The Lost World

By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Published in 1912, The Lost World combines fantasy and science fiction genres, setting out unknown lands filled with primeval creatures and unknown dangers. Packed with exploration, investigation and intrigue, the novel follows the intelligent but hot-tempered academic George Challenger on his expedition to South America.

The Professor and a small group, including journalist Edward Malone, voyage across oceans to distant wastelands and forests filled with with prehistoric creatures. The Lost World captures the perils of territorial conflict and the age old battle of man vs beast.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Arcturus Classics series brings together high-quality paperback editions of classics works, presented with contemporary graphic cover designs. Together they make a wonderful collection which is perfect for any home library.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
• Release date: Apr 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781398832886

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a Scottish author best known for his classic detective fiction, although he wrote in many other genres including dramatic work, plays, and poetry. He began writing stories while studying medicine and published his first story in 1887. His Sherlock Holmes character is one of the most popular inventions of English literature, and has inspired films, stage adaptions, and literary adaptations for over 100 years.

Book preview

Introduction

Born in 1859, Arthur Conan Doyle was one of ten children. Educated both at home and in local schools, Conan Doyle was an intelligent child who penned his first novel at the age of six. He was eventually enrolled at the Jesuit Preparatory School of Hodder and, as a student, would often write adventure stories which he would then read aloud to his classmates.

Conan Doyle went on to study medicine but first moved to Austria for a year of further study, which he spent exploring the countryside, learning to play musical instruments such as the tuba and playing sport. This was also a time to indulge his literary pursuits by reading many adventure and mystery stories, including those of Edgar Allan Poe, which inspired him to create the iconic character Sherlock Holmes. He was greatly influenced by those around him and many of the characters we know today were born from the writer’s interactions with those in his academic and private life. A lover of stories, Conan Doyle turned to writing when his medical practice in Hampshire started to struggle and, from 1891 to 1893, numerous short stories featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes were published in The Strand magazine. The years that followed brought him much acclaim and his stories were subsequently compiled and published as volumes.

Some years later, having served in the Second Boer War as a physician and been knighted for his service, Conan Doyle penned The Lost World. Many suppose the character of the book’s hero, Professor George Edward Challenger, was inspired by one of the pioneers of antiseptics, Baron Joseph Lister, whom Conan Doyle met while studying medicine in Edinburgh.

The Lost World was written in a matter of months – Conan Doyle commenced writing in autumn 1911 and completed the book by December that year. Published in 1912, it forayed into fantasy and science fiction, setting out unknown lands filled with primeval creatures and unknown dangers. Packed with exploration, investigation and intrigue, The Lost World follows the intelligent but hot-tempered academic George Challenger on his expedition to South America. It would have been both exciting and terrifying for early nineteenth-century readers who saw their world changing in the 1910s as ocean liners brought cross-continental travel to a much wider audience.

The book was hugely successful with readers. Thirteen years after its publication, in 1925, The Lost World was adapted into a silent movie and, in April that year, it became the first film to be shown to passengers travelling from London to Paris on Imperial Airways. It was also the first successful movie to feature dinosaurs as key characters – and may have influenced future blockbuster hits including King Kong and Jurassic Park.

The popularity of Conan Doyle’s first science fiction novel resulted in two further books featuring Professor Challenger: The Poison Belt, which followed in 1913 soon after The Lost World, and The Land of Mist which was published more than ten years later in 1926. By this time, Conan Doyle had spent a lot of time in Australia and New Zealand on spiritualist missionary work – a cause he continued to preach and write about until his death in 1930.

CHAPTER I

‘There Are Heroisms All Round Us’

Mr Hungerton, her father, really was the most tactless person upon earth – a fluffy, feathery, untidy cockatoo of a man, perfectly good-natured, but absolutely centred upon his own silly self. If anything could have driven me from Gladys, it would have been the thought of such a father-in-law. I am convinced that he really believed in his heart that I came round to the Chestnuts three days a week for the pleasure of his company, and very especially to hear his views upon bimetallism, a subject upon which he was by way of being an authority.

For an hour or more that evening I listened to his monotonous chirrup about bad money driving out good, the token value of silver, the depreciation of the rupee and the true standards of exchange.

‘Suppose,’ he cried with feeble violence, ‘that all the debts in the world were called up simultaneously, and immediate payment insisted upon. What under our present conditions would happen then?’

I gave the self-evident answer that I should be a ruined man, upon which he jumped from his chair, reproved me for my habitual levity, which made it impossible for him to discuss any reasonable subject in my presence, and bounced off out of the room to dress for a Masonic meeting.

At last I was alone with Gladys, and the moment of fate had come! All that evening I had felt like the soldier who awaits the signal which will send him on a forlorn hope – hope of victory and fear of repulse alternating in his mind.

