The Lost World

Description

The title might be familiar from Michael Crichton’s novel, continued in an even more well-known sequel, Jurassic Park and the movie based on both books and directed by Spielberg, but this is the original version. Written and published in 1912, the story is one of the first to take the readers to the world of dinosaurs and other scary creatures. Conan Doyle is most well-known for his novels featuring the eccentric detective Sherlock Holmes, but this novel has another, not less eccentric character as protagonist: the ill-tempered Professor George Edward Challenger. The story begins with the professor trying to persuade the London Zoological Institute that he has discovered a previously unknown plateau in South America that is dwelled on by prehistoric animals. He is laughed at by his audience, so he decides to organize an expedition to the plateau to prove that he is telling the truth.

The expedition has three members, the professor, a reporter and an adventurer. The three get to the plateau near the Amazonas and they meet dinosaurs, indeed. They are captured by ape-men and they also find themselves in the middle of a war between rivaling tribes. After numerous dangerous adventures and helping one of the warring tribes, the expedition escapes from the plateau and returns to England, but the story is far being over.

The Lost World is a true Conan Doyle masterpiece. As the Sherlock Holmes novels are considered to be the standard for detective stories, this novel is setting the standard for an entirely different genre, that of the adventure novel. The characters are all masterfully penned, the world they find in South America is beautiful, dangerous and magical at the same time, and the story is full of unexpected turns and it does not cease to be captivating to the very last word.
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