8 h 35 minAudiobook16 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 211 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 211 pagesAbout this book
What if proving your courage means climbing into a world where dinosaurs still live?
Edward Malone wants to be the hero Gladys Hungerton admires. A dangerous assignment brings the young reporter face to face with Professor George Edward Challenger, a brilliant zoologist with a fierce temper. Challenger claims that prehistoric animals survive on a remote plateau above the Amazon jungle. Malone has a chance to find out.
Professor Summerlee joins the expedition to challenge that claim, while experienced hunter Lord John Roxton brings his knowledge of South America. Together, the four men head upriver toward a land nobody has climbed. In Arthur Conan Doyle’s adventure, scientific doubt meets living danger, and the wish to make a discovery becomes a struggle to survive.
What you’ll discover
- A reporter chasing courage Follow Malone as his wish to impress Gladys carries him far beyond familiar streets.
- Science with a temper Meet Challenger, whose fierce certainty collides with Summerlee’s determination to prove him wrong.
- A prehistoric wilderness Enter thick forests and marshes where enormous creatures turn scientific questions into immediate threats.
- Danger sharpened by humor Enjoy strong personalities and quarrels alongside the tension of an expedition into unknown country.
- The meaning of heroism Explore what courage demands when romantic dreams meet danger, doubt, and the need for trust.
Who will love it
For readers who love fast adventures with humor, big beasts and strong characters, and parents looking for a story to share with older children.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A reporter who needs a hero
- Challenger throws reporters down the steps
- A sketchbook, a lecture and a challenge
- Four men and one impossible mission
- Up the river to the edge of the map
- A plateau where the old beasts survive
- Ape-men, Indians and a trapped party
- What the adventure is really about
- How Doyle tells the tale
Who’s who
- Edward MaloneA young, cheerful reporter for the Daily Gazette who tells the story and wants to prove his courage to the woman he loves.
- Professor George Edward ChallengerA brilliant, loud and quarrelsome zoologist who claims that prehistoric animals still live on a remote plateau and wants the world to admit it.
- Professor SummerleeA thin, dry and learned anatomist who doubts Challenger's claims and joins the expedition to prove him wrong.
- Lord John RoxtonA cool, experienced hunter and sportsman who knows South America well and who has fought against the cruelty of the slave trade.
- Gladys HungertonA young woman in London who admires heroes and whose wish for a brave man sets Malone on his path.
- Mr McArdleThe Scottish news editor of the Daily Gazette, who sends Malone to interview Challenger and wants good stories for the paper.
- ZamboA strong and loyal helper who works with the expedition and stays faithful to the party through the dangers of the journey.
- Maple WhiteAn American artist whose sketchbook of strange creatures gives Challenger key evidence of the hidden land.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 8 h 35 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 16 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in, 211 pages: USD 9.95 when you start free, USD 15.95 on its own.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in, 211 pages: USD 16.95 when you start free, USD 22.95 on its own.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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The Lost World
by Arthur Conan Doyle · 1912
A young reporter joins an expedition to a hidden plateau to test a claim that dinosaurs still live.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
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.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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What is The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle about?
It is an adventure novel about an expedition from London to a hidden plateau in South America, where Professor Challenger claims that prehistoric animals still live. A young reporter, two rival scientists and a hunter go to find out.
Who is Professor Challenger?
Challenger is a zoologist with a huge head, a loud voice and a fierce temper. He is brilliant and proud, he quarrels with other scientists, and he leads the expedition to prove his claim. Doyle used him in several later tales.
Is The Lost World a true story?
No, it is fiction, first published in 1912. Doyle was inspired by real accounts of exploration in South America and by the science of fossils in his day, but the plateau and its animals are imagined.
The author
Arthur Conan Doyle
1859–1930 · British detective novelist
Arthur Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician born in Edinburgh in 1859. He practised medicine in England and wrote novels, short stories and histories. His Sherlock Holmes stories began with A Study in Scarlet in 1887. He also wrote The Lost World in 1912. He died in Crowborough, England, in 1930.
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