She sat with that proud, delicate profile of hers outlined against the red curtain. How beautiful she was! And yet how aloof! We had been friends, quite good friends; but never could I get beyond the same comradeship which I might have established with one of my fellow-reporters upon the Gazette – perfectly frank, perfectly kindly and perfectly unsexual. My instincts are all against a woman being too frank and at her ease with me. It is no compliment to a man. Where the real sex feeling begins, timidity and distrust are its companions, heritage from old wicked days when love and violence went often hand in hand. The bent head, the averted eye, the faltering voice, the wincing figure – these, and not the unshrinking gaze and frank reply, are the true signals of passion. Even in my short life I had learnt as much as that – or had inherited it in that race memory which we call instinct.

Gladys was full of every womanly quality. Some judged her to be cold and hard; but such a thought was treason. That delicately bronzed skin, almost oriental in its colouring, that raven hair, the large liquid eyes, the full but exquisite lips – all the stigmata of passion were there. But I was sadly conscious that up to now I had never found the secret of drawing it forth. However, come what might, I should have done with suspense and bring matters to a head tonight. She could but refuse me, and better be a repulsed lover than an accepted brother.

So far my thoughts had carried me, and I was about to break the long and uneasy silence, when two critical, dark eyes looked round at me, and the proud head was shaken in smiling reproof. ‘I have a presentiment that you are going to propose, Ned. I do wish you wouldn’t; for things are so much nicer as they are.’

I drew my chair a little nearer.

‘Now, how did you know that I was going to propose?’ I asked in genuine wonder.

‘Don’t women always know? Do you suppose any woman in the world was ever taken unawares? But, oh, Ned, our friendship has been so good and so pleasant! What a pity to spoil it! Don’t you feel how splendid it is that a young man and a young woman should be able to talk face to face as we have talked?’

‘I don’t know, Gladys. You see, I can talk face to face with… with the stationmaster.’ I can’t imagine how that official came into the matter; but in he trotted, and set us both laughing. ‘That does not satisfy me in the least. I want my arms round you, and your head on my breast, and, oh, Gladys, I want –’

She had sprung from her chair, as she saw signs that I proposed to demonstrate some of my wants. ‘You’ve spoilt everything, Ned,’ she said. ‘It’s all so beautiful and natural until this kind of thing comes in! It is such a pity! Why can’t you control yourself?’

‘I didn’t invent it,’ I pleaded. ‘It’s nature. It’s love.’

‘Well, perhaps if both love, it may be different. I have never felt it.’

‘But you must–you, with your beauty, with your soul! Oh, Gladys, you were made for love! You must love!’

‘One must wait till it comes.’

‘But why can’t you love me, Gladys? Is it my appearance, or what?’

She did unbend a little. She put forward a hand – such a gracious, stooping attitude it was – and she pressed back my head. Then she looked into my upturned face with a very wistful smile.

‘No it isn’t that,’ she said at last. ‘You’re not a conceited boy by nature, and so I can safely tell you it is not that. It’s deeper.’

‘My character?’

She nodded severely.

‘What can I do to mend it? Do sit down and talk it over. No, really, I won’t if you’ll only sit down!’

She looked at me with a wondering distrust which was much more to my mind than her whole-hearted confidence. How primitive and bestial it looks when you put it down in black and white! And perhaps after all it is only a feeling peculiar to myself. Anyhow, she sat down.

‘Now tell me what’s amiss with me?’

‘I’m in love with somebody else,’ said she.

It was my turn to jump out of my chair.

‘It’s nobody in particular,’ she explained, laughing at the expression of my face, ‘only an ideal. I’ve never met the kind of man I mean.’

‘Tell me about him. What does he look like?’

‘Oh, he might look very much like you.’

‘How dear of you to say that! Well, what is it that he does that I don’t do? Just say the word – teetotal, vegetarian, aeronaut, theosophist, superman. I’ll have a try at it, Gladys, if you will only give me an idea what would please you.’

She laughed at the elasticity of my character. ‘Well, in the first place, I don’t think my ideal would speak like that,’ said she. ‘He would be a harder, sterner man, not so ready to adapt himself to a silly girl’s whim. But, above all, he must be a man who could do, who could act, who could look Death in the face and have no fear of him, a man of great deeds and strange experiences. It is never a man that I should love, but always the glories he had won, for they would be reflected upon me. Think of Richard Burton! When I read his wife’s life of him I could so understand her love! And Lady Stanley! Did you ever read the wonderful last chapter of that book about her husband? These are the sort of men that a woman could worship with all her soul, and yet be the greater, not the less, on account of her love, honoured by all the world as the inspirer of noble deeds.’

She looked so beautiful in her enthusiasm that I nearly brought down the whole level of the interview. I gripped myself hard, and went on with the argument.

‘We can’t all be Stanleys and Burtons,’ said I. ‘Besides, we don’t get the chance – at least, I never had the chance. If I did, I should try to take it.’

