View source for The Lost World (Doyle novel)

{{Short description|1912 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}}
{{Infobox book|<!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_gBooks -->
| name         = The Lost World
| orig title   =
| translator   =
| image        = Lost world.jpg
| caption      = Cover of the first edition of ''The Lost World''
| author       = [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]]
| illustrator  =
| cover_artist =
| country      = United Kingdom
| language     = English
| series       = [[Professor Challenger]]
| genre        = [[Science fiction]], [[Lost World (genre)|Lost world]]
| publisher    = [[Hodder & Stoughton]]
| release_date = 1912
| media_type   = Print
| followed_by  = [[The Poison Belt]]
| wikisource   = The Lost World
| pages        = 280
}}
'''''The Lost World''''' is a [[science fiction]] novel by British writer Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle]], published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1912, concerning an expedition to a plateau in the [[Amazon basin]] of South America where [[prehistoric animals]] still survive. It was originally published serially in the ''[[Strand Magazine]]'' and illustrated by New-Zealand-born artist [[Harry Rountree]] during the months of April–November 1912.  The character of [[Professor Challenger]] was introduced in this book. The novel also describes a war between [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous people]] and a vicious tribe of ape-like creatures.
== Plot summary ==
[[File:Page 187 (The Lost World, 1912).jpg|thumb|left|upright|The group encountering ''[[Iguanodon]]'']]
Edward Malone, a young reporter for the ''Daily Gazette'', asks his editor for a dangerous assignment to impress the woman he loves, Gladys, who wishes for a great man capable of brave deeds and actions. His task is to approach the notorious Professor Challenger, who dislikes the popular press intensely and physically assaults intrusive journalists. The subject is to be his recent South American expedition which, surrounded by controversy, guarantees a hostile reaction. As a direct approach would be instantly rebuffed, Malone instead masquerades as an earnest student. On meeting the professor he is startled by his intimidating physique, but believes his ruse is succeeding. However, Challenger had really seen through the masquerade, and after confirming Malone’s scientific knowledge is non-existent, Challenger erupts in anger and forcibly throws him out.
But, Malone earns his respect by refusing to press charges with a [[policeman]] who saw his violent ejection into the street. Challenger ushers him back inside and, extracting promises of confidentiality, eventually reveals he has discovered living dinosaurs in [[South America]], following up an expedition by a now-deceased previous [[United States|American]] [[explorer]] named Maple White. At a tumultuous public meeting in which Challenger experiences further ridicule (most notably from a professional rival, Professor Summerlee), Malone volunteers for an expedition to verify the discoveries. His companions are to be Professor Summerlee, and Lord John Roxton, an adventurer who helped end [[slavery]] on [[Amazon Basin|the Amazon]]; the notches on his [[rifle]] showing how many slavers he killed doing so.
Running the gauntlet of hostile tribes, the expedition finally reaches the lost world with the aid of indigenous guides, who are superstitiously scared of the area. Summerlee retains his scepticism, despite being delighted at making other scientific discoveries in the fields of [[botany]] and [[entomology]]: even a glimpse of a [[Pterodactylus|pterodactyl]] at a distance fails to convince him, because he believes it is some species of [[stork]]. The sharper-eyed Roxton is inclined to agree it is not a stork but has no clue what it really is, until a night-time encounter when it flies down and is seen by all at close range, as it steals the companions’ dinner. After this, Summerlee apologises to Challenger. The cliffs to the plateau itself prove to be apparently unscalable, but an adjacent pinnacle turns out to be climbable, and moreover, has a tall tree which can be cut down and used as a bridge, which allows the four explorers to cross to the plateau.
However, they are almost immediately trapped on it, thanks to the treachery of one of their luggage-porters, Gomez—who, as it turns out, is a former slaver whose brother had previously been killed by Roxton during his anti-slavery activities. Gomez takes his revenge by dropping the tree off the cliff, stranding the explorers on the plateau. Roxton shoots Gomez and they hear the scream and then the thud of the falling body. The other guide is subsequently killed by another porter, a formerly enslaved black man named Zambo, who remains loyal to the party: but the latter is unable to do much more to help, other than send some of the company's supplies over by rope.
