Book 16: The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Finished May 20

I never knew that Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes books, wrote a book about dinosaurs alive in modern day. I think Michael Crichton borrowed heavily from him when he wrote Jurassic Park and his own book with the same title, The Lost World.

Doyle lived at a time when Darwin's hypotheses were all the rage among the intelligentsia. Doyle seems to have fallen in with the nuveau evolutionary thinking, because it shows up in his Sherlock Holmes books, and of course, this one. One might think that a book about humans and dinosaurs existing together at the same time would be more in line with the Biblical account, but not so.

In this novel, a newspaper journalist accompanies a professor, an anthropologist, and an adventurer on a journey up the Amazon to verify the professor's story that dinosaurs live atop a tall plateau inaccessible to man or beast. When they get there, they find a way to ascend the cliff-face of the plateau and discover not only dinosaurs, but primitive men and ape-man creatures as well.

It's a fast read and a real page turner. The party suffers through one challenge and alarming situation after another, but does finally make it home to verify that the professor, whom no one believed, was indeed telling the truth.

I love finding off-the-wall titles by authors I know. This one was delightful.

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