‘But chances are all around you. It is the mark of the kind of man I mean that he makes his own chances. You can’t hold him back. I’ve never met him, and yet I seem to know him so well. There are heroisms all round us waiting to be done. It’s for men to do them, and for women to reserve their love as a reward for such men. Look at that young Frenchman who went up last week in a balloon. It was blowing a gale of wind, but because he was announced to go he insisted on starting. The wind blew him fifteen hundred miles in twenty-four hours, and he fell in the middle of Russia. That was the kind of man I mean. Think of the woman he loved, and how other women must have envied her! That’s what I should like to be – envied for my man.’

‘I’d have done it to please you.’

‘But you shouldn’t do it merely to please me. You should do it because you can’t help yourself, because it’s natural to you, because the man in you is crying out for heroic expression. Now, when you described the Wigan coal explosion last month, could you not have gone down and helped those people, in spite of the choke-damp?’

‘I did.’

‘You never said so.’

‘There was nothing worth bucking about.’

‘I didn’t know.’ She looked at me with rather more interest. ‘That was brave of you.’

‘I had to. If you want to write good copy, you must be where the things are.’

‘What a prosaic motive! It seems to take all the romance out of it. But, still, whatever your motive, I am glad that you went down that mine.’ She gave me her hand, but with such sweetness and dignity that I could only stoop and kiss it. ‘I dare say I am merely a foolish woman with a young girl’s fancies. And yet it is so real with me, so entirely part of my very self, that I cannot help acting upon it. If I marry, I do want to marry a famous man!’

‘Why should you not?’ I cried. ‘It is women like you who brace men up. Give me a chance, and see if I will take it! Besides, as you say, men ought to make their own chances, and not wait until they are given. Look at Clive – just a clerk, and he conquered India! By George! I’ll do something in the world yet!’

She laughed at my sudden Irish effervescence.

‘Why not?’ she said. ‘You have everything a man could have – youth, health, strength, education, energy. I was sorry you spoke. And now I am glad – so glad – if it wakens these thoughts in you!’

‘And if I do –’

Her dear hand rested like warm velvet upon my lips.

‘Not another word, sir! You should have been at the office for evening duty half an hour ago, only I hadn’t the heart to remind you. Some day, perhaps, when you have won your place in the world, we shall talk it over again.’

***

And so it was that I found myself that foggy November evening pursuing the Camberwell tram with my heart glowing within me, and with the eager determination that not another day should elapse before I should find some deed which was worthy of my lady. But who – who in all this wide world could ever have imagined the incredible shape which that deed was to take, or the strange steps by which I was led to the doing of it?

And, after all, this opening chapter will seem to the reader to have nothing to do with my narrative; and yet there would have been no narrative without it, for it is only when a man goes out into the world with the thought that there are heroisms all round him, and with the desire all alive in his heart to follow any which may come within sight of him, that he breaks away as I did from the life he knows, and ventures forth into the wonderful mystic twilight land where lie the great adventures and the great rewards. Behold me, then, at the office of the Daily Gazette, on the staff of which I was a most insignificant unit, with the settled determination that very night, if possible, to find the quest which should be worthy of my Gladys! Was it hardness, was it selfishness, that she should ask me to risk my life for her own glorification? Such thoughts may come to middle age; but never to ardent three-and-twenty in the fever of his first love.

CHAPTER II

‘Try Your Luck with Professor Challenger’

I always liked McArdle, the crabbed, old, round-backed, red-headed news editor, and I rather hoped that he liked me. Of course, Beaumont was the real boss, but he lived in the rarefied atmosphere of some Olympian height from which he could distinguish nothing smaller than an international crisis or a split in the Cabinet. Sometimes we saw him passing in lonely majesty to his inner sanctum, with his eyes staring vaguely and his mind hovering over the Balkans or the Persian Gulf. He was above and beyond us. But McArdle was his first lieutenant, and it was he that we knew. The old man nodded as I entered the room, and he pushed his spectacles far up on his bald forehead.

‘Well, Mr Malone, from all I hear, you seem to be doing very well,’ said he in his kindly Scotch accent.

I thanked him.

‘The colliery explosion was excellent. So was the Southwark fire. You have the true descreeptive touch. What did you want to see me about?’

‘To ask a favour.’

He looked alarmed and his eyes shunned mine. ‘Tut, tut! What is it?’

‘Do you think, Sir, that you could possibly send me on some mission for the paper? I would do my best to put it through and get you some good copy.’

‘What sort of meesion had you in your mind, Mr Malone?’

‘Well, sir, anything that had adventure and danger in it. I really would do my very best. The more difficult it was, the better it would suit me.’

‘You seem very anxious to lose your life.’

‘To justify my life, sir.’

