The Poison Belt, Together with The Disintegration Machine and When the World Screamed

Professor Challenger #2, 4, & 5

by Arthur Conan Doyle, John Dickson Carr (Introduction), Harlow Shapley (Epilogue)

The Poison Belt
Just returned from his famous adventure in the Lost World, the resourceful Professor George Challenger faces his greatest danger yet: Earth will pass through a belt of poisonous ether, and mankind might not survive.

The Disintegration Machine
Professor Challenger accompanies his young friend Malone, a reporter for the Gazette, to inspect the discovery of Theodore Nemor, who claims to have invented a machine capable of disintegrating objects.

When the World Screamed
Professor Challenger, Mr Edward Malone and Mr Peerless Jones, drill a shaft deep into the earth, convinced that the mantle, is a sentient being. After they awaken the giant creature . . .

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Classics

158 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1966

About the author

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a Scottish writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.

Doyle was a prolific writer. In addition to the Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the brigantine Mary Celeste, found drifting at sea with no crew member aboard.

Reviews

[John of Canada]

I"ve enjoyed Sherlock Holmes mysteries, but Sir Arthur as a sci-fi author was a surprise to me. I'm sure a lot of moviemakers and s.f. writers stole,sorry,researched the ideas of Doyle. And the characters. Professor Challenger brought to mind, Quint from 'Jaws' and Lamb from the Slough House series. The writing is superior as is the precision of detail, some of which reminded me of H.P. Lovecraft. I am now looking for more of Doyle's work.

[Bill]

The Poison Belt and Other Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle contains three stories featuring Professor Challenger who first appeared in The Lost World. This collection contains The Poison Belt (1913), The Disintegration Machine (1929) (I had read this previously as a standalone novella but read it once more) & When the World Screamed (1928). It does not contain The Land of Mist, which I have yet to read.

The Poison Belt is the longest of the 3 and deals with Professor Challenger and his 3 close friends, along with his wife, dealing with the Earth travelling through a poison belt of ether. Challenger has stated that it will cause the end of the Earth and as the friends seek sanctuary on his estate, in a specially sealed room to wait out their deaths, they watch the world around them (near Brighton) collapse; people dying in the fields, trains crashing, towns burning, etc. I have to say it's a pretty grim old story but since it's not the last of the Challenger books, I'll leave the conclusion to you. It was definitely an interesting concept and we get to see Challenger at his brusque, superior best.

The Disintegration Machine involves a Challenger and his friend Malone (who narrates most of the Challenger stories) meeting with a Latvian scientist who has invented a machine that can disintegrate a body / object to its basic atoms and then at a later date, can reconstitute them elsewhere. He has sold the invention to an enemy nation. Think of the possibilities; disintegrating armies and then reconstituting them behind enemy lines. How will the duo stop him???

The final story, When the World Screamed is also a neat idea. Challenger believes that the Earth is like a human body. We don't notice smaller creatures, e.g. mosquitoes, etc. until they make their presence felt. Challenger's theory is that the Earth is just a larger body that doesn't even notice humanity on its surface. He has been digging a tunnel into the Earth's surface, 8 miles deep, so he can see what will happen when he pricks the Earth's core. This story is narrated by a friend of Malone's (Malone is also in the story), who is an artesian boring expert who has been hired by Challenger to finish the final part of the project. Another neat idea and quickly gets to the point. Interesting result also.

Challenger is a complex character, a genius who irritates and also causes great admiration from his friends and colleagues. Malone describes him as a cross between a Neanderthal and a genius, one you probably hate but can't help admiring. I was going to rate the stories 3.0, but the more I write about them and the ideas developed by Doyle, I think I've got to rate the stories higher... (4.0 stars)

[Martijn Vsho]

I really enjoyed this second book in Doyle's Challenger series. A fantastic book about what humanity will do when universal calamity is predicted. This book introduces Professor Challenger's wife, Jessie, and their interactions provide an immense contrast to Professor Challenger's otherwise harsh character as his romantic side comes out.
This short book also contains two other short stories, "The Disintegration Machine" and "When the World Screamed." The first is an odd story about Professor Challenger and Edward Malone, who go to meet a man who claims to have invented a disintegration machine. Obviously Professor Challenger, who thinks the man is wrong, needs to make sure that he himself is right. The second short story is about Peerless Jones and Edward Malone, who help Professor Challenger bore to the Earth's mantle since Professor Challenger is convinced the earth is alive and sentient. It is a thought-provoking story about ecology and ecological awareness.
Interesting Quote:
As they wonder what it would be like to survive this calamity, Edward Malone shares his thoughts: "I feel how wise and true were the words of Challenger when he said that the real tragedy would be if we were left behind when all that is noble and good and beautiful had passed. (The Poison Belt, p. 64)

[Read1000books]

Second only to Sherlock Holmes, Professor George Edward Challenger is the most well-known fictional character created by Sir Author Conan Doyle. He is the hero of three novels and two short stories, "The Poison Belt" being the second of the novels, following the terrific first adventure entitled "The Lost World". Since I am celebrating this year the 40th anniversary of my discovery of Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur, I felt it would only be appropriate to read "The Poison Belt" during the 100th anniversary of its publication in 1913. And the book did not disappoint. Challenger discovers that Earth is soon to pass through a belt of fatally toxic gas in space and just has time to gather and protect his closest friends before the calamitous event. But what of the rest of the world's inhabitants?? Read and enjoy! The volume I read also included the two Challenger short stories: "The Disintegration Machine" (Can the Professor outwit an evil inventor?) and "When The World Screamed" (What happens when Challenger's team bores a hole eight miles into the Earth?). While not usually credited with being a science fiction writer, Conan Doyle is easily on par with H.G. Wells, and it certainly shows in the Challenger stories.

