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About the Author
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was educated at Stonyhurst and Edinburgh, became a doctor and practised at Southsea between 1882-90. He is chiefly remembered for his celebrated creation of the amateur detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend and foil, Dr Watson. Philip Gooden is a writer and journalist, who has published on popular classic fiction.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Fans of the Sherlock Holmes series may be as surprised as I was by the complete change of style that this novel represents for its author. Gone are the formulaic and formal language, the stilted dialogue, and the gamesmanship between author and reader that characterize the Holmes novels, however delightful and successful those may be as mysteries. Instead, we see Doyle letting his imagination run free in a sci-fi romp that is both fun and funny, and often thoughtful. Written in 1912, during an eight-year hiatus from his Sherlock Holmes novels, and six years after his last "historical novel," The Lost World is the first of five works involving temperamental Professor Edward Challenger, a scientist investigating evolution and related subjects.
Challenger is a scientific outcast, vilified for his most recent paper, in which he claimed to have seen dinosaurs and other pre-historic creatures in a remote area of South America, but which he refuses to locate on a map. Blaming the press for much of the controversy over his research, he despises reporters, and regularly assaults them. Young Ed Malone, a reporter looking for more excitement than he is getting on his regular beat, manages to make a connection with Challenger, after passing a test of his mettle.
Along with two other scientists, Elizabeth Summerlee and Lord John Roxton, they with Challenger to the mysterious plateau in Brazil where he claims to have seen extraordinary beasts believed dead for millions of years. Malone's newspaper, which partially funded the expedition, expects him to send daily reports of his adventures by messenger back to "civilization. These form much of the novel's narrative.
The place where Challenger has made his discoveries, which the other scientists are soon able to verify, is at the base of a high plateau in the jungle which has protected it from intrusion by man. This self-contained universe has protected creatures that have become extinct elsewhere. The scientists' often death-defying thrills--with canoes going over falls, shooting by headhunters, vengeance taken by one of the guides for past crimes, a war to the death between two separate, but related, species on the evolutionary tree, attacks by pre-historic creatures, and even a love story--make this novel non-stop fun to read. Far more "relaxed" in style and more imaginative in content than the novels for which Doyle is now (justifiably) famous, The Lost World, written almost a hundred years ago, builds on our universal spirit of adventure and our never-ending fascination with dinosaurs and their behavior. n Mary Whipple
Challenger is a scientific outcast, vilified for his most recent paper, in which he claimed to have seen dinosaurs and other pre-historic creatures in a remote area of South America, but which he refuses to locate on a map. Blaming the press for much of the controversy over his research, he despises reporters, and regularly assaults them. Young Ed Malone, a reporter looking for more excitement than he is getting on his regular beat, manages to make a connection with Challenger, after passing a test of his mettle.
Along with two other scientists, Elizabeth Summerlee and Lord John Roxton, they with Challenger to the mysterious plateau in Brazil where he claims to have seen extraordinary beasts believed dead for millions of years. Malone's newspaper, which partially funded the expedition, expects him to send daily reports of his adventures by messenger back to "civilization. These form much of the novel's narrative.
The place where Challenger has made his discoveries, which the other scientists are soon able to verify, is at the base of a high plateau in the jungle which has protected it from intrusion by man. This self-contained universe has protected creatures that have become extinct elsewhere. The scientists' often death-defying thrills--with canoes going over falls, shooting by headhunters, vengeance taken by one of the guides for past crimes, a war to the death between two separate, but related, species on the evolutionary tree, attacks by pre-historic creatures, and even a love story--make this novel non-stop fun to read. Far more "relaxed" in style and more imaginative in content than the novels for which Doyle is now (justifiably) famous, The Lost World, written almost a hundred years ago, builds on our universal spirit of adventure and our never-ending fascination with dinosaurs and their behavior. n Mary Whipple
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This story feels like it should be set in Victorian times, but in fact was written in 1912 and even references motor cars. The tale is about a famous scientist who claims that he has discovered a lost world in South America where dinosaurs still exist. Mocked by fellow scientists and the public at large, the scientist challenges volunteers to visit the lost world. One of those volunteers, a young journalist, accepts the challenge to prove he is a man of adventure to his girlfriend, a woman who has told him she will only marry such a gung-ho type. The rest of the book is taken up with the trip to the lost world and the lost world itself. I don't want to spoil the narrative so won't go into detail. However, the lost world is an amazing place and its existence not beyond the bounds of possibility, particularly at the time the book was written, when there still remained unkown territories on the earth. The levels of excitement and terror are palapable throughout, and the eeriness and sense of foreboding of the lost world are all beautifully described by Conan Doyle. The fact that this is a short book with no padding means that the reader is fully exposed to the adventure and fully immersed in it. Not an all time classic, but a memorable and exciting read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Curious book this. The cover of this new version is real retro. I expected a book with the usual (from Edgar Rice Burroughs books anyhow) misty forests teeming with an unimaginable variety of monsters, most of them predators, but this book seems to go to the opposite extreme. It is a travelogue of the whole adventure. It thankfully skips mundane times and there is no labouring of perilous situations, and the book is a pleasant and surprising read because of it. The monsters such as they are (it says at the end there were 12 species encountered) were reasonable and sensibly placed and populated - mainly herbivores who were still dangerous, and the predators don't act mindlessly. All in all, a nice adventure that focussed on the humans, and unlike its descendants was actually a bit short of dinosaurs.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Classic action adventure
Love the cover design on these books, but as for the story, I loved it. Very telling of the time it was written, fast-paced and quite amusing. A great read.
Published 23 days ago by Clarence
The Lost World
I must start this review by telling you this was the first book I've read by choice, the first ever one, the only reason I have read books in the past were in school. Read more
Published 1 month ago by The Fearless Guinea Pig
An Oft Retold Tale
It hardly seems worth outlining the plot of The Lost World. There have been so many different versions on the television that most people will know that this is the story of a... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Woolgatherer
Garbage but better than Jurassic Park
A band of two-dimensional stereotypes find their way to a plateau in Brazil where some extinct life forms have survived from ages past. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Humphrey
Is there a word for a phobia of pterodactyls?
It's been almost a century since Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World was published, but you wouldn't know it. Read more
Published on 22 May 2010 by O. Derwood
More than just Sherlock Holmes !
If you desire an entertaining, fast moving adventure story with which to while away a few hours then this book is for you. Read more
Published on 21 Jan 2009 by Mr. H. F. Murden
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