Dinosaurs and Victorian Explorers (The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle)

Member Name: AJ26

Product:	The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle
Date:	18/05/09 (133 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Exciting storyline, great characters

Disadvantages: A bit slow to get going.

The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle isn't a book I would have personally chosen to read but it was the most recent book chosen by my bookclub so I thought I would try it. I really didn't think I was going to enjoy it, dinosaurs, Victorian Explorers and adventure aren't the things I tend to look for in a book. However I was pleasantly surprised, I really enjoyed the story and it is a real page turner. The book was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in who was born on 22 May 1859 in Edinburgh and is more well known for his Sherlock Holmes stories.

The Lost World was written in 1912 and was originally serialized in a newspaper. It's a story about a scientist Professor Challenger who travels to South America to follow a trail left by another explorer who had discovered some strange creatures. Challenger discovers a "lost world" with dinosaurs and returns to London to share his finds. Not surprisingly he is met with great disbelief and people believe the photographs and evidence have been forged. A party is then set up to travel back to the lost world to find out once and for all if it does exist. This party consists of a young newspaper reporter called Edward Malone, an explorer called Lord John Roxton and another scientist called Professor Summerlee.
The book tells the story of their journey to the Lost World and then their exploration of the land and the discoveries of Jurassic creatures, ape-men and Indian tribes. The journey of course does not go completely to plan and the group find themselves in danger on many occasions. Will they make it all back home again, and will anyone believe their tales, you need to read the book to find out!

The book has some great characters with Professor Challenger being the leading character. A larger than life character who isn't afraid to say what he thinks and is rather hot-headed and eccentric. It has been said that Conan Doyle actually based Challengers character partly on himself and partly on a former professor he had. Although Challenger is the character who sticks out most in the book the character Malone is also very interesting as he goes through a journey in the book and changes quite a lot. At the beginning of the book he takes on this challenge to travel to the Lost World to try to win the heart of a woman. As the book continues he grows in character and becomes a much stronger man.

The book is quite old-fashioned in places especially in some of the language used. This is most clearly demonstrated in the author's references to other races using words which we would now consider to be derogatory. However despite this I think it is still a book that can be enjoyed today and of course was the inspiration for the Jurassic Park books and films.

I started this book being fairly convinced I wouldn't enjoy it but having read it I found that it was really good. I wouldn't be rushing out to read any of his other books as the genre is not really my thing but I think it's a good book to read and would really appeal to those who like adventure stories. In some ways it's nice to read an old classic as a change from more modern fiction. The book was a bit slow to get going in the first few chapters however once they set on the journey it had me hooked to read on to find out what happens. It's quite a short book and it's fairly quick and easy to read.

If you haven't read it I would encourage you to give it a go. The reason our bookclub read it was that it is the Edinburgh book of the year as part of The Lost World Read 2009 which is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin. There is a mass-read of The Lost World and thousands of copies of The Lost World including a special adaptation for younger children have been distributed free through libraries, education centres and schools. There are lots of special events organised throughout the year. You can get more information from the lost world read website. The areas taking part are Bristol and the South West, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Portsmouth and Hampshire, Shropshire and Westminster.

Cost - £5.99 from Amazon or free from participating libraries etc.

Summary: The original jurassic park!