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| Illustration by Martin Aitchison for the Ladybird Children's Classics edition (1981) |
This episode, we rejoin Professor Challenger and his party of intrepid adventurers as they reach The Lost World, in part two of our three-part discussion of the celebrated novel. You can listen to the first part of our discussion here.
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After the scientific and media establishments of London have
dismissed the claims of the eccentric and controversial Professor Challenger to
have discovered a hidden South American plateau where prehistoric signs of life
still exist, he has assembled a small team of independent observers to test his
assertions: the journalist-narrator Edward Malone, the comparative anatomist
Professor Summerlee, and the hunter-adventurer Lord John Roxton duly cross the
Atlantic aboard the liner Francisca to Manaos from where they will
retrace Challenger’s route into the Amazonian interior. But upon arrival, when they
open the envelope containing his instructions, a surprise awaits them, and this
is only the first of many unexpected developments to welcome them into this
strange new world…
Writing and publication history
This episode we look at Chapters VII to XIV which were first
serialised in the UK in the Strand Magazine between May and October 1912
with illustrations by Harry Rountree and other artefacts created under the
oversight of ACD himself.
The Strand instalments don’t always align neatly with
chapters, so Chapter XIV ends mid-way through the October 1912 issue.
Chapter VII – “To-morrow, we disappear into the unknown”
A lot of Roxton’s back story is adapted from the life of
Roger Casement, who served as a British Consul in South America. Casement
investigated the crimes of the British-owned Peruvian Amazon Company in 1909,
uncovering abuses in the Putamayo region that rivalled those he had witnessed
in the Congo.
From here on, the book contains racist attitudes and
language, prevalent at the time but nevertheless disappointing to read here.
The “negro” character, Zambo, is a “noble savage” and comic caricature while
the two “half-breeds” are depicted as untrustworthy. The leader of the native
peoples or “Indians” is given the name of his tribe.
Challenger’s presence should immediately invalidate the
authority of the committee – he can’t be accused and investigator – but such is
the determination of the iconoclast professor that he gets his way.
Chapter VIII – “The outlying pickets of the new world.”
Despite much bickering between the professors, the party make
their way to the plateau. Challenger spies a pterodactyl in the distance, which
Summerlee dismisses as a stork, but Roxton tells Malone it was not like any bird
he has encountered…
The exchanges between Summerlee and Challenger – notably on
Challenger’s ultimate resting place in Westminster Abbey – are good examples of
Conan Doyle’s facility for comic dialogue. The professors are shown to be both
boys and men, combining childlike wonder (and behaviour) and a heroic commitment
to scientific exploration.
For all the Europeans are in charge, they are entirely dependent
on their assistants and Challenger finds he must reluctantly "trust the
fallacious instincts of undeveloped savages rather than the highest product of
modern European culture.”
There are several references to the fairyland of the lush
vegetation which recalls the work of ACD’s uncle, Richard Doyle, famed for his depictions
of fairy subjects. ACD’s father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was similarly interested
in these topics.
We get out first reference to the vexatious figure of Dr Illingworth
of Edinburgh, of whom more in the next episode…
Chapter IX – “Who could have foreseen it?”
ACD refers to real locations in his depiction of the plateau.
The needle-shaped pinnacle is a feature of Mount Roraima and was visited by the
explorer G. H. H. Tate in 1930 who described it as “the Towashing Pinnacle of
Conan Doyle’s Lost World fame.”
The size of the plateau is somewhat vague. It takes the
party six days to circumnavigate and yet is the size of a small English county.
ACD compares the plateau to the basaltic formations of Salisbury Crags in
Edinburgh – more evidence of Edinburgh being on his mind in the writing of the
novel.
The story has a distinctly dark thread to it, with a great
deal of horror. After encountering a large snake (reminiscent of an ACD story from
1897 which we will talk about in a future podcast) and a swamp of serpents, the
party discover the remains of Maple White’s companion and find bodies apparently
thrown from the plateau onto bamboo stalks.
The pterodactyl scene is one of the great set ups in the
story, and has been beautifully capture by many illustrators, notably Joseph
Clement Coll for the Sunday Magazine (USA).
Chapter X – “The most wonderful things have happened.”
After establishing Fort Challenger, the party tentatively
make their way further into the plateau, now named Maple White Land by GEC. After
encountering the peaceful Iguanadons, they come across the hellish swamp of the
pterodactyls…
The language used by the party is very much the language of
occupation and conquest: the Europeans do not seem to expect anything other
than terrors to be defeated and ultimately subordinated to their will. They are
assisted in this by a hearty diet of cocoa and biscuits. In a wonderful moment
of hyperbole, Malone reports to his editor, McArdle, that “what I am writing is
destined to immortality as a classic of true adventure.”
The proof of dinosaurs has the professors revert to
childlike amazement: “In their excitement they had unconsciously seized each
other by the hand, and stood like two little children in the presence of a
marvel, Challenger’s cheeks bunched up into a seraphic smile, and Summerlee’s
sardonic face softening for the moment into wonder and reverence.”
The Iguanadons are a hint to the influences on The Lost
World we explored in Episode 57. Conan Doyle references “a worthy Sussex
doctor” who was confused by footprints found close to ACD’s home. This is a
reference to Dr Gideon Mantell who, in 1825, tried to reconstruct the creatures
from fossil remains discovered by his sister. The inaccurate description led T.
