"Early in 1907 one night, lying awake and pondering on the extraordinary world we live in, the idea came to me of what it must have been like to the cave men who had no language and for whom a sunset had no name tacked on to it, a storm no name, life no name, death no name and birth no name, and the idea came to me of two children, knowing nothing about any of these things, nding themselves alone on a desert island facing these nameless wonders." Thus Henry de Vere Stacpoole described the inspiration for his runaway bestseller of 1908, "The Blue Lagoon."

Arthur Lestrange embarks on a...