The Lost World (Arthur Conan Doyle)

For the 1990 Michael Crichton novel, see The Lost World (Michael Crichton).

The Lost World is a 1912 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle concerning an expedition to a plateau in South America 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 reptiles 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 Journal, went to his editor, McArdle, to get a dangerous and adventurous mission (to impress the woman he loves so she will marry him), so McArdle sent Malone to interview Professor Challenger, a notable task as Challenger has assaulted some four or five other journalists who have come to speak with him on his discovery of dinosaurs in South America. The discovery has been thus far ridiculed by the mainstream, but Challenger, after also assaulting Malone, convinces him of its veracity and invites him on an expedition to the Amazon to gather more evidence. Two other characters are also invited, 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 in South America. They reach the plateau with the aid of Indian guides, who are superstitiously scared of the area, and trickle away by the time the expedition reaches its goal, with the exception of two Indians. One of these Indians (actually mestizos), Gomez, is the brother of a man that Roxton killed when he was fighting slavery the last time he was in South America. When the expedition manages to get onto the plateau Gomez traps them there by destroying their bridge. The other Indian, Zambo, is loyal and remains at the base of the plateau to help his employers if they can get back down.

Deciding to investigate the lost world, they are attacked by pterodactyls at a swamp, and Roxton finds some blue clay to which he takes an excessive degree of interest. After exploring the terrain and having a few misadventures in which the expedition nearly misses being killed by dinosaurs, they discover that there are also two humanoid species living on the plateau. One is a race of ape-like creatures, and the other is a tribe of actual humans. It is theorized by the two scientists that it was easier in the past to get onto the plateau, which explains why the post-jurassic species are there. At any rate, the two species are constantly fighting each other, and Challenger and Summerlee are captured by the ape-men. Roxton and Malone, when they realise this, go out to find and rescue the professors, and find them just in time to keep the ape-men from pushing them off the side of the plateau, a fall which would be fatal. They then flee the ape-men and join up with the human tribe. Under their leadership, the tribe defeats the ape-men and achieves superiority over the plateau.

The expedition then discovers that the caves which the tribe lives in have tunnels leading off the plateau, unknown by the human tribe. The expedition must sneak out, as the tribe wishes them to remain. They return to England and bring with them a Pterodactyl, which promptly escapes when showcased and is dismissed as some sort of bird by the public, as no one gets a good look at it. When Malone had dinner with the other expedition members at Roxton's apartment, Roxton showed them the blue clay, which, when cut open, was revealed to contain diamonds. Their estimated worth was £200,000, and they split the money among themselves. Challenger said he would use his share to open a museum, Summerlee would retire, Roxton would have another expedition back to the lost world, and Malone (having returned to England to find the woman he loves already married) would join Roxton in his planned return to the plateau.

Characters in The Lost World

Professor Challenger
Ed Malone – reporter
McArdle – Ed's editor
Professor Summerlee – scientist
Lord John Roxton – adventurer
Gomez – brother to a slave master Roxton killed
Zambo – South American Black guide
Gladys – Ed Malone's love interest

Beastiary

Novel

Megalosaurus
Iguanodon
Pteranodon
Glyptodont
Megaloceros
Icthyosaur
Plesiosaur
An unidentified 50ft snake
An unidentified phosphorescent mammal
Ape-Men
Grape-sized ticks
Large moths

1925 Film

Ape-Man and Chimpanzee
Unidentified Frilled/feathered lizards

Notes: While uncredited in the film's official beastiary, a Tyrannosaurus does appear in a scene where it kills what appears to be a Triceratops/Styracosaurus hybrid. It is clearly marked as being a Tyrannosaurus in that it is much larger, has a different appearance, and only two fingers.

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.

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, Jurassic Park, followed suit.) At least two similarly named TV shows, Land of the Lost and Lost, nod to this source material.

Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science

The characters of Ed Malone and Lord John Roxton are 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.

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.

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 series.

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.

External links

.
The Lost World (1925) available for free download from Internet Archive.
Silent Movie Monsters

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