The Lost World (Dover Thrift Editions) [Paperback]

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 26, 1998 | Age Range: 11 and up | Series: Dover Thrift Editions

An exciting account of a jungle expedition's encounter with living dinosaurs, written with the same panache exhibited in the author's Sherlock Holmes mysteries. This 1912 novel, the first installment of the Professor Challenger series, follows an eccentric paleontologist and his companions into the wilds of the Amazon, where they discover iguanodons, pterodactyls, and savage ape-people.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Forget the Michael Crichton book (and Spielberg movie) that copied the title. This is the original: the terror-adventure tale of The Lost World. Writing not long after dinosaurs first invaded the popular imagination, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle spins a yarn about an expedition of two scientists, a big-game hunter, and a journalist (the narrator) to a volcanic plateau high over the vast Amazon rain forest. The bickering of the professors (a type Doyle knew well from his medical training) serves as witty contrast to the wonders of flora and fauna they encounter, building toward a dramatic moonlit chase scene with a Tyrannosaurus Rex. And the character of Professor George E. Challenger is second only to Sherlock Holmes in the outrageous force of his personality: he's a big man with an even bigger ego, and if you can grit your teeth through his racist behavior toward Native Americans, he's a lot of fun. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In 1912, Doyle took his Victorian readers deep into the South American jungles where, high atop a treacherous plateau, a small band of British explorers encountered a terrifying world of prehistoric creatures long thought lost to the sands of time. The adventurers included a young newspaper reporter, Ed Malone; the swashbuckling aristocrat, Lord Roxton; the skeptical scientist, Professor Summerlee; and the brilliant and bombastic Professor Challenger, who leads the party. Doyle unfolds high adventure at its best with fantastic encounters with pterodactyls, stegosaurs and cunning ape -men. Glen McCready's performance captures the time and tone of Doyle's material perfectly without straying into melodrama. He nicely balances Malone's sense of youthful wonder with the professors' scientific pragmatism, while fully exploiting the humor spread strategically throughout, planting numerous chuckles among the thrills. McCready's entertaining reading more than fulfills the author's introductory wish to give one hour of joy to the boy who's half a man, or the man who's half a boy. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Product Details

• Age Range: 11 and up
  
• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications; Unabridged edition (January 26, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486400603
• ISBN-13: 978-0486400600
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.4 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (175 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Conan Doyle Smiles January 4, 2001

By M

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Professor George E. Challenger, noted scientist, says dinosaurs are still alive, and he knows where to find them. The scientific community says he's a madman or a fraud, or both. Challenger's only evidence is a bunch of blurry photographs. Fellow scientists say the photos are obviously doctored and the newspapers call it a fantasy. Boiling with rage, Challenger goes into seclusion. Anyone foolish enough to bring up the tender subject around him is liable to end up in the gutter outside his house, with a few extra lumps for the gutter press.

The only reporter brave, or stupid, enough to face the professor's wrath and get the story is Edward Malone, young, intrepid journalist for the Daily Gazette. At a boisterous scientific meeting, Professor Summerlee, a rival scientist, calls Challenger's bluff. Summerlee will return to South America and prove Challenger wrong. The young journalist volunteers to go along. Lord John Roxton, the famous hunter, can't miss an opportunity to return to the jungle and adds his name to expedition. Professor Challenger is happy they are taking him seriously, even if they don't all believe him. But what will they find in South America? A strange, living time capsule from the Jurassic period filled with pterodactyls and stegosaurs? Or will they only find vast tracks of endless jungles and Challenger's daydreams? Either way there will be danger and adventure for all.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote "The Lost World" in 1912 for the Strand magazine, the same magazine that published his Sherlock Holmes stories. It's a great Edwardian science-fiction adventure, although some may not like the British Imperialism and Darwinian racism. Still, in "The Lost World" Conan Doyle lets his hair down a little. Changing narrators from the earnest Doctor John Watson to the rash reporter Edward Malone makes for a big change. There is a good deal more humor. The students in the scientific meetings are forever yelling out jokes at the expense of nutty Professor Challenger. Affairs of the heart play a big role in Malone's life. He matures from a young swain out to impress his girlfriend to more of a wistful man-of-the-world by the end. It is a very different Conan Doyle than some are used to reading. Different, but just as good, maybe, dare I say it, even better.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A high-adventure, scientific thriller December 31, 2001