Whilst investigating the wonders of the lost world, discovering many plants and creatures thought to be extinct including [[Iguanodon]]s, they narrowly escape an attack from pterodactyls. Although barely escaping with their lives, Roxton takes great interest in nearby blue clay deposits. At night a ferocious [[Megalosaurus]] is about to break through the thorn bushes surrounding their camp; Roxton averts disaster by bravely dashing at it, thrusting a blazing torch at its face to scare it away. The night after, Malone studies fauna near the central [[lake]] including a [[Stegosaurus]], and escapes the same Megalosaurus. Meanwhile, the others are captured by a race of "[[Homo erectus|ape-men]]".
Whilst in captivity they discover that a tribe of indigenous people, with whom the "ape-men" are at war, inhabit the other side of the plateau. Roxton escapes and together with Malone mounts a rescue, preventing many unpleasant deaths, including a young indigenous man who is a prince of his tribe. The rescued indigenous people take the party to their village, then with the help of their firepower return to defeat the "ape-men". After witnessing the power of their guns, the tribe wish to keep them on the plateau but, helped by the young prince they saved, they eventually discover a tunnel leading back to the outside world. During their time with the tribe, Roxton plans how to capture a pterodactyl chick, and succeeds in doing so.
Upon return to England, despite full reports from Malone many detractors continue to dismiss the expedition's account, much as they had Challenger's original story—although Summerlee, having been on the expedition, has now switched sides and is supporting Challenger. Anticipating this, at a public meeting at [[Queen's Hall]] Challenger produces the young pterodactyl as proof, transfixing the audience and leaving them in no doubt of the truth. The explorers are instantly feted as heroes, and on a wave of adulation find themselves carried shoulder-high from the hall by cheering crowds. The pterodactyl, in the confusion, makes its escape and is witnessed several times at different locations around London, causing consternation wherever it goes, but is last seen heading off to the southwest in the probable direction of its home.
At a private celebratory dinner, Roxton reveals to the others that the blue clay contained [[diamond]]s. He had been tipped off to the possibility, by the recollection of a similar feature in [[South Africa]], and managed to extract about £200,000 worth (£23 million in 2021), which is to be split between them. Challenger plans to open a private museum with his share. Summerlee plans to retire and categorise fossils. Malone returns to his love, Gladys, hoping she will recognise his achievements. Instead, he finds she has now changed her mind and married a very ordinary man instead, an insignificant clerk. Astonished at this turn of events, and with nothing to keep him in London, he decides to accompany Roxton back to the lost world.
==Characters==
* '''[[Professor Challenger|Professor George Edward Challenger]]''' – A [[zoologist]]
* '''Edward D. Malone''' – A reporter at the ''Daily Gazette''
* '''McArdle''' – Malone's editor at the ''Daily Gazette''
* '''Professor Summerlee''' – A scientist
* '''[[Lord John Roxton]]''' – An adventurer
* '''Gomez''' – Brother to an enslaver whom Roxton killed
* '''Manuel''' – Gomez's friend
* '''Zambo''' – South American friend to the traveler
* '''Gladys Hungerton''' – Edward Malone's love interest
* '''Jessie Challenger''' – Challenger's wife
* '''Maple White''' – deceased explorer who discovered the lost world
* '''The Accala Indians''' – The natives of the lost world
==References in other works==
{{Main article|Lost world}}
[[File:Actor Wallace Beery (SAYRE 4364).jpg|right|thumb|[[Wallace Beery]] as [[Professor Challenger|Challenger]] in the 1925 [[The Lost World (1925 film)|film]]]]
In addition to lending its title to this subgenre,{{cn|date=March 2023}} the title of Doyle's work was reused by [[Michael Crichton]] in his 1995 novel ''[[The Lost World (Crichton novel)|The Lost World]]'', a sequel to ''[[Jurassic Park (novel)|Jurassic Park]]'', and its film adaptation, ''[[The Lost World: Jurassic Park]]''. Two of the characters in Crichton's novel mention a palaeontologist called John Roxton.{{cn|date=March 2023}}
[[Greg Bear]]'s 1998 novel ''Dinosaur Summer'' is a sequel to ''The Lost World'', set in an [[alternate history]] 1947. In the context of Bear's novel, ''The Lost World'' was a nonfiction work published by Doyle as recounted to him by Professor Challenger.
