The Lost World (1912)

Most people when they think of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle think of his sleuth Sherlock Holmes and trusty sidekick Dr. Watson. (I’ll admit that I do, too.) But, Doyle wrote more than just mysteries. The Lost World is about Professor Challenger finding what he believed to be a plateau in an unexplored region of South America which still held living dinosaurs.

Challenger returns to England where, of course, no one believes there are actually still dinosaurs roaming the Earth. He enlists the help of a reporter who is trying to prove the woman he is in love with that he is more than just a measly reporter, a professor of Anatomy by the name of Summerlee, and Lord John Roxton a sportsman and traveler. Shortly after the crew was assembled they began their journey from England to South America and down the Amazon River.

Eventually they reach the point at which Challenger points out the great plateau. There is however no way to get up there as they only way up had been blocked off. After trial and error they find themselves on top of the plateau, trapped no less because of unforeseen events. They find though that Challenger was indeed correct. There were dinosaurs living on the plateau. There were also creatures, a cross between an ape and a human, which were smart and managed to capture Challenger and Summerlee.

It was during this capture that the crew found that there also happened to be a tribe of natives who lived on the plateau as well. The natives claim not to know of a way off the plateau, or don’t want to help the crew off (after many failed attempts). Eventually, a young native takes pity on them and shows them the way.

They make their way back to England with their findings and the reporter who wrote down an account of the entire trip to be put in to print. I think I’ll leave out the ending and make you read it if you are curious enough to want to find out.

While I enjoyed reading this book, it wasn’t quite different than what I was used to when reading Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Challenger and Holmes have many of the same qualities. I would say, however, if you liked Holmes than you should giveThe Lost World a read. ( )

Allllllllll of the racism. Alllllllllllllll of the colonialism. Allllllllllllllll of the imperialism.

ALLLLLLLLLLLL of it.

I don't even know how to react to this. Like, I kind of want to request a Lord John/Ned fic for Yuletide (that ending, omg, so slashy), but on the other hand, this has so many horrible vile awful assumptions embedded into it that frankly I don't think there's a way to write against them (and if there is, it would take a king hell lot of skill and care, and I would not inflict that on someone for Yuletide) and I can't bear to read slashy adventurefic with this kind of horribleness in it. So.

Basically: shenanigans in the South American rainforest, narrated by a British cub reporter, with a gentleman explorer (Lord John), and two zoology professors, who hate each others' guts more than a little, trying to prove if there is a sekrit pocket of prehistoric animals hidden deep in the Amazon. Spoiler: there is. Further spoiler: there are also savages. You can probably extrapolate from there.

ETA: Which is not to say the shenanigans are not hilarious; this is a rip-roaring adventure yarn. ( )

Professor Challenger goes on an expedition to an isolated plateau in South America where he is shocked to discover that dinosaurs still exist. Arthur Conan Doyle's science fiction series. ( )

It was an interesting read, not a bad adventure at all.
Would love to know what England did about the surprise at the end of the book. ( )

Professor Challenger leads an expedition to a hidden world on a plateau deep in the jungles of South America, where dinosaurs and cavemen live side-by-side.

Still a surprisingly readable and fun adventure yarn, that doesn't really show its age, despite the cheerful racism throughout. The adventurers' willingness to participate in genocide and slavery is a bit much for modern sensibilities, but we must take the story in the spirit in which it was intended.

Reading the classics (2012). ( )