From the Bookshelf of Easley Library Bookworms…

The Lost World (Professor Challenger, #1)

Arthur Conan Doyle,

Michael Crichton (Introduction)

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Mar 20, 2008 Werner rated it liked it

Shelves: classics, science-fiction

Note, March2, 2016: I've just edited this review to correct a misspelled word.

Like one of my Goodreads friends, I should say at the outset that my review can't add much to the excellent one already written by another friend, Lady Danielle (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... ). But I'll go ahead and share my perspective anyway, for what it's worth. While I did like the book, my rating for it wasn't quite as high as most of my friends gave it (for reasons I'll indicate below). But it's a goo Note, March2, 2016: I've just edited this review to correct a misspelled word.

Like one of my Goodreads friends, I should say at the outset that my review can't add much to the excellent one already written by another friend, Lady Danielle (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... ). But I'll go ahead and share my perspective anyway, for what it's worth. While I did like the book, my rating for it wasn't quite as high as most of my friends gave it (for reasons I'll indicate below). But it's a good adventure yarn, still appealing on that level even 100 years after it was written, and for anyone seriously interested in the roots of modern science fiction, a must-read. The whole SF theme of juxtaposing the prehistoric with the present-day world derives directly from this novel; Doyle continues to be a serious influence on contemporary genre writers like Crichton, and a host of others in between.

Much of the novel's appeal comes from the sheer power and fascination of the concept of being able to directly experience dinosaurs firsthand. In 1912, this idea was completely new; it's less so now, but even so, it retains a lot of its intrinsic excitement. Doyle's treatment mostly builds on this advantage positively; he's a very capable writer in terms of craftsmanship (I don't list him as a favorite for nothing!). His plot is solid and his pacing brisk, with plenty of the jeopardies and challenges that draw readers (including me) to this type of fiction. He peoples the narrative with vividly drawn characters. The most obvious of these is his series character Prof. Challenger, introduced here: too big (physically and in sheer force of personality) to ignore, supremely egotistical, belligerent, and combative, but brilliant, ingenious, and courageous. (Both Doyle's Holmes and Challenger were at least partly based on actual people; the latter on Doyle's medical school professor William Rutherfurd, just as Holmes was on Rutherfurd's colleague Joseph Bell.) But the supporting characters like Lord Roxton and Prof. Summerlee are brought fully to life as well (Roxton is really the most likeable of the group --his character here is vastly different from the arrogant jerk in the very unfaithful made-for-TV movie and series adaptation!). Malone, the narrator and viewpoint character, is less colorful, but he's an Everyman that readers can identify with --and like identifying with, as he proves himself brave and competent in various situations. Being written at a time when literary syntax was no longer as florid and convoluted as it had been in the early and mid-1800s, the prose here is pretty straightforward in style; it won't inhibit any modern reader with a good vocabulary. And the climax of the novel leaves the reader with some of the most arresting mental images I've ever experienced.

For me, though, there were factors that kept the book from being a four-star read. That the science is dated wasn't that big a problem for me; we've explored enough of the earth by now to know that the idea of any surviving Jurassic ecosystem is pretty far-fetched, but in 1912 that wasn't the case. (Though he doesn't name the locality, Doyle actually based his physical setting for the titular Lost World on the then-wholly-unexplored high plateau of Roraima in southern Venezuela.) But the author's uncritical Darwinism is more of a challenge to belief; though one can, I suppose, accept Doyle's "ape-men" (which one character calls "missing links") here much as we accept dragons and unicorns in fantasy. One of my Goodreads friends likes Challenger better than Holmes, but I didn't have the same reaction. Indeed, although Challenger's character fascinates, I can't really say that I like him much at all (in real life, I think he'd drive me up the wall quickly if I had to be much in his company). Lady Danielle, in her review, analyzes the patronizing treatment and negative stereotyping of the only black character in the exploring party, Zambo, and I can't improve on her comments there. I'd add that the treatment of the Hispanic-Indian guide Gomez (he's repeatedly referred to or identified as "half-breed") is equally invidious, or more so; Zambo at least is seen as a sympathetic character, while Gomez is a treacherous, homicidal villain. To be sure, some blacks of that day and now (and some whites) exhibit traits like Zambo's, and no doubt some Hispanic-Indians (like some whites) ARE treacherous, homicidal villains. It's the absence of any balance to those portrayals here that gives the impression that we're being invited to view every real-life black, Hispanic or Indian person that way, a kind of racial stereotyping that comes across as a sour note in the read. The racist attitudes are matched by sexist ones; I can't say that the author's portrayal of women is very favorable. That the exploring party is all male is probably to be expected in any writing from this era, but like Verne in Journey to the Center of the Earth (at least in the translation I read), Doyle uses a conversation between the viewpoint character and his romantic interest at the beginning to pound home the point that adventuring is strictly a male preserve. The lady delivers lines like, "There are heroisms all around us waiting to be done. It's for men to do them, and for women to reserve their love as a reward for such men.... That's what I should like --to be envied for my man," and "It is never a man that I should love, but always the glories that he had won, for they would be reflected upon me.... These are the sort of men that a woman could worship with all her soul and yet be the greater, not the less, on account of her love, honored by all the world as the inspirer of noble deeds." (That choking noise in the background is me gagging.) And finally, there's no strong message here that speaks to any truth about the human condition, nor any ideas that make you seriously think.

The negatives here, though, didn't pull down the positives enough to keep me from liking the book overall. If you can put up with the former, the latter will provide you with some rousing entertainment! ...more

23 likes · Like · see review

Jan 18, 2010 Jacob marked it as to-read

Group Home Bookshelf Discussions

Photos Videos

Send invite Members Polls