==References to actual history, geography and current science==
[[File:Page 222 (The Lost World, 1912).jpg|thumb|Map of Maple-White Land]]
The characters of Ed Malone and Lord John Roxton were modelled, respectively, on the journalist [[E. D. Morel]] and the diplomat [[Roger Casement]], leaders of the [[Congo Free State]] reform campaign (the [[Congo Reform Association]]), which Doyle supported.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stashower |first=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Stashower |date=1999 |title=Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle|location=New York |publisher=Henry Holt & Co|pages=321–22 |isbn=9781466863156}}</ref> In 1911, just when Doyle was writing the book, Casement made a second such anti-slavery reform campaign in the Amazonian part of Peru.  It is possible that Malone was also based on [[Bertram Fletcher Robinson]], a close friend of Doyle's, because like Robinson, Malone was raised in the [[West Country]], exceeded six&nbsp;feet in height, became an accomplished [[rugby union]] player, worked as a London-based [[journalist]], and he loved a woman called Gladys.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bfronline.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=123&Itemid=9 |title=Further details about the links between Arthur Conan Doyle, ''The Lost World'' & Devon<!-- Bot generated title --> |publisher=BFRonline.BIZ |access-date=24 July 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090625171723/http://www.bfronline.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=123&Itemid=9 |archive-date=25 June 2009 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>
Doyle was aware of his good friend [[Percy Harrison Fawcett]]'s expedition to the Huanchaca Plateau in [[Noel Kempff Mercado National Park]], Bolivia. Fawcett organised several expeditions to delimit the border between Bolivia and Brazil – an area of potential conflict between both countries. Doyle attended Fawcett's lecture to the [[Royal Geographical Society]] on 13 February 1911<ref name=Spiring>{{cite web|url=http://www.bfronline.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=123&Itemid=9|title=Conan Doyle, 'The Lost World' & Devon |publisher=BFRonline |first=Paul |last=Spiring |year=2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090625171723/http://www.bfronline.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=123&Itemid=9|archive-date=25 June 2009|df=dmy-all}}</ref> and was impressed by the tale about the remote "province of Caupolican" (present day Huanchaca Plateau) in Bolivia – a dangerous area with impenetrable forests, where Fawcett saw "monstrous tracks of unknown origin".<ref>{{cite book |last=Wilkins |first=Harold T. |author-link=Harold T. Wilkins |date=1998 |title=Secret Cities of Old South America|location=New York |publisher=Cosmo Inc.|page=199 |isbn=9780932813558}}</ref>
Fawcett wrote in his posthumously published memoirs: "Monsters from the dawn of Man's existence might still roam these heights unchallenged, imprisoned and protected by unscalable cliffs. So thought Conan Doyle when later in London I spoke of these hills and showed photographs of them.  He mentioned an idea for a novel on Central South America and asked for information, which I told him I should be glad to supply.  The fruit of it was his ''Lost World'' in 1912, appearing as a serial in the ''Strand Magazine'', and subsequently in the form of a book that achieved widespread popularity."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fawcett |first1=P. H. |last2=Fawcett |first2=Brian |title=Exploration Fawcett |year=2010 |orig-year=1953 |page=122 |publisher=The Overlook Press |url=https://archive.org/details/explorationfawce00over/page/122/mode/2up?view=theater |url-access=registration |isbn=9781590204306}}</ref>
