Louise Gerard was a writer of ‘exotic’ romantic fiction, active between 1910 and the late thirties. She favoured settings that her readers would be unfamiliar with, although she meticulously researched the locations, travelling widely to do so. She favoured a type of storyline that I find particularly repulsive, of the type, boy meets girl, boy rapes girl, girl falls in love with boy, wherein the hero is usually an orphaned Englishman raised in the desert by Bedouin or similar nonsense.
My distaste notwithstanding, she was very popular in her day, being one of the fledgling Mills & Boon’s most successful authors and at least two of her novels were made into movies. Son of the Sahara was even reviewed by the New York Times in 1924.
Her work and that of others like her is beginning to attract serious academic study; she is discussed in Lynne Hapgood’s book Margins of desire. The suburbs in fiction and culture 1880-1925, and also in Jay Dixon’s book The Romance fiction of Mills & Boon.
Other modern readers however, seem to find her subject matter as distasteful as I do, as evidenced by this Book Crossing review of Fruit of Eden.
Her novels were:
A Golden Centipede 1910
The Hyena of Kallu 1910
A Tropical Tangle 1911
The Swimmer 1912
Flower of the Moon: a romance of the forest 1914
The virgin’s Treasure: a romance of the tropics 1915
Life’s Shadow Show 1916
Days of Probation 1917
The Mystery of ‘golden lotus’ 1919
Spanish Vendetta 1920
A Sultan’s Slave 1921
Necklace of tears 1922
Wreath of Stars: a romance of Venice 1923
Shadow of the Palm 1925
The Fruit of Eden 1927
The Harbour of Desire 1927
Wild Winds 1929
The Dancing Boy 1928
A Strange Young Man 1931
Secret Love 1932
Strange Paths 1934
Following Footsteps 1936
To me, some of these titles read as if they’ve come out of one of those online title generators, correction, they all do.
Only Two Rs 
hi there,
I would need to get a copy of Gerards first novel, but have no idea whatsoever where to find one. There was no copies in the major libraries in london
i just read from hapgoods book that Hyena of Kullu should be her first, there is no mention of the one you included in your bibliography
I would like to have her books. Pls. let me know how to proceed.
I have The Witch’s Child, Fourth Edition, a publication not in this list, let me know
I am selling Life’s Parade on Ebay.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I have read sultant’s slave. After that I am saearching for her books. If you know how to proceed to get these books and how much money needed pls let me know the price. I would appreciate it very much
Indunil
Look on Amazon
Dear Sir,
I would like to purchase Louse Gerard’s book. Please let me have details how to proceed.
Indunil
One book appears to be missing Jungle Love published 1924.
my grandfather gave me his mothers origional copy of a spanish vendetta, ive just begun reading it and loving it! i wonder how much a 1931 copy of this would cost, it is very aged but is easy to read 🙂
Um, I have Louise Gerard’s The Witch Child… Fourth Edition, and this book is not even on this list… Someone help me out?
I have one of her books entitled “Life’s Parade” (published in 1931) that is not listed here either. I am selling it on Ebay if anyone is interested. As far as I know, nobody else is selling it. I haven’t been able to find out anything else about it other than on this site.
Dear Mr Baggins or whoever have Louise Gearad books,
I read Sultant’s slave (So many pages were missing). (I gave it to a friend because I wanted her to read it never returned). After that I am searching for her books. Do you know a place where I can get these books. I am from Sri Lanka.
Ok… interesting. I picked up “A Strange Young Man” in an antique store, and, having almost finished reading it and quite enjoying it [the storyline being very much different than your nutshell version], I wanted to look it up, see if many other people had read it. This is one of the very few sights I’ve been able to find having anything to do with Louise Gerard….
Well, if anyone actually reads this comment, check out “A Strange Young Man,” because it’s quite good.
Is there any interest in The Mystery of Golden Lotus…. I have found one copy in my bookshelves..
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