Arthur
Conan Doyle
It
is curious how completely Conan Doyle's reputation has been attached
to his creation Sherlock Holmes; so strong is the tie between the two
of them that one just
about forgets that he did anything else, let alone wrote much else;
often the only other thing he is remembered for is his interest in
spiritualism and being taken in by photographs of fairies at the
bottom of the garden. In fact, though, i know he wrote more; i read
at least one of his Medieval adventures about ten or fifteen years
ago, and i was aware, vaguely, of Professor Challenger through the
influence on subsequent generations of science fiction authors. This
was, though, the first of Doyle's SF that i have read.
Professor
Challenger is almost a character out of a farce, he is so much the
easily offended intellectual, sublimely confident in himself (with
some justification, it must be said), always ready to resort to
physical violence to back up his mental powers. Doyle has provided
him with a challenge sufficient to his abilities in the lost world
plateau in the middle of South America somewhere, where remnants from
past aeons of Earth's history are living together in some imitation
of harmony. This lost world is clearly the precursor to any number
of other isolated environments where a series of characters can
explore and interact with no reference to the outside world, from
Burroughs' Barsoom (not to mention the jungles of his Tarzan) to
Lewis's Malacandra and Niven's Ring.
I
am glad that i bought this edition, which contains all three
Professor Challenger novels, as well as the two short stories Conan
Doyle wrote, as i shall return to it in the future and read the rest;
The Lost World
is obviously a success for me.
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