By Daniel Jolley HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was really a very talented writer, and he had many tales to tell that did not involve the famous Sherlock Holmes. The Lost World is perhaps the best known of his noncanonical stories. He describes a lush, mysterious plateau in the remote Amazonian regions of South America in which creatures thought to have died out eons ago still stalk the earth. Professor Challenger, while possessing some of the confidence and intellect of a Holmes, could not be more different in his passions and boisterous, conceited behavior; it is his contention that a "lost world" does exist. Recruiting a disbelieving zoologist, a famed adventurer, and a fresh, young newspaper man to go with him, the group sets out for the inaccessible reaches of the jungle and manages, after some great effort, to reach the isolated plateau. By an act of treachery by an Indian bearing a grudge against the famed Lord Roxton, their portal of entry is destroyed, leaving them trapped in the mysterious new land they dub Maple White Land after an American who earlier discovered the place but died soon thereafter (but not before encountering Professor Challenger in the Amazon and revealing to him its existence and location). They build a camp and begin investigating the area, quickly discovering unknown forms of plant life and animal life, including dinosaurs and pterodactyls. As if the monstrous reptilian beasts aren't hazard enough for them, they soon find themselves besieged by a vicious race of ape-men, whom they eventually take on in alliance with a separate race of Indians. The newspaperman narrates events in a series of postings he manages to get sent back to London, describing the creatures and their habits. Each man is called upon to distinguish himself through deeds of heroism in order to escape this newly discovered world and return to civilization with the scientific coup of all time.

Conan Doyle's characterizations and descriptions of both man and beast are rich and vibrant. Ironically, the lost world seems much more real than the world of London. The scientific meetings held in front of a number of disbelieving scholars result in great commotions, tempests of defamations and praises, fainting women, and combatant men. When Challenger reveals his proof of the exploits that have been related, untold chaos and zeal follow quickly on the heels of one another. As for the reporter, he made the astounding journey because of a woman--while this part of the story is somewhat silly, it is nevertheless fitting. The woman he loves declares that she can only love a man who has taken great risks and won fame for himself, and this sets our protagonist on as daring an adventure as could be found at any time. It may well be that such compulsions of the heart have led to many great acts and discoveries in history; it is even more probable that such exploits have been rewarded in the predictable way our protagonist's was, the details of which I will endeavor not to disclose here.

All in all, it's a wonderful tale of adventure, cunning, heroics, and scientific achievement. Somewhat surprisingly, there are not that many dinosaurs described in the story. We have a fleeting glimpse of a stegiosaur, but we mostly read of medium-sized dinosaurs such as the "iguanadon." There is no brontosaurus or T-Rex here, which is somewhat disappointing. The jungle action actually centers around the ape-men and Indians, as once again, even amid the prehistoric realm of Jurassic life, we find that humanoids, even of the most primitive type, are the most dangerous, ruthless animals on the earth.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A pleasant surprise from a pile of old books! May 25, 2002

By D. McDiffett

Format:Mass Market Paperback

You know you're reading an old book when "flaccid organ" has nothing to do with sex! And what an enjoyable book this one is. Attracted by the pictures of the dinosaurs on the cover, I finally got around to reading it and recommend it to all lovers of adventure stories. Warning: You may need patience to wade through the wordy descriptions, but it's well worth it for the humorous encounters between the two Professors and the conflicts with the prehistoric world. Yes, Doyle reflects the racism of his day towards Indians and blacks, but readers who see his words as time capsules from an earlier time will not have a problem with them.
My only complaint was that the odd, hopping carnivorous dinosaur is never linked to a dinosaur I am familiar with. Iguanadons, pleisiosaurs and even a stegosaurus are mentioned, but no specific name is given the most dangerous of all. Minor complaint, though.
Grab a copy of this book and enjoy a trip to the wilds of South America's rain forest!