H. Huxley to believe Iguanadons hopped like kangaroos.
In 1953, the fossils were proven to be faked and suspicion
fell on Dawson. However, in 1983, John Hathaway Winslow and Alfred Meyer alleged
that ACD committed the fraud to exert revenge on a scientific community that
had ridiculed spiritualism. Their “smoking gun” was a line in The Lost World:
Tarp Henry’s suggestion that “if you are clever and know your business you can
fake a bone as easily as you can a photograph." Jean Conan Doyle and Peter
Costello wrote a rebuttal, and the argument was thoroughly demolished by Doug
Elliott for the Bootmakers of Toronto in 1988.
The best recent work on the Piltdown Man is by Professor
John McNabb, Head of Archaeology at Southampton University, and a keen Sherlockian.
See: ‘The Lying Stones of Sussex: an Investigation into the Role of the Flint
Tools in the Development of the Piltdown Forgery’ in Archaeological Journal,
163:1 (2006) and ‘Seeding the stony ground. Further insights
from the stone tools found at Piltdown’ in Nick Ashton
(ed) No Stone Unturned: Papers in Honour of Roger Jacobi (Lithic Studies
Society, London, 2015).
The swamp of the pterodactyls is the second swamp we have
encountered, and is even more horrible than the first. Not for the only time,
ACD invokes the image of the “the Seven Circles of Dante” to describe the horrors.
The creatures also fly about in a manner reminiscent of “Hendon aerodrome upon
a race day.”
Lord John spots some blue clay, of which more in the next
episode…
Chapter XI – “For once I was the hero.”
Not for the first time, we see Darwinism in action, with the
professors exchanging barbs on the subject. Summerlee, having accepted
Challenger’s case, now wants them to think up a safe way to return home, but
GEC wants to press on. There is an amusing exchange on the teaching duties of
research professors, showing that little has changed in 100 years…
The ape-man fills Malone with an instinctive dread, which is
later shared by the other members of the party. There is an almost visceral reaction
to the creature, as though it is inherently unnatural or obscene, akin to the
experience of those who encounter Mr Hyde in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel. Challenger
believes Malone was most likely to encounter this creature on account of his Celtic
ancestry and temperament.
Malone’s map is highly spoilerific! Perhaps he did indeed have seventh sight. He names the central lake “Gladys” after his sweetheart. ‘Challenger looked at me sympathetically, and shook his great head in mock disapproval. “Boys will be boys,” said he.’
Chapter XII – “It was dreadful in the forest”
An over-confident Malone goes for a midnight stroll to the
central lake and barely survives an encounter with the terrifying allosaurus.
On his return, he finds Fort Challenger in disarray and the team gone…
Malone’s return to the camp is reminiscent of Jim’s return
to the camp in Treasure Island, except Jim finds it full of pirates. It
is one of several nods to Stevenson and this novel in particular.
The pit into which Malone falls is proof of intelligence on
the plateau, which almost fills the party with as much dread as the ape-men. Malone
observes that “Man was always the master.” From here, the race superiority language
comes thick and fast.
Chapter XIII – “A Sight Which I Shall Never Forget”
Roxton expresses the same dread of the ape-men in rather
more colourful language than that of Malone: “That's what they are — Missin'
Links, and I wish they had stayed missin'.” The ape-men have curious glassy
grey eyes, a sign of their corrupted intelligence.
The pinnacle of European evolution, George Edward Challenger
is shown to look exactly like the leader of the ape-men (whom Roxton describes
as a “red Challenger”) in what seems to be a commentary on the superiority of western
science. At the end of the chapter, Challenger defends his hurt pride by
suggesting the leader of the ape-men was “really a creature of great
distinction —a most remarkably handsome and intelligent personality."
The chapter also introduces the fear of degeneration – that human
evolution could go backwards. The dishevelled Challenger is one example; Lord
John’s reaction to feeling unclean at their touch is another.
In the attack on the ape-men, ACD makes a direct reference to
H. Rider Haggard: “By George! they'll have something to excite them if they put
us up. The 'Last Stand of the Greys' won't be in it.” 'With their rifles
grasped in their stiffened hands, mid a ring of the dead and dyin',' as some
fathead sings.” ‘The Last Stand of the Greys’ is the title of Chapter 14 of King
Solomon’s Mines. The “fathead” is Conan Doyle, as the line quoted is
from his poem ‘Corporal Dick’s Promotion.’
In the battle, we see two sides of combat: the calm,
considered professional response of Roxton and the uncontrolled bloodlust of
Malone. Challenger too appears to have succumbed to the “red mist” in his retrospective
comments on the battle.
Chapter XIV – “Those Were The Real Conquests.”
The triumph of evolution is once more restored: “At last man
was to be supreme and the man-beast to find forever his allotted place. The
genocide of the ape-men is defended on racial grounds.
We learn more about the native peoples who made their way to
the plateau. The “Accala” nation are considered by Challenger to be “considerably
higher in the scale than many South American tribes which I can mention.” Challenger
brings in phrenology to support his argument, in more evidence of Lombroso and
his theories in ACD’s work.
Next time on Doings of Doyle
We turn to the final two chapters of The Lost World, consider
the major recurring themes and its legacy.
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