‘Dear me, Mr Malone, this is very – very exalted. I’m afraid the day for this sort of thing is rather past. The expense of the ‘special meesion’ business hardly justifies the result, and, of course, in any case it would only be an experienced man with a name that would command public confidence who would get such an order. The big blank spaces in the map are all being filled in, and there’s no room for romance anywhere. Wait a bit, though!’ he added, with a sudden smile upon his face. ‘Talking of the blank spaces of the map gives me an idea. What about exposing a fraud – a modern Munchausen – and making him rideeculous? You could show him up as the liar that he is! Eh, man, it would be fine. How does it appeal to you?’

‘Anything – anywhere – I care nothing.’

McArdle was plunged in thought for some minutes.

‘I wonder whether you could get on friendly – or at least on talking terms with the fellow,’ he said, at last. ‘You seem to have a sort of genius for establishing relations with people – seempathy, I suppose, or animal magnetism, or youthful vitality, or something. I am conscious of it myself.’

‘You are very good, sir.’

‘So why should you not try your luck with Professor Challenger, of Enmore Park?’

I dare say I looked a little startled.

‘Challenger!’ I cried. ‘Professor Challenger, the famous zoologist! Wasn’t he the man who broke the skull of Blundell, of the Telegraph?’

The news editor smiled grimly.

‘Do you mind? Didn’t you say it was adventures you were after?’

‘It is all in the way of business, sir,’ I answered.

‘Exactly. I don’t suppose he can always be so violent as that. I’m thinking that Blundell got him at the wrong moment, maybe, or in the wrong fashion. You may have better luck, or more tact in handling him. There’s something in your line there, I am sure, and the Gazette should work it.’

‘I really know nothing about him,’ said I. ‘I only remember his name in connection with the police-court proceedings, for striking Blundell.’

‘I have a few notes for your guidance, Mr Malone. I’ve had my eye on the Professor for some little time.’ He took a paper from a drawer. ‘Here is a summary of his record. I give it you briefly:

‘Challenger, George Edward. Born: Largs, N. B., 1863. Educ.: Largs Academy; Edinburgh University. British Museum Assistant, 1892. Assistant-Keeper of Comparative Anthropology Department, 1893. Resigned after acrimonious correspondence same year. Winner of Crayston Medal for Zoological Research. Foreign Member of’ – well, quite a lot of things, about two inches of small type – ‘Société Belge, American Academy of Sciences, La Plata, etc., etc. Ex-President Palaeontological Society. Section H, British Association’ – so on, so on! – ‘Publications: ‘Some Observations Upon a Series of Kalmuck Skulls;’ ‘Outlines of Vertebrate Evolution;’ and numerous papers, including ‘The underlying fallacy of Weissmannism,’ which caused heated discussion at the Zoological Congress of Vienna. Recreations: Walking, Alpine climbing. Address: Enmore Park, Kensington, W.’

‘There, take it with you. I’ve nothing more for you tonight.’

I pocketed the slip of paper.

‘One moment, sir,’ I said, as I realised that it was a pink bald head, and not a red face, which was fronting me. ‘I am not very clear yet why I am to interview this gentleman. What has he done?’

The face flashed back again.

‘Went to South America on a solitary expedeetion two years ago. Came back last year. Had undoubtedly been to South America, but refused to say exactly where. Began to tell his adventures in a vague way, but somebody started to pick holes, and he just shut up like an oyster. Something wonderful happened – or the man’s a champion liar, which is the more probable supposeetion. Had some damaged photographs, said to be fakes. Got so touchy that he assaults anyone who asks questions, and heaves reporters down the stairs. In my opinion he’s just a homicidal megalomaniac with a turn for science. That’s your man, Mr Malone. Now, off you run, and see what you can make of him. You’re big enough to look after yourself. Anyway, you are all safe. Employers’ Liability Act, you know.’

A grinning red face turned once more into a pink oval, fringed with gingery fluff; the interview was at an end.

I walked across to the Savage Club, but instead of turning into it I leant upon the railings of Adelphi Terrace and gazed thoughtfully for a long time at the brown, oily river. I can always think most sanely and clearly in the open air. I took out the list of Professor Challenger’s exploits, and I read it over under the electric lamp. Then I had what I can only regard as an inspiration. As a pressman, I felt sure from what I had been told that I could never hope to get into touch with this cantankerous Professor. But these recriminations, twice mentioned in his skeleton biography, could only mean that he was a fanatic in science. Was there not an exposed margin there upon which he might be accessible? I would try.

I entered the club. It was just after eleven, and the big room was fairly full, though the rush had not yet set in. I noticed a tall, thin, angular man seated in an armchair by the fire. He turned as I drew my chair up to him. It was the man of all others whom I should

Reviews for The Lost World

[ghost_boy-691444 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An interesting idea, but this wasn't Sherlock Holmes. Doyle writes better mystery than adventure. I found the beginning a little too slow. It picked up when the dinosaurs appeared. What makes this book interesting isn't not Sherlock too. He wrote so many Sherlock books you'd think that's all he wrote.