A 1996 ''[[Science Fiction Studies]]'' review of an annotated edition of the novel suggested that another inspiration for the story may have been the 1890s contested political history of the [[Pacaraima Mountains]] plateaux, and [[Mount Roraima]] in particular.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bleiler|first1=Everett|title=Lost Worlds and Lost Opportunities |journal=Science Fiction Studies|date=November 1996|url=http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/reviews_pages/r70.htm#A70|access-date=29 March 2015}}</ref>
==Film, television, and radio adaptations==
===Film===
'''Theatrical films''':
*''[[The Lost World (1925 film)|The Lost World]]'' (1925; film)
*''[[The Lost World (1960 film)|The Lost World]]'' (1960; film)
'''Direct-to-video films''':
*''[[The Lost World (1992 film)|The Lost World]]'' (1992; film)
**''[[Return to the Lost World]]'' (1992; sequel film)
*''[[The Lost World (1998 film)|The Lost World]]'' (1998; film)
*''[[King of the Lost World]]'' (2005)
===Television===
*''[[The Lost World (TV series)|Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World]]'' (1999–2002; TV series)
* ''[[Dinosaur Island (2002 film)|Dinosaur Island]]'' (2002 animated film)
*''Adventures in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World'' (2002) (Canadian-French-Luxembourger animated series)
*''[[The Lost World (2001 film)|The Lost World]]'' (2001; television film)
===Documentary===
*''The Real Lost World'' (2006)
===Audio===
*''The Lost World'' (1944; radio)
**John Dickson Carr as Narrator (all characters)
*''The Lost World'' (1949; [[BBC Light Programme]] radio serial)<ref name="suttonelms.org.uk">Bickerton, Roger. [http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/lost9.html "Radio Plays 1945–1997: Serials"]. Diversity Website. Retrieved 22 May 2021.</ref>
**With Abraham Sofaer, Ivor Barnard, Lewis Stringer, Cyril Gardiner
*''Dinosaurs!'' (1966, an audio dramatic version of ''The Lost World'' adapted and directed by Ronald Liss and recorded by permission of the Estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; [[MGM Records|MGM/Leo the Lion Records]] C/CH-1016)
** [[Basil Rathbone]] as [[Professor Challenger]]
** Leo Marion as Dr. Summerlee
** [[Peter Fernandez]] as Edward Malone
***(The character of Lord John Roxton was not included in this adaptation.)
*''The Lost World'' (1975 [[BBC Radio 4]] [[Classic Serial]])<ref name="suttonelms.org.uk"/>
**[[Francis de Wolff]] as [[Professor Challenger]]
**[[Gerald Harper]] as [[Lord John Roxton]]
**Kevin McHugh as Edward Malone
**[[Carleton Hobbs]] as Professor Summerlee
*''The Lost World'' (2011; [[BBC Radio 4]] [[Classic Serial]])
**[[David Robb]] as [[Professor Challenger]]
**[[Jamie Glover]] as [[Lord John Roxton]]
**[[Jonathan Forbes (actor)|Jonathan Forbes]] as Edward Malone
**[[Jasmine Hyde]] as Dr. Diana Summerlee (a female substitute for Professor Summerlee in the original novel)
**Jane Whittenshaw as Edith Challenger
**[[Nyasha Hatendi]] as Maple White
**Vinicius Salles as Querioz
==See also==
* [[Lost world]]
* [[1912 in science fiction]]
* [[Up (2009 film)|''Up'' (2009 film)]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
{{wikisource|The Lost World|''The Lost World''}}
{{commons category|The Lost World}}
* {{ISFDB title|1604}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/arthur-conan-doyle/the-lost-world}}
* {{gutenberg|no=139|name=The Lost World}}.
* [https://archive.org/details/lost_world ''The Lost World'' (1925)] available for free download from [[Internet Archive]].
* {{librivox book | title=The Lost World | author=Sir Arthur Conan Doyle}}
{{Arthur Conan Doyle}}
{{The Lost World}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lost World, The}}
[[Category:1912 British novels]]
[[Category:1912 science fiction novels]]
[[Category:Novels about dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Fiction about modern-day dinosaurs]]
[[Category:British science fiction novels]]
[[Category:Lost world novels]]
[[Category:British novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Professor Challenger novels]]
[[Category:Novels set in South America]]
[[Category:Novels set in Brazil]]
[[Category:Works originally published in The Strand Magazine]]
[[Category:Novels first published in serial form]]
[[Category:Hodder & Stoughton books]]