Who will love it
Readers who love castaway adventures, vivid island scenery and warm Irish humor will enjoy this novel. It also draws those who like sea voyages and childhood innocence.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A disaster opens an unexpected childhood
- Kindness steadies a frightened sailor
- An island shelters play and danger
- Paddy's drinking leaves the children alone
- Growing up brings new threats
- Love turns their playground into home
- Happiness may grow outside civilization
- Beauty and danger belong together
- A father searches beyond their island
Who’s who
- Paddy ButtonAn old Irish sailor, fond of fiddle, fairies and drink, who takes charge of two children and wants only to keep them safe and happy.
- Emmeline LestrangeA dreamy, silent girl who guards a secret box of toys and fears losing those she loves.
- Dick LestrangeEmmeline's cousin, a bold and practical boy who learns to build, fish and hunt, and wants always to protect her.
- Arthur LestrangeThe children's guardian, a consumptive man who longs to shield them from death and later searches the Pacific for them.
- Captain Le FargeThe captain of the Northumberland, a harsh naturalized American who must save his ship and his crew from fire.
- KokoA tame blue bird who lives in the artu tree and becomes a friend to the children.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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The Blue Lagoon: A Romance 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.
The Blue Lagoon: A Romance
by H. De Vere Stacpoole · 1908
Two children and an old Irish sailor lose their ship to fire and land on a lagoon island ringed by coral.
Medium level2–5 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What would you do if your ship caught fire at sea, and the only grown-up in your small boat was an old sailor who loves his fiddle, his fairies and his rum? That is where The Blue Lagoon begins.
The Blue Lagoon: A Romance at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 15 min3 h 20 min fast, 5 h slow
- Length
- 60,300 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1908by H. De Vere Stacpoole
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 Fiddling Sailor Guards Two Children
The story opens in the forecastle of the Northumberland, a sailing ship becalmed south of the equator. Mr Button, an old Irish sailor nicknamed Left-Handed Pat, sits on a sea chest and plays his fiddle. Everything he does seems to go a little wrong, yet he carries a great store of innocence. He tells the men a yarn about his aunt's leprechaun, a green little man who spoils the eggs and chases the pig.
In the cabin travel three passengers bound from Boston toward San Francisco. Arthur Lestrange is dying of consumption. His niece Emmeline is eight, dreamy and a sleepwalker. His son Dick is noisy and endlessly curious. Children flock to Paddy, because he does the wrong thing in the eyes of adults and the right thing in the eyes of the young.
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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
- 1908
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 45 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Stacpoole, H. De Vere. The Blue Lagoon: A Romance. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-blue-lagoon-a-romance.
Stacpoole, H. D. V. (2026). The blue lagoon: A romance. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-blue-lagoon-a-romance (Original work published 1908)
Stacpoole, H. De Vere. The Blue Lagoon: A Romance. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-blue-lagoon-a-romance.
@book{stacpoole2026blue,
author = {Stacpoole, H. De Vere},
title = {The Blue Lagoon: A Romance},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-blue-lagoon-a-romance},
note = {First published 1908}
}
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What is The Blue Lagoon about?
Two young cousins, Dick and Emmeline, are cast adrift after their ship burns. With an old sailor named Paddy Button, they reach a Pacific island, and the story follows their life there as they grow up and fall in love.
Who is Paddy Button in The Blue Lagoon?
He is an Irish sailor in his sixties who looks after the children. He tells them tales of leprechauns and sea monsters, teaches them to cook and fish, and keeps them cheerful, though rum becomes his weakness.
Is The Blue Lagoon a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction by H. De Vere Stacpoole, an Irish writer. He drew on his knowledge of sailing and the Pacific to create a romantic tale set among coral islands in the South Seas.
The author
H. De Vere Stacpoole
1863–1951 · Irish novelist
Henry de Vere Stacpoole was a writer and doctor. He was born in Dublin in 1863 and died on the Isle of Wight in 1951. He worked as a ship’s doctor and wrote novels. The Blue Lagoon was published in 1908. He later lived on the Isle of Wight.
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