[Patrick Broderick]

For Edwardian science, this was an interesting collection of early scifi & science fantasy ("When The World Screamed"). The concept of the title story is intriguing but, based on our current understanding of space, almost impossible. However, the apparent end of the world aspects were very well done.

"The Disintegration Machine" was a slightly new take on an existing idea. In this case, the matter could be re-integrated after disintegration. The denouement of this story was a bit of a surprise to me but it worked well.

"When The World Screamed" was a marvelous science fantasy story along the lines of other stories that postulate either a hollow earth or some other material below the crust. Very entertaining once you get past the 'scientific' basis of the story.

If you like early SF or Arthur Conan Doyle, this is definitely worth checking out. These novellas are relatively short so, even if you don't like a story, you won't waste a lot of time on it.

[Rebekah]

It seems like a great irony that Challenger is so arrogant and high and mighty about himself as 'the greatest scientist ever' and yet, in each of the stories in this book he is significantly wrong about something huge.

Interesting stories though.

[Wendy Green]

Oh my goodness, so far fetched it was unbelievable and why use 5 words to describe something when you can use 20!!!
It's been a long time since I had read any Arthur Conan Doyle books and if this was anything to go by I can see why.

[Arizonagirl]

The Poison Belt is book #2 of the Professor Challenger series and the sequel to The Lost World. This book is about the earth passing through a belt of fatal ether--a fate that Professor Challenger predicted but has not determined a way to solve. I did not find the story nearly as interesting as the idea of remnant dinosaurs on a remote plateau and didn't like the cop out ending. The book also included two other short stories: The Disintegration Machine and When the World Screamed.

[Wilde Sky]

My rating for this book is only for the second two stories (‘The Disintegration Machine’ and ‘When the World Screamed’) as I’ve previously reviewed ‘The Poison Belt’ (a different edition / combination of stories).

I found both of these short stories interesting / unusual / fast paced – they are not classics, but are worth reading if you enjoy Sci-Fi.

[Matthew]

Arthur Conan Doyle is best remembered for the Sherlock Holmes stories, although he would have preferred to be remembered for his historical novels. However there was a third strand to his work. This was science fiction, and he deserves to be honoured for having made a useful contribution to this field as well.

The best known of Conan Doyle’s science fiction stories are those which feature Professor Challenger, the ‘cave man in a lounge suit’, and a great comic creation. Challenger is a brilliant scientist, and a childish man. He gets into brawls with reporters. He is incredibly vain and egotistical. He is rude, even to people he likes. However he is capable of kindness, and is not without a sense of ethics.

Like many early science fiction writers, Conan Doyle’s stories serve as a useful corrective to the human’s race’s inflated sense of self-importance. In The Lost World, creationism takes a knock. We see that humans were merely a late development on the planet, and one that would not have survived well in an age of dinosaurs. In The Land of Mist, our life on this planet is seen to be a temporary stop before we pass into a mysterious afterlife.

I have already written a review of The Lost World, and will be writing one of The Land of Mist soon. The focus of this review is the three shorter Professor Challenger stories, and these too show the human race has a more humbling position in relation to the universe.

The longest story here is The Poison Belt, a short novella. The mortifying lesson to be drawn from this story is that the universe is not made for the benefit of us, as believers in a ‘finely-tuned universe’ seem to think, and we could easily be wiped off the face of the planet by cosmic forces outside our control.

The story reunites the four lead characters from The Lost World. This time the characters are not roaming the forests of South America, and spend a large amount of the story trapped in one room. Professor Challenger has calculated that the Earth is passing through a poison belt – a section of space in which the ether is toxic, and which may wipe out all life on Earth.

There is some comedy to be had from watching the erratic behaviour of the characters under the influence of the poisonous air. However, they soon sober up when they reach Challenger’s house and he creates an artificially oxygenated air for them to survive a few more hours and watch the destruction of life on the planet.

Indeed all life on the planet does appear to die. To the surprise of our heroes, the belt passes quickly and they are left with the awful realisation that they may be the only people left on the planet. They briefly wander around London before returning home. Once there they find that the seemingly dead humans and animals return to life. It seems that on this occasion the belt through which Earth passed was not a deadly one, but we have had a glimpse of the precariousness of our existence here.