[matke-261098 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

That intrepid iconoclast, Professor Challenger, travels to the Amazon basin to find and document a strange left-over prehistoric world still in existence. Competently written by Doyle, the story moves right along and holds the reader’s interest.I had hoped for more fantasy regarding the flora and fauna in the hidden world. This is more of a Boy’s Own Adventure story. Nothing wrong with that; I still read and like many of those. It was just a mismatch of expectations and reality. I did enjoy the pterodactyl subplot quite a bit.Don’t expect great literature, or a modern take on any of this. Just hop in for a fun ride in Doyle’s imagination.

[fence_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The racism expressed in this book overwhelms a lot of it, its just so casual and accepted.

[danielstj · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A romp into the deep of the Amazon in search of glory. This novel was very palatable and exploratory of the wide range of the imagination, fancy, and possibility. Despite the fact that it is not grounded in any fact, it manages to accelerate with adventure until the final denouement- which is then surprising in itself and the ending is one to be remembered.3.5 stars!

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When you mention Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, most people will immediately associate him with his great detective, Sherlock Holmes. Holmes's fame overshadows that of another of Conan Doyle's literary creations, Professor Challenger. In the first of his adventures, readers travel with the Professor and his three companions to a remote plateau in South America where dinosaurs and other prehistoric life forms still roam the earth. Just as Holmes needed Watson to record his adventures, Challenger has young newspaper reporter Malone to record the events of the expedition. Adventurer Lord John Roxton and Challenger's antagonist, Professor Summerlee, round out the party.Challenger's personality and physical characteristics reminded me of Professor Emerson of the Amelia Peabody series. H. Rider Haggard's novels inspired some of Amelia Peabody's adventures. It seems that Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger may have also influenced Peters' writing. Malone joined the expedition to prove himself to the woman who rejected his proposal. She believed that she could only love a great man. Apparently she hadn't read Middlemarch to see how well that worked out for Dorothea Casaubon.This novel's title was prophetic in that the world inhabited by the explorers was soon to change with the outbreak of the First World War.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Professor Challenger's descriptions of a pre-historic culture with animal life somewhere in the jungles of South America is met with derision by the scientific community. It is decided Professor Summerlee, his chief opponent, along with Lord John Roxton and newspaper reporter Edward Malone will accompany him on an expedition to investigate the claim. The tale is told through the eyes of Malone who sends letters back to his editor by a faithful watchman who stays on the opposite side of their destination plateau. They fell a tree to gain entrance to the plateau, but it falls in the gorge, leaving their only connection to the other world a rope which can deliver supplies or letters but not get them back across. They decide to accomplish their mission and then worry about a means to exit the plateau. They encounter a pterodactyl almost immediately. They encounter many dangers and adventures on this well-preserved plateau, including some "half-men, half-ape" creatures which could be the "missing link." I'll leave the rest of the story and adventures for your enjoyment along with their reception upon their return. I'm not a fan of science fiction, but I decided to give this summer AudioSync offering a try since it was authored by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This tale is very mild in comparison to many of today's science fiction offerings because of the genre's evolution over time. The adventure seemed to appeal to the interest in Darwinian theory at the time of the book's writing. The book was narrated by Glen McCready who seemed to have the perfect voice for Professor Challenger.

[benuathanasia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Overall, this was a fun book, I just wish it had revolved more around the dinosaurs and less about the people and ape-men living on the plateau.

[texvelis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Funny book, fast read that is just fun. A little dated but to me it adds to the charm.

[alanteder · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good pulpy adventure fun. Fairly restrained about the interactions with dinosaurs and spends most of its dramatic suspense time with the adventurers encountering competing tribes of Neanderthals vs. early Homo Sapiens. A clever epilogue back in London.Solid narration by Glen McCready in the Naxos Audiobook Edition which was a $2.95 Audible Daily Deal on October 24, 2017.

[m.belljackson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Intriguing tale of formidable Professor Challenger's discovery of Maple White Land and how he convinceshis two colleagues and a love struck journalist to venture back into that terrifying terrain. The conflictingcharacters are memorably contrasted throughout their journey, with elements of both Sherlock and Watson.Story acts as a prologue to Crichton's Jurassic Park with the poisoning attack birds and monstrous dinosaurs.Too much trophy and specimen killing were balanced by the finale flying!Lovely wit:"Lord John merely scratched his scanty locks with the remark that he couldn't put up a fightas he wasn't in the same weight or class."

[encephalical · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Quick read, lots of fun at parts. Horribly racist 105 years after publication.

