Riassunto
Riassunto di The Lost World
A chi è rivolto
For readers who love fast adventures with humor, big beasts and strong characters, and parents looking for a story to share with older children.
Che cos’è questo libro
The Lost World is an adventure novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, first published in 1912 and printed in installments in The Strand Magazine, the same magazine that had made his detective Sherlock Holmes a household name. Doyle was a doctor who loved science, sport and travel, and here he set aside crime to write about a hidden corner of South America where the age of the dinosaurs has never ended.
The story is told by Edward Malone, a young reporter for the Daily Gazette in London. He wants to win the love of a woman who dreams of heroes, and so he asks his editor for a dangerous job. The job he gets is to interview Professor George Edward Challenger, a brilliant zoologist with a fierce temper and a habit of attacking journalists. What the professor tells him leads to an expedition up the Amazon, with four men, one claim to prove and a plateau that nobody has climbed.
In this summary you will meet the main players, follow the party as far as the edge of the plateau and a little beyond, and see what Doyle is really doing under the thrills. You will also hear how the book is built and why its mix of comedy, science and peril has kept readers turning pages for over a century. Let us begin with a young man in London who feels his life is far too small.
In questo riassunto
- 1A reporter who needs a heroFree
- 2Challenger throws reporters down the steps
- 3A sketchbook, a lecture and a challenge
- 4Four men and one impossible mission
- 5Up the river to the edge of the map
- 6A plateau where the old beasts survive
- 7Ape-men, Indians and a trapped party
- 8What the adventure is really about
- 9How Doyle tells the tale
Punto chiave 1 di 9
A reporter who needs a hero
The book opens in London with Edward Malone, a young reporter on the Daily Gazette. He is cheerful, athletic and a little foolish, and he is in love with a woman named Gladys Hungerton. He has just proposed to her, and she has turned him down in a way that stings. She says she could only love a man who has done something grand, a man who has stood in the face of danger.
Malone takes this to heart. Gladys tells him she admires men like famous explorers and adventurers, and she makes it clear that a newspaper job is not enough. She is not cruel, but she is dreamy and sure of herself, and she leaves him with a challenge. He walks away thinking that if the world has no adventures left, then he must find one.
The next morning he goes to the office and speaks to the news editor, Mr McArdle. McArdle is a dry, kindly Scot who knows the paper needs stories that make readers sit up. Malone tells him he wants a task that could cost him his life, one that would let him do something brave and useful for the Gazette. McArdle thinks for a while and then comes up with a man who might fit.
That man is Professor Challenger, a scientist who has made a great stir in learned circles and a greater stir in the street. The professor has been in the news because of a trip to South America, and because of the way he behaves toward anyone who disagrees with him. He has thrown reporters out of his house before. McArdle half hopes Malone will bring back a good story and half expects him to come back bruised.
This opening matters because it sets the pattern of the whole book. Malone is not a trained explorer or a great scientist. He is an ordinary young man with a good heart, a sharp eye for detail and a wish to prove himself. That makes him the right guide for the reader, who also gets to enter this strange world as a newcomer, step by step, with all the wonder and the nerves that come with it.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Edward Malone
- A young Daily Gazette reporter, he joins Challenger's expedition hoping to prove his courage to Gladys Hungerton.
- Professor George Edward Challenger
- A brilliant, combative zoologist, he leads the expedition to establish his claims about surviving prehistoric animals.
- Professor Summerlee
- A skeptical anatomist, he accompanies Challenger to test the claims that Malone has helped bring before the public.
- Lord John Roxton
- An experienced hunter familiar with South America, he joins Challenger, Summerlee and Malone on their expedition.
- Gladys Hungerton
- The young woman Malone loves, she admires heroic men and inspires his search for a dangerous assignment.
- Mr McArdle
- Malone's Scottish news editor at the Daily Gazette, he sends the reporter to interview the formidable Challenger.
- Zambo
- A strong, loyal expedition helper, he supports Challenger and his companions during their journey into the wilderness.
- Maple White
- An American artist, he supplies Challenger with crucial evidence through his sketchbook depicting the hidden land's creatures.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 77,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 5 h 10 min
- Listening time8 h 35 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary; paperback, hardcover and large print at cost
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages