Customer Reviews

Lost World & Other Stories (Wordsworth Classics) (Wordsworth Collection)

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Ahh -- the creator of the great Sherlock Holmes tackles dinosaurs! In the first novel in this collection, Doyle's lesser-known protagonist, George Edward Challenger, leads an expedition to a South American plateau where prehistoric life still exists. While there's a bit too much Doyle-style propaganda here about evolution and cavemen (remember Doyle sought "the missing link"), it's a fine piece of storytelling from the man who must be acknowledged as the first "dinosaur novelist" -- and whose title Crichton ripped off, without so much as a thanks-a-lot! There are four other tales here as well involving Challenger -- a worthy collection indeed!

This book collects all of the stories featuring Professor George E. Challenger, the most famous of which is The Lost World. Lost World features two scientists, including Challenger, an adventurous English Lord, and a journalist who acts as the story's narrator. As events unfold, the group travels to a mysterious plateau in South America where dinosaurs still roam along with other prehistoric dangers. As one might imagine, the plot largely revolves around the dangers and difficulties of surviving such a locale and returning to civilization.

While Edward Malone is the narrator of the story, the dominant figure is Professor Challenger. His immense intellect is matched only by his ego and air of condescension. It would be easy to dislike such a character, but Doyle does a good job of making him fun to read about. The rest of the cast is also enjoyable and the story is generally a fun read. There are some attitudes expressed toward non-Caucasian characters that are blatantly racist by today's standard, but it would probably be hard to find something from this time period that wouldn't be.

This book contains several stories beyond The Lost World, but they are of a lesser caliber. There are two novella-length stories, The Poison Belt and The Land of Mist, which too often degenerate into an excuse for lengthy philosophical musings expressing points of view that Doyle wanted to get across. The stories are flimsy and the promotion of the author's ideas to ham-handed to be entertaining.

Overall, this book is a good buy and The Lost World is well worth reading. I don't particularly recommend the other stories but this edition is actually cheaper than any version with only The Lost World so you may as well pick this one up and at least have the option of sampling the later tales.

Although I am a Sherlock Holmes fan The Lost World is my favorite Arthur Conan Doyle story and one of my all time favorite novels. Brilliantly told with so much imagination it puts MIchael Crichton and Steven Spielberg to shame for their pedestrian trilogy almost a hundred years later. I would give it 5 stars on its own and recommend it to anyone who was interested in that genre. However one of the most outstanding elements of the novel is the obnoxious and arrogant Professor Challenger who gradually becomes the lovable grouch of the novel.

I was much looking forward to reading other stories featuring the Professor but found all of them a let down and was particularly irritated by the second longest novel in the collection The Land of Mist which firstly hardly features the professor and secondly is not a story at all but an incredibly boring pro spiritualist lecture. The other 3 tales, 1 other short novel and two very short stories, are not too bad but feature little or no adventure and can be quite dull other than as examples of early sci-fi. But the Spiritualist diatribe should be excluded from the collection. It has as little to do with Professor Challenger as it has to do with hard science. I'm not anti spiritualist and wouldn't have minded a good ghost story but The Land of Mist was no story at all, rather just a sequence of reported experiences on Conan Doyle's journey to being converted from sceptic to spiritualist.

When it first came out almost two decades ago, "Jurassic Park" (the movie) was a huge sensation. Steven Spielberg marshaled Hollywood's technical wizardry in order to create the closest that we'll ever be to seeing the actual dinosaurs. Spielberg's adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel by the same name was revolutionary in many respects. However, the distinction of creating and popularizing the "modern man meets dinosaur" sci-fi subgenre belongs to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Almost a century ago he wrote "The Lost World," and imaginative and suspenseful novel that tracks an expedition of European scientists, journalists, and adventurers deep inside the South American jungles where they explore a hitherto undiscovered plateau that seems to have been cut-off from the rest of the world for millions of years, and where some dreadful prehistoric creatures still roam.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for creating Sherlock Holmes, one of the most famous literary characters of all time. Sherlock Holmes was based on an actual person, a university professor that Doyle knew, and was characterized by cold, calculating and brilliant abilities of deduction. "The Lost World" has seen the introduction of Professor Challenger, a character that Doyle used for a few more of his subsequent works. Challenger is no less brilliant than Sherlock Holmes, but in every other psychological (and physical) trait is the exact opposite of the famous sleuth. Where Holmes is cold and aloof, Challenger is passionate and physically confrontational. In terms of appearance, Challenger is stocky and exceptionally strong, and sports a long black beard. Challenger continues Doyle tradition of strong-minded characters that use wit and ingenuity to solve even the problems where the brute force may seem to rule the day. Personally I found the scenes of disputes between scientists and academic particularly amusing: it seems that very little has changed in the last hundred years.