[nickhowes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The all-time Doyle classic about exploration and dinosaurs, by way of the late Victorian era. If Doyle ever came close to breaking with his identification, it was with arrogant, bombastic Professor George Edward Challenger. Just the idea of a South American tepui offering a refuge to dinosaurs who survived their extinction elsewhere.... Just great. I've read this book six times or so over the past 50 years since learning to read and may find myself doing it again. Don't miss.

[maowangvater · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Journalist Edward Malone wants to impress his girlfriend with his heroic prowess. He asks his editor for an assignment worthy of such a challenge, and he’s given the assignment to interview Professor George Edward Challenger, a noted zoologist notorious for his hostility to the press. The last reporter that attempted a word with him ended up with a broken skull. Challenger has recently returned from South America with some damaged photographs and the sketch book of a previous explorer depicting prehistoric beasts. Challenger is sure that they were drawn from a live model, and he intends to prove it. It was delightful to reread this old favorite in a new illustrated edition. This 1912 action adventure by the creator of Sherlock Holmes became the basis for the original creature feature silent film in 1925.What struck me was Doyle’s technique of indicating action in the midst of dialog, and the implicit racism of the time. The four adventurous explorers, three Anglos and an Irishman, are aided by a support team of “a gigantic negro named Zambo, who is a black Hercules, as willing as any horse, and about as intelligent. … Gomez and Manuel, two half-breeds … They were swarthy fellows, bearded and fierce, as active and wiry as panthers. … [and] three Mojo Indians from Bolivia.” (page 67) As it turns out Zambo is both heroic and faithful, not to mention having the wits to stick around and provide information to the outside world when the white people find themselves stranded; the half-breeds are deceitful and traitorous (although they are significantly less bearded and swarthy than Professor Challenger) and the Indians run away when they get scared, which is behavior also demonstrated by the Europeans. It’s interesting to read this in 2017 and see how much attitudes have changes and not changed in the following century.

[pgiunta_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In an effort to win the heart of a fickle young lady, intrepid newspaper reporter Edward Malone volunteers as a member of an expedition to South America to seek proof or otherwise debunk the wild claims of arrogant and intractable paleontologist Professor George Edward Challenger.Upon returning from South America many years prior, Challenger claimed to have discovered prehistoric life still thriving atop a plateau deep in the jungles of Brazil. Unfortunately, his camera was damaged during a boating accident, leaving him with scant and inconclusive photographic evidence and only the sketchbook of one Maple White, a poet and artist who died of severe injuries shortly after escaping this supposed land of dinosaurs.During a contentious interview, Challenger permits Malone to peruse the sketchbook, wherein White had drawn numerous mundane flora and fauna—until the final image of an impossibly large reptilian creature. Malone, however, remains unconvinced.Despite his unadulterated aversion toward the press, Challenger sees some potential in Malone and invites him to a meeting of the Zoological Society where Professor Challenger, living up to his name, disrupts the guest lecturer when mention is made of the extinction of the dinosaur before the dawning of man.Challenger’s claims of eyewitness accounts of pterodactyls in Brazil draws ridicule from both the audience and his peers, including one botanist and zoologist Professor Summerlee. By the end of the raucous evening, a new team of explorers agrees to travel to Brazil and put the matter to rest. In addition to Malone and Summerlee, famed adventurer and big game hunter Sir John Roxton offers his considerable skills.Shortly thereafter, the trio embark for South America and are surprised by the appearance of Professor Challenger himself once they reach Brazil. Challenger naturally assumes the role of team leader and guide as the adventurers, along with a number of local hired hands, begin their voyage along the Amazon into the realm of the unknown—where they encounter far more than any of them ever imagined possible.The story is told from the POV of the reporter, Edward Malone, as he journals the team’s adventures through this unfathomable—and unmistakably treacherous—domain. It had been at least 30 years since I’d last read The Lost World, yet so many elements remained with me since then, such as the cantankerous and haughty Professor Challenger, the fearsome ape men, the pterodactyl pit, and a few other vivid details. After reading it again this past week, I found myself just as enthralled as I was the first time. This should come as no surprise since much of Doyle’s work, most notably Sherlock Holmes, has soundly withstood the test of time.

[nx74defiant · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Arthur Conan Doyle. It didn't really hold up well. I guess it is just to familiar and dated.

[unclebob53703 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As you would expect from Mr. Conan Doyle, a rousing story well told. I've seen any number of movies based (some quite loosely) on the story line, so the story was familiar to me, but a very enjoyable read.

[kvrfan9 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Forget about the science, look beyond the imperialistic racism (simply a "given" at the time this was written), and just go along for the ride, and you'll have fun. The Lost World is what Monty Python characterized as a "ripping yarn."

I have to admit, though, that once ape men were introduced to the story, it got a bit less fun. In fact, a slaughter is perpetrated which is pretty ugly. But that again, is something which likely wouldn't have been questioned by contemporaries of Conan Doyle's.

