The Lost World (Doyle novel)
 Cover of the first edition of The Lost World | |
| Author | Arthur Conan Doyle |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Professor Challenger |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton |
Publication date | 1912 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 320 |
| ISBN | NA Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| Followed by | The Poison Belt |
The Lost World is a 1912 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle concerning an expedition to a plateau, Monte Roraima (native name is Tepuyes) in South America (Venezuela and Guyana) where prehistoric animals (dinosaurs and other extinct creatures) still survive. The character of Professor Challenger was introduced in this book. Interestingly, for a seminal work of dinosaur-related fiction, the animals only occupy a small portion of the narrative. Much more time is devoted to a war between early human hominids and a vicious tribe of ape-like creatures.
Plot summary
Ed Malone, a reporter for the London Gazette, goes to his news editor, McArdle, to get a dangerous and adventurous mission to impress the woman he loves. He is sent to interview Professor Challenger, who has assaulted four or five other journalists, to determine if his claims about his trip to South America are true. After assaulting Malone, Challenger reveals his discovery of dinosaurs in South America. After having been ridiculed for years, he invites Malone on a trip to prove his story, along with Professor Summerlee, another scientist qualified to examine any evidence, and Lord John Roxton, an adventurer who knows the Amazon and several years previous to the action in the book helped end slavery by rubber barons in South America. They reach the plateau with the aid of Indian guides, who are superstitiously scared of the area. One of these Indians, Gomez, is the brother of a man that Roxton killed the last time he was in South America. When the expedition manages to get onto the plateau, Gomez destroys their bridge, trapping them. Their "devoted negro" Zambo remains at the base, but is unable to prevent the rest of the Indians from leaving.
Deciding to investigate the lost world, they are attacked by pterodactyls at a swamp, and Roxton finds some blue clay to which he takes a great degree of interest. After exploring the terrain and having a few misadventures in which the expedition narrowly misses being killed by dinosaurs, Challenger, Summerlee, and Roxton are captured by a race of ape-men. While in their village, they find out there are also a race of humans inhabiting the other side of the plateau who the ape-men are constantly at war with. Roxton manages to escape and team up with Malone to mount to a rescue. They arrive just in time to prevent the executions of the Professors and several other humans, who take them to the human tribe. With their help, they defeat the ape-men, taking control of the whole plateau.
After witnessing the power of their guns, the human tribe does not want the expedition to leave, and tries to keep them there. However, the team finally discovers a tunnel that leads to the outside, where they meet up with Zambo and a large rescue party. Upon returning to England, they present their report, which many dismiss like they did Challenger's original story. Having planned ahead, Challenger shows them a live Pterodactyl as proof, which then escapes and flies out into the ocean. When the four of them have dinner, Roxton shows them why he was so interested in the blue clay. It contains diamonds, about £200,000 worth, to be split between them. Challenger opens a private museum, Sumerlee retires to categorize fossils, and Roxton plans to go back to the lost world. Malone returns to his love, Gladys, only to find out that she married a clerk while he was away. With nothing keeping him in London, he volunteers to be part of Roxton's second trip.
Creatures outside the plateau
Dinosaurs
Non-Dinosauria Reptiles
Other prehistoric animals included
Allusions/references from other works
In 1915, the Russian scientist Vladimir Obruchev produced his own version of the "lost world" theme in the novel Plutonia, which places the dinosaurs and other Jurassic species in the underground area of Russian Siberia.
Author Greg Bear set his 1998 novel Dinosaur Summer in Doyle's Lost World.
A 1994 release for the Forgotten Futures role-playing game was based on and includes the full text of the Professor Challenger novels and stories.
Doyle's title was reused by Michael Crichton in his 1995 novel The Lost World, a sequel to Jurassic Park. (Its film adaptation, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, followed suit.) At least two similarly named TV shows, Land of the Lost and Lost, nod to this source material.
One of the Neopets plots, "Journey to The Lost Isle" is based off this book, with Roxton A. Colchester III, Hugo & Lillian Fairweather, and Werther as the adventurers, with Captain Rourke and Scrap as the guides.
It should be noted that the idea of prehistoric animals surviving into the present day was not new, but had already been introduced by Jules Verne in "Journey to the Center of the Earth". In that book, published in 1864, the creatures live under the earth in and around a subterranean sea.
Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
The characters of Ed Malone and Lord John Roxton are said to have been inspired by the journalist E. D. Morel and the diplomat Roger Casement, leaders of the Congo Free State reform campaign, that Conan Doyle supported. The setting of the adventure is believed to have been inspired by Doyle's hearing reports of expeditions to Monte Roraima.
The book has several scientific inaccuracies. For example, the Allosaurus that attacks the camp is described as being as large as a horse, whereas in life Allosaurus was much bigger. Inaccurate size measurements are also given to the Iguanodon and Phorusrhacos.
Following the stereotypes of the time in which the book was written, the dinosaurs are described often as extremely stupid; For example, at some point an Iguanodon pulls down the tree in which it is feeding, being injured and frightened in the process . This idea is generally omitted in the modern film versions.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The novel has been adapted to film many times, the first time in 1925, with screen legend Wallace Beery as Professor Challenger. This version was directed by Harry O. Hoyt and featured pioneering stop motion special effects by Willis O'Brien (an invaluable warmup for his work on the original King Kong directed by Merian C. Cooper). This version has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
During the early 1940s there was also a radio drama of The Lost World, written by John Dickson Carr and serialised by the BBC. Alien Voices also did an "radio drama" of The Lost World for audio cassette. Voice actors included Leonard Nimoy.
The novel was also adapted to film in 1960, 1992 and 1998. A sequel to the 1992 film, Return to the Lost World, was also released that year. The novel also inspired a 2001 television mini-series, starring Bob Hoskins and Peter Falk, and a television series that ran for three seasons from 1999.
A 1999 television movie based on Journey to the Center of the Earth contained several aspects from The Lost World; a war between a tribe of primitive humans and a tribe of "missing links". However, the "missing links" in this adaptation were not ape-men, but rather reptilian humanoids, called "Soroids" by the human tribe.
In 2005 a direct-to-video Leigh Scott film was released by The Asylum Home Entertainment. Called King of the Lost World it stars Bruce Boxleitner, Jeff Denton, Rhett Giles, and Steve Railsback. It was written by David Michael Latt and Carlos de los Rios and it is billed as a "modern retelling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fantasy action-adventure classic" which is itself described as "the epic story that inspired King Kong and Jurassic Park."
At least two of the characters in Michael Crichton's novel The Lost World mention a palaeontologist called John Roxton. However, Crichton's Roxton, who is never seen, is something of an idiot, wrongly identifying one dinosaur and publishing a report stating that the braincase of Tyrannosaurus rex is the same as that of a frog's and thus possesses a visual system attuned strictly to movement.
External links
- The Lost World- Guyana inspiration for novel
- The Lost World at Project Gutenberg.
- The Lost World, online at Ye Olde Library
- The Lost World (1925) at IMDb
- The Lost World (1925) available for free download from Internet Archive.
- The Lost World (1992) at IMDb
- The Lost World (1998) at IMDb
- The Chronicles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Background of novel including the inspiration for Roxton and Malone
- Forgotten Futures III - George E. Challenger's Mysterious World
- The Lost World is the most comprehensive site dedicated to the Gran Sabana region of Venezuela and Monte Roraima where The Lost World is set