An Enthralling Story Of Daring and Adventure

When journalist Edward Malone begs for an exciting assignment abroad to prove himself to his sweetheart Gladys, he is told, ‘The big blank spaces in the map are all being filled in, and there’s no room for romance anywhere.’ Yet this is not the view of the hot-headed and unconventional Professor Challenger, who has evidence of an undiscovered region in South America where dinosaurs and other creatures from the prehistoric era survive. Malone sets out, together with the game-hunter Lord John Roxton and the scientist Professor Summerlee. They must find evidence to bring back – and escape alive themselves.

Like his readers, Arthur Conan Doyle was fascinated by the prehistoric era, his interest stimulated when he spotted what he believed was a young dinosaur, an ichthyosaurus, while on honeymoon in 1907. When The Lost World was first serialised in the Strand magazine the public was captivated by the novelty and excitement of the story, and the spellbinding descriptions of the animals and landscapes. Moreover, some readers believed that these were genuine dispatches. To add to the mystery, Conan Doyle commissioned drawings of dinosaurs and created ‘mocked-up’ photographs of the expedition, including a portrait of himself as Professor Challenger. This new Folio edition includes these original illustrations, as well as a newly comissioned introduction by Conan Doyle’s biographer, Andrew Lycett, that sheds fascinating light on the inspiration behind the book.