The creatures in this story are a bit of a jumble of dinosaurs and some more recently extinct plants and animals. A few scenes in the book are worthy of any action movie, and have been well orchestrated. In today's terms it is quite unrealistic to believe that over millions of years certain species have persisted (and others had joined them), but if you can suspend disbelief on this point then you will certainly enjoy this book.

Doyle is a masterful storyteller, and aside from a few linguistic and historical peculiarities that reveal its age, "The Lost World" could easily go head-to-head with anything that Michael Crichton or some other modern sci-fi/thriller writer could come up.

Professor George Edward Challenger is the lesser known creation of Sherlock Holmes' creator, Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). Unlike the cool and calculating Homes, Challenger is irascible, domineering and extremely outspoken. In short, he is a lot of fun to read. However, unlike Holmes, Professor Challenger never caught on and as such only five Challenger stories were ever written. This book combines all five of the Professor Challenger stories together in one book:

The Lost World - originally published in 1912 - 5 stars - This is the greatest, and the best known of the Professor Challenger stories. Professor Challenger has heard of a plateau in South America where dinosaurs still roam, and he loses no time in setting up an expedition to this strange place. However, when the expedition finds itself marooned on the plateau, the team faces many dangers and adventures.

The Poison Belt - 1913 - 5 stars - Professor Challenger has learned that the Earth is moving towards a poisonous section of space, and has figured out a way that he can save a few members of the human race - the last people left on Earth!

The Land of Mist - 1926 - 1 star - The worst of the Professor Challenger stories, this one is really just a polemic, written to convince the reader of the wonder (or whatever) of Spiritualism. This story might have been what killed the series.

The Disintegration Machine - 1927 - 5 stars - A Latvian scientist has created a machine that can disintegrate matter, and reintegrate it again...or not. This is something that Professor Challenger must see for himself if he is to fully understand its ramifications.

When The World Screamed - 1928 - 5 stars - Professor Challenger is digging a well or mine of some sort in southern England, but what is he up to? It seems that the eccentric professor has a new theory - that the Earth is really a living creature!

Although more than a little dated, scientifically, I found these stories to be well written and quite exciting. (Well, four of the five that is.) They reflects a world that is now gone, but is quite interesting to read about. If you like adventure stories, then you will like this one. Read this book, and learn about A.C. Doyle's other hero!

I do enjoy reading the basis of the movies I watch. They usually have more information than the movie are able to convey. A simple, but enjoyable story.

The Lost World is a classic in it's own right. Many shows, series, and movies have copied from this book. This book came out at a time when the general public was first gaining real knowledge of dinosaurs. It was an instant classic. Only Sir Conan Doyle himself, can make such a masterpiece. It is detailed, full of wonder and adventure. A must read for anyone who can truley appreciate an all time classic. One of my personal favorites.

Ahh -- the creator of the great Sherlock Holmes tackles dinosaurs! its wouldve been better with holmes i love it

This is not the Jurassic Park Lost World that you see in the movie, and I knew this coming into the book; but I did not expect it to be this good. This was a very entertaining book to me. It was a prime adventurous novel of a lost world that was really there all along. This book grabbed ahold of me after the first chapter or so and I was hooked since then. This is the first novel I have read by Doyle and it certainly wont be my last. If you like adventurous books, with new animals and civilizations, I would suggest this book in an instant.

I just picked up the book and I like the story so far. Just use water if you typically clean your books before you read them with rubbing alcohol. I got the edition with the jungle painting on the cover and some of the text, while still completely intact, must have partially been dissolved by the alcohol leaving a faint chalk like smear on the black borders after I cleaned it. The printing is good, and the one interior diagram I came across is perfect. I am very happy to be able to collect all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Challenger stories in one nice volume!