Conan Doyle presumably brought together the Lost World characters for commercial reasons, since there is no artistic reason for them to gather in one place again. The device that he uses is that they are celebrating the first anniversary of their return from the lost world. This is serviceable, though we may wonder why Professor Summerlee (Challenger’s bitter rival) should come, or how Lord John Roxton and Edward Malone are still able to attend. (Were they not supposed to be returning to the lost world for a second expedition? In any case, Roxton is an adventurer, and it is curious that he should still be in England a year later.)

Indeed their presence in The Lost World made sense. Summerlee was needed to be the sceptical voice that Challenger had to persuade. Here he fulfils the same role, though with a little more humility than last time. Roxton was a necessary addition to The Lost World because he brought the practical know-how missing in the other characters, but here he does not have much to do except express his wonderment.

The story could probably have managed perfectly well with just Challenger to explain the science and Malone to record what happened for his newspaper. However if the other characters are unnecessary to the plot, they are very welcome, and we can enjoy the familiar banter that made The Lost World such fun.

There is incidentally a fifth character present that you may be forgiven for having overlooked. This is Mrs Challenger, the Professor’s wife. She serves no particular purpose except to act as an adoring and sometimes disapproving satellite to her husband, and to serve food to the others. Sadly this is not an era in which women are allowed to play a significant part in the action.

Cavils about the device of reuniting The Lost World characters aside, this is a fine piece of speculative science fiction. Conan Doyle spends some time describing the effects of the poison belt, and I suspect his descriptions of ‘dead London’ were influenced by The War of the Worlds. The characters also have time to consider deeper issues.

There is some discussion about religion. Challenger professes a belief, mainly (we suspect) because he is too egotistical to want a world in which his intellect will be destroyed forever. Roxton professes to be a ‘Christian of a sort’. Notably none of the characters expresses much in the way of pieties, and the notion of a benevolent deity does not seem to be in existence here. This is a world where they can be casually pruned from the planet like a gardener poisoning insects. At best the story is more deist than conventionally theist in its telling.

There is also some consideration about the future of life on the planet. Challenger discovers that an amoeba can survive the effects of the poison belt; again reminiscent of the way in which bacteria is be the force that stops the aliens in The War of the Worlds. It is possible that life in its current form could be removed from the planet one day, and it would be obliged to start again. Humans are not necessarily the final product, but merely one more stage in the development of life.

Ultimately the story settles for the cosier resolution of restoring life to Earth for now, but it gives us a fascinating and uncomfortable glimpse into the possibility that our future is not as assured as many seem to think.

The briefest of the three stories is The Disintegration Machine. This time Roxton and Summerlee are not present, and the action focuses on Challenger and Malone. They are sent to meet an unpleasant Latvian scientist called Theodore Nemor (a foreigner of course) who has invented a new machine that allows all particles in an object or a human to be disintegrated and (if the inventor so wishes) reconstituted.

Nemor intends to sell the weapon to the highest bidder, and this is looking like Russia. He explains to Challenger that this will be a useful device in war, and could be used to wipe out whole areas. Challenger hoodwinks Nemor into sitting in the disintegration machine, at which point Challenger flicks the switch and the dishonourable scientist is gone forever. It is a curious resolution to the story since it ends in a humorous act of murder. However we can fee that a greater evil has been prevented by the removal of Nemor, the only man who understood the workings of the disintegration machine, and Challenger’s action is justified.

The Disintegration Machine is a short story, but one that finds time to make points about the ethics of scientific work, and the dangers of technology that can be used to bring total destruction down on our enemies. Perhaps the world might have been a better place if more twentieth-century scientists in the field of war weapons had been disintegrated.

The final story is the intriguing When the World Screamed. Challenger and Malone are back, but curiously the story is narrated by a third figure, Peerless Jones. This may be intended to bring back some of the wonder and mystery to the story since the relationship between Challenger and Malone is now rather comfortable.

Jones is an engineer, and he has been asked to design a machine that will pierce the Earth’s under-surface. (For the purposes of this story, Challenger has inherited a vast amount of wealth that allows him to carry out this huge operation.) Challenger’s theory is that the Earth is a huge animal similar to an echinus, and we are living on its surface. By piercing the Earth’s underbelly, he wishes to test this theory by seeing if the Earth responds.

This is carried out, and it causes the planet to scream loudly and to engage in tectonic activity, including volcanic eruptions. The harm done by Challenger is glossed over, and the story seems to celebrate his brilliant achievement in making this discovery, though the reader may be forgiven for feeling that his mission has been an irresponsible folly, albeit one that has increased human understanding.

The story can be seen as raising issues about how far scientists should go in their discoveries. We can draw an ecological message too. Whether or not the Earth is an animal, it is at least the surface that we rely on for our own survival. Everything is connected, and we need to treat it with some respect. Once again the importance of the human race has been undermined. We are merely denizens living parasite-like on a larger organism.

While none of the stories here manage to match The Lost World, Conan Doyle’s first Professor Challenger story, they are all hugely enjoyable and thought-provoking works. Their conclusions may be disquieting but they are not depressing. They offer safe endings, but they are told vividly and with humour. They are well worth a read.