As problematic as the book is, however, it's much better than the cinematic treatments that have been made of it. As a kid, I remember loving the Irwin Allen production, even with its kitchy dinosaurs consisting of iguanas with fins glued on their backs. But the book evidences that Claude Rains was clearly miscast as Professor Challenger. Needed instead someone like Robby Coltrane doing his Hagrid role--except crankier. But if the movie had written the Challenger role as the book portrays him--cantankerous and a bloviating egotist--as a kid I'd probably have been scared by him and stayed away.
Loved the blowhard as a adult, though!

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Read a few times as a teen and then again a few years ago. Rousing good adventure, what ho? Rich commentary on evolution and race, too.

[karenduff · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A quick read. Lots of action, dinosaurs, primitive tribes and weird beasties. Not bad but nowhere near as good as his Sherlock Holmes stories.

[carl_alves_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Lost World is a science fiction novel without much actual science to it, which shouldn’t be that surprising considering that it was written by one of the time’s premier mystery writers. It’s really more an adventure tale than anything, and has quite a bit of interesting elements to it. A group of Englishmen travel to uncharted territory to an area from a bygone era. They travel to South America to find a land that has not only dinosaurs but also a race of prehistoric man. The group included the intrepid reporter looking for adventure, the skeptical professor, the professor who takes life by the horns in hopes of new discovery, and a British lord who is your basic big game hunter type.There were a lot of aspects that I like about this novel, mostly the characters and the adventure portion of it. It had a real trailblazing feel to it, which I’m sure worked well for the time in which it was written. On the down side, there were some latent racism in the way Doyle handles the “negroes” and natives to the land, even the prehistoric men. There was also a distinct lack of female characters in the novel, which could have added something to it. I also felt that the writing kept the reader at a distance rather than involving them in the action. All together, this novel was enjoyable but not one that resonates.Carl Alves – author of Two For Eternity

[mozzie_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A timeless adventure story

There are many reasons why this book is often considered to be a classic. The descriptive and intimate way that the story is told, the interpersonal relationships between the memorable characters and the underlying thread of humor which weaves through the tale, will guarantee it a place in collectors' bookshelves for many years to come.

[gregorio_roth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a model for adventure stories in science fiction. The book influenced Michael Crichton in his creation of the LOST WORLD (Jurassic Park).
Edward Malone, a reporter for the Daily Gazette, but finds no real excitement in his role. Ed wants to woo Gladys, but Gladys wants to marry a romantic hero. Gladys does not see Ed as a knightly figure, at least not yet. So Ed must find his romantic quest in the name of his beauty Gladys.
Questions Doyle poses are: will Ed come home a hero? Will this quest earn the right to Gladys’s love? What lost world will Ed find in the Amazon? And what about the dinosaurs and the primitive humans, will he find the missing link?
The book was published in 1912, and exhibits the world of Victorian Empire on the move. British empire was attempting to find “a dreamland of glamour and romance, a land where we had dared much, suffered much, and learned much—OUR land, as we shall ever fondly call it.*” Caveat lector, the ideas of the Victorian Era are not of our own, and may offend those with politically correct notions.
But this book is a great adventure and I believe a good book for young readers.

*Doyle, Arthur Conan (2011-03-30). The Lost World (Kindle Locations 2705-2706). Kindle Edition.

[fulner · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My First Experience with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World was the late 90s early 2000s syndicated television show. That was pretty light and really unbelievable. This was not. I really liked this book. I do not, however, understand the characters desire to keep their discovers a secret. Some the descriptions as to how the Lost World is inaccessible I think could use some improvement too. Like most books, I think that reading this would be better than listening, but I didn't' like it enough to buy a copy to read.

[danielalgara · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great fun.

[amy.scott · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well-written and well-told. The characters were engaging and the scenes vivid, and I was definitely pulled in. But the protagonists' decisions at a certain point became disturbing, and I'm not convinced that the author didn't mean to endorse such decisions or the ideologies driving them.

[craso_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A young journalist, Edward Malone, is looking for adventure. He meets with Professor Challenger who claims that a prehistoric lost world exists on a plateau in South America. During a raucous meeting at the Zoological Institute Hall, Challenger presents his controversial evidence. A fellow zoologist, Mr. Summerlee, refutes Challenger’s claims and calls for an expedition to verify his assertions with two members of the audience volunteering to accompany Summerlee; Edward Malone and British sportsman Lord John Roxton. After arriving in the Amazon they are surprised by Challenger who bullies his way into the exploration party. Using drawings made by a lost American adventurer named Chapel White and Challenger’s own recollections they find the plateau only to be stranded there by rebellious native porters.The novel is written through the eyes of the young journalist. He writes letters home to his newspaper publisher. They are carried to civilization by trusted natives. The story is fast paced with a lot of action as they encounter one amazing creature after another. Professor Challenger is the anti-thesis of Sherlock Holmes; Conan Doyle’s other more widely known character. Where Sherlock is described as tall and angular Challenger is stocky and bullish. Challenger is as egotistical as Sherlock but the great detective is more quietly British whereas the Professor is brash and assertive. Conan Doyle has said that he preferred the Challenger character to his famous detective.I have read some reviews that claim the book is too racist. The depiction of their loyal black assistant is racist, but again this novel was originally written in 1912 and does show the imperialism of that time. I didn’t find it overly disturbing.I enjoyed the novel and recommend it to anyone who is familiar with Arthur Conan Doyle’s style of writing or enjoys H. Rider Haggard and other turn of the Twentieth Century adventure authors.

