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The Lost World: Being an Account of the Recent Amazing Adventures of Professor E. Challenge (Puffin Classics)
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Newsham
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Puffin Classics (1994-10-27)
ISBN: 0140367489
EAN: 9780140367485
Dewy Decimal #: 823.8
Paperback: 288 pages
Edition: New edition
Reading Level: Young Adult
SKU: B467-1172u
Condition: Like New
Comments: UNREAD but may have minor imperfections such as a crease or mark. In stock - quick dispatch, from an efficient and professional leading British bookselling firm.
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Customer Reviews
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Grand adventure in 1910s
Rating  (5)
Date: 2003-02-27
Edward Malone, reporter for the Daily Gazette, finds himself caught up in the claims of the eccentric Professor G. E. Challenger to have found a South American plateau where dinosaurs still live. Malone volunteers for a fact-finding mission, along with the dubious Professor Summerlee and the fearless big game hunter Lord John Roxton. The band voyages to South America, journeys to the plateau, and finds it filled with plants and animals for many different epochs. Finding themselves marooned on the plateau, the team faces many dangers and adventures.While somewhat dated, this book is well written and exciting to read. As a matter of fact, part of the book's charm is its pre-Great War feel. If you like adventure stories, Arthur Conan Doyle, or big game hunters, then this book is for you!
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A high-adventure, scientific thriller
Rating (5)
Date: 2002-11-30
4 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
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.
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AN ALL TIME CLASSIC
Rating (5)
Date: 2002-10-30
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book was written over a hundred years ago but you'd never know it. Conan Doyle writes a gripping adventure story that will astound you, if you only thought he wrote Sherlock Holmes stories. The thing about Conan Doyle and indeed H G Wells is that their stories can be read today with ease and great enjoyment. You will not read a novel more entertaining than The Lost World this year. Like a fine wine this story improves with age.
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An all time classic, 'boy's own' adventure
Rating (5)
Date: 2000-09-18
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
It's hard to believe that this book is nearly 100 years old, as you go through it. Conan Doyle is clearly better known for Sherlock Holmes but this book is as good as anything he has ever written. It is an ingenious adventure story set in a mythical 'lost world' of dinosaurs and ape men somewhere in South America. The writing is pin sharp, the characters brilliantly drawn and the overall execution flawless. In fact the economy of style is similar to the work of Ian Fleming, and the descriptive writing is just as good. If you think you might like this sort of thing, I guarantee you will.
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It is a really action packed book
Rating (5)
Date: 2000-02-15
I think that this book is action packed and that it is good for people who whant an adventure book to read.
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