The Lost World (Modern Library) (Modern Library Classics) - Softcover

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Michael Crichton (Introdution)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812967259 ISBN 13: 9780812967258

Publisher: Modern Library Inc, 2003

Synopsis

Since 1917 The Modern Library prides itself as The modern Library of the world s Best Books . Featuring introductions by leading writers, stunning translations, scholarly endnotes and reading group guides. Production values emphasize superior quality and readability. Competitive prices, coupled with exciting cover design make these an ideal gift to be cherished by the avid reader. In The Lost World, the first in a series of books to feature the bold Professor Challenger a character many critics consider one of the most finely drawn in science fiction Challenger and his party embark on an expedition to a remote Amazonian plateau where, as the good professor puts it, the ordinary laws of Nature are suspended and numerous prehistoric creatures and ape-men have survived. Just as Sherlock Holmes set the standard and in some sense established the formula for the detective story . . . , so too has The Lost World set the standard and the formula for fantasy-adventure stories . . . , Michael Crichton writes in his Introduction. The tone and techniques that Conan Doyle first refined in The Lost World have become standard narrative procedures in popular entertainment of the present day. `The ordinary laws of Nature are suspended. The various checks with influence the struggle for existence in the world at large are all neutralized or altered. Creatures survive which would otherwise disappear.' Headed by the larger than life figure of Professor Challenger, a scientific expedition sets out to explore a plateau in South America that remains frozen in time from the days when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Seemingly impossible to penetrate, this lost word holds great danger for the four men, whether from fiendish ape-men or terrifying prehistoric creatures. Arthur Conan Doyle's classic tale of adventure and discovery still excites the reader today, just as dinosaurs continue to grip the popular imagination.

About this title

Review:

Forget the Michael Crichton book (and Spielberg movie) that copied the title. This is the original: the terror-adventure tale of The Lost World. Writing not long after dinosaurs first invaded the popular imagination, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle spins a yarn about an expedition of two scientists, a big-game hunter and a journalist (the narrator) to a volcanic plateau high over the vast Amazon rain forest. The bickering of the professors (a type Doyle knew well from his medical training) serves as witty contrast to the wonders of flora and fauna they encounter, building toward a dramatic moonlit chase scene with a Tyrannosaurus Rex. And the character of Professor George E. Challenger is second only to Sherlock Holmes in the outrageous force of his personality: he's a big man with an even bigger ego, and if you can grit your teeth through his racist behaviour towards the natives, he's a lot of fun.

Review:

The Lost World . . . provide[s] evidence that Doyle had it in him to be one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time. --Sam Moskowitz

About this edition

• Publisher: Modern Library Inc
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0812967259
• ISBN 13: 9780812967258
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272