[loki7_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Professor Challenger goes on an expedition to an isolated plateau in South America where he is shocked to discover that dinosaurs still exist. Arthur Conan Doyle's science fiction series.

[dragonasbreath · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It was an interesting read, not a bad adventure at all.Would love to know what England did about the surprise at the end of the book.

[sturlington_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Still a surprisingly readable and fun adventure yarn, that doesn't really show its age, despite the cheerful racism throughout. The adventurers' willingness to participate in genocide and slavery is a bit much for modern sensibilities, but we must take the story in the spirit in which it was intended.

[theokester · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As a teenager, I had a lot of fun when Jurassic Park came to the theaters in the '90s. After enjoying the movie, I sought out and read the book which I also found very enjoyable. Spurred by its success, a sequel was created, The Lost World. Like many sequels, it wasn't as good as the original. It still had its fun elements but for me at least, it lost a good deal of the charm and fun from the first book.I think in part it was the Jurassic Park sequel that kept me from seeking out and reading the far earlier book The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. Not only was I not terribly impressed by the 1990s book/movie of the same name, but I was a little unsure of the transition Conan Doyle would make going from Sherlock Holmes to a world of dinosaurs. Fortunately, I finally gave it a try.Not surprisingly, the Conan Doyle book is considerably slower paced than the Michael Chrichton adventures. The book was serialized in 1912 is set in the late 19th or early 20th century. The story is told through a series of newspaper articles and letters written by Malone, a newspaper reporter eager to impress his girlfriend and make a name for himself in the news world. Malone's editor McArdle gives Malone the assignment of interviewing Professor Challenger. Challenger is a scientist making outrageous claims and evoking his violent temper against anybody who questions them. Before long, Malone finds himself on a journey deep into the jungles of South America in search of a world which Challengers claims is inhabited by prehistoric creatures.As you might expect from the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, this book is filled with lengthy and very detailed descriptions of settings, characterizations, behaviors and motivations. Malone has a reporter's eye for detail taken to the extreme. He painstakingly describes the minute details of Professor Challenger as well as the various traveling companions with whom Malone sets off in search of the Lost World. The early parts of the book are set in London and involve weighty scenes of research and discussion to decide what's what and what's to be done about it all. When we finally do start winding through the jungles, we are still given intense descriptions of the surroundings and the actions.For those looking for adventure, you'll finally find it about midway through the book once the characters have finally found passage into the elusive Lost World. Though even once they finally reach their destination, there are still many pages of suspenseful investigation before any major confrontation with prehistoric adventure. Their investigation and exploration is careful and methodical. As they are confronted with challenges, they quietly and calmly attempt deduce solutions as efficiently as possible even amidst deadly time constraints.Looking back over my thoughts, it may sound that this is a dry travel narrative rather than a rousing adventure. While it does have elements of a 19th century travelogue, the book also does a good job of amazing the reader with new ideas and concepts as well as taking us on an exciting adventure with unexpected twists and turns. I admit that it was sometimes hard to imagine that these adventurers would be so calm and level headed among all the troubles and adventures they encounter, but part of that is just the style of the era. The other part comes from the distinct characterization of these individuals. Each of the travelers possesses a personality prone more to smart, strategic level-headedness than rash and frantic running around.The first portion of the book was an interesting read and well crafted. I enjoyed the style and pacing overall but often found myself wanting to skip ahead to "where the real action was." Once we got into the adventure portion of this adventure novel, the style of writing remained precise and well defined while still providing us with surprising new elements and mysteries. I think that if you were to start reading the book at the midpoint, without first becoming accustomed to Conan Doyle's narrative style, the adventure would have felt more strained. You gain a greater sense of the style after plodding along with Malone and the others as they dealt with the minutia of getting the journey underway and slowly reaching their destination.I suspect that Conan Doyle's "Lost World" was for its time what Jurassic Park was for ours…a fun and exciting tale of fantastic adventure set along the edge of speculative science and imagination. I really enjoyed this story. After finishing this book, I learned that Conan Doyle wrote a number of other stories featuring Professor Challenger. I'm looking forward to reading those and some of his other non-Sherlockian works.*****4 out of 5 stars