The Lost World - Hardcover

Arthur Conan Doyle

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1403709858 ISBN 13: 9781403709851

Publisher: Dalmatian Press, 2005

Synopsis

Excerpt: ...taken command in the hour of action, gave us his views. "So long as neither man nor beast has seen or heard us, we are safe," said he. "From the time they know we are here our troubles begin. There are no signs that they have found us out as yet. So our game surely is to lie low for a time and spy out the land. We want to have a good look at our neighbors before we get on visitin' terms." "But we must advance," I ventured to remark. "By all means, sonny my boy! We will advance. But with common sense. We must never go so far that we can't get back to our base. Above all, we must never, unless it is life or death, fire off our guns." "But YOU fired yesterday," said Summerlee. "Well, it couldn't be helped. However, the wind was strong and blew outwards. It is not likely that the sound could have traveled far into the plateau. By the way, what shall we call this place? I suppose it is up to us to give it a name?" There were several suggestions, more or less happy, but Challenger's was final. "It can only have one name," said he. "It is called after the pioneer who discovered it. It is Maple White Land." Maple White Land it became, and so it is named in that chart which has become my special task. So it will, I trust, appear in the atlas of the future. The peaceful penetration of Maple White Land was the pressing subject before us. We had the evidence of our own eyes that the place was inhabited by some unknown creatures, and there was that of Maple White's sketch-book to show that more dreadful and more dangerous monsters might still appear. That there might also prove to be human occupants and that they were of a malevolent character was suggested by the skeleton impaled upon the bamboos, which could not have got there had it not been dropped from above. Our situation, stranded without possibility of escape in such a land, was clearly full of danger, and our reasons endorsed every measure of caution which Lord John's experience could suggest. Yet it...

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:

"Two scenes, one from a book and the other from a film, continue to evoke dinosaurs as they did in my youth: The swamp-forests of "King Kong" on the one hand, and Arthur Conan Doyle's" The Lost World. "It was really 'dreadful in the forest....'" --Brian Lumley, author of the Necroscope series "Geologists delve for dinosaurs in dust, and all they find are bare bones. But Conan Doyle, in his timeless tale, brings those bones to life. No explorer can match the thrills which await readers who discover "The Lost World" today." --Robert Block, author of "Psycho"

About this edition

• Publisher: Dalmatian Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1403709858
• ISBN 13: 9781403709851
• Binding: Hardcover