The Lost World & Other Stories

By Arthur Conan Doyle

Book Overview

The pugnaciously daring and audacious Professor Challenger, the unstoppable protagonist of these vibrant, diverse, and thought-provoking science-fiction stories from the period of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, unites them. Jurassic Park's predecessor, The Lost World, paints a realistic picture of a dangerous area where the explorers must deal with ancient animals. A terrifying end-of-the-world scenario is shown in "The Poison Belt," while a humorous commentary on scientific pessimism is made in "The Disintegration Machine." The planet reacts fiercely to an experimental intrusion in "When the World Screamed." "The Land of Mist," which aims to harmonise science and spirituality, is the most bizarre thing. This enduring compilation offers audacious provocation, captivating escape, and inventive entertainment.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9371230312
• ISBN13: 9789371230315
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Tgc Press
• Length: 430 Pages
• Weight: 1.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World

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.

Entertaining Adventure

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.

The original dinosaur novel -- plus!

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!