Doyle's "The Lost World" (1912)

Calla 2016, Harry Rountree (The Strand Magazine)

Although Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is probably best known for his creation of the detective Sherlock Holmes, his 1912 novel The Lost World is also notable for helping to start a trend of "lost world" stories, fantasies which typically describe the hair-raising exploits of modern-day explorers who stumble upon isolated civilizations unknown to and unaffected by the rest of mankind. These hidden refuges are frequently populated with still-thriving prehistoric/mythological creatures and non-human races who possess unique super-powers or technology. 

Hodder & Stoughton 1912, 1st Edition (Online)

Although Jules Verne's 1864 Journey to the Center of the Earth presented a few dinosaurs living in a "hollow Earth" setting, and the intrepid adventurers of H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (1885) had fought their way out of a civil war between tribes of exotic African societies, Doyle's The Lost World combines both of these elements in a witty, faced-paced romp which would pave the way for the appearance of darker stories featuring lost worlds peopled by "alien races" (such as those found a few years later in A. Merritt's 1919 novel The Moon Pool). Fellow pulp pioneer Edgar Rice Burroughs also presented his own take on the "dinosaurs and deviants" story in his 1918/1924 sequence The Land That Time Forgot. 

(Harry Rountree)

The Lost World originally appeared in England as an 8-part serial in The Strand Magazine (Apr-Nov 1912) and in America as a feature in the Sunday Magazine of the Sunday Star (Washington D.C.), after which it almost immediately saw publication in book form (Hodder & Stoughton, 1912). Professor Challenger and his friends would soon return the following year in an "apocalypse novel" titled The Poison Belt (1913).

Matt Ferguson 2017

In brief, a reporter named Malone is assigned to investigate a notoriously-truculent scientist named Professor Challenger, who has reportedly sighted dinosaurs living on an isolated plateau in South America. Malone soon joins a fact-finding expedition comprised of Challenger, the hunter-adventurer Lord John Roxton, and a skeptical zoologist named Summerlee. After a long journey by ship, the party eventually gain the top of Challenger's uncharted plateau, and soon encounter several species of dinosaurs (as well as signs of humanoid life). One night, three of the men are ambushed and captured by red ape-men (or "missing links"). After Malone and Roxton successfully rescue Challenger and Summerlee, they find sympathetic friends in the Accala, a society of native Americans living on the plateau who are being slain by the ape-men in cruel sacrifice rituals. The Accala decide to take advantage of their powerful new allies (who are armed with rifles) to mount an all-out attack on the ape-men. In the end, after returning to civilization from their unbelievable adventure, the explorers become wealthy from some diamonds brought back from the lost world.

Synopsis

1. There Are Heroisms All Round Us: When a reporter named Edward Malone tries to propose to his lady friend Gladys, the woman states that she prefers a man with some adventurous accomplishments behind him.
2. Try Your Luck with Professor Challenger: Seeking a dangerous assignment at his office, Malone is given the name of an eccentric explorer-scientist named Professor Challenger, recently returned from South America with some strange photographs. With the help of a colleague, he comes up with a letter of inquiry, hoping to gain an audience with the recluse.    
3. He Is a Perfectly Impossible Person: At Challenger's house, the burly Professor becomes outraged when he learns that Malone is not a fellow scientist, but a reporter. He punched Malone and chases him out into the street. However, when a policeman appears, Malone refuses to charge the Professor for assault, gaining his attacker's respect.
4. It’s Just the Very Biggest Thing in the World: Back in his house, Challenger tells Malone about a journey to South America where he had discovered a sketch of a stegosaurus drawn by an American explorer named Maple White. Following clues, he had then reached the foot of a high cliff, above which he saw and shot a pterodactyl. However, upon returning to London with a piece of the creature's wing and some damaged photographs, he had been met with skepticism. Now, he plans to expand on the subject once more in meeting of scientists later that night, and invites Malone to attend the lecture.
   
5. Question!: At the zoologists' meeting, Challenger continuously interrupts the lecturer whenever he mentions the extinction of the dinosaurs. Eventually, Challenger is given a chance to describe his discovery, but is met with rowdy skepticism. Challenger then challenges his most vocal skeptic, a man named Summerlee, to journey to South America and verify (or discredit) the existence of the "lost world" himself. Malone and an explorer named Lord John Roxton are also elected to join Challenger's expedition for reporting purposes.
6. I Was the Flail of the Lord: Roxton invites Malone over to his house to test the reporter to see if he's brave enough for the journey. Once convinced, he outfits Malone with a rifle. A few days later, Challenger sees off Summerlee's expedition, preferring not to accompany them.
7. Tomorrow We Disappear Into the Unknown: Malone describes Summerlee as a dedicated scientist in good shape to explore uncivilized lands, and Roxton as a hunter-adventurer who is respected in South America for destroying a network slave traders there. A week after the expedition launches, the three men are surprised by the appearance of Professor Challenger on their ship, who had decided to travel on separate boat. After a long journey up the Amazon, the four men (and their local guides) leave their steamship and continue with two canoes.

   

   (Harry Rountree)

8. The Outlying Pickets of the New World: After passing an area dominated by threatening war drums, they reach an uncharted area of placid water and a tunnel of beautiful greenery. A few days later they sight a strange bird which Challenger claims to be a pterodactyl. Soon, Challenger's mysterious red cliffs appear before the party in the distance.
9. Who Could Have Foreseen It?: While circling the cliffs searching for a way up to reach the plateau beyond, the expedition discover the skeletal remains of an earlier explorer, apparently flung down from the cliff heights onto a forest of bamboo spears. They soon discover markings which lead to a tunnel, but the rising passage turns out to be blocked. Finally, the four white men manage to reach the plateau by using a beech tree as a bridge from a nearby promontory. However, one of the natives, revealed to be holding a grudge against Roxton, dislodges the tree-bridge, trapping the quartet on the plateau. 
10. The Most Wonderful Things Have Happened: After making a small camp, the party head into the plateau and soon spot a family of iguanodons. Later, they discover a crater occupied by a gargantuan nest of pterodactyls, who pursue them back into the deep forest. Back at "Fort Challenger", they discover that some unknown visitor has ransacked their camp.

    

    (Harry Rountree)
    

11. For Once I Was the Hero: The next night, a leaping dinosaur (possibly an allosaurus) tries to break through the camp's outer barricade, but Roxton repels it with a flaming torch. Summerlee soon insists that the expedition try to work towards a way to escape the plateau. However, before they proceed, Malone climbs a tree to get a better view of the area in order to create a map. On the way up he encounters an "ape-man", who quickly flees.
12. It Was Dreadful In the Forest: That night, Malone decides to do some exploring on his own in the hopes of gaining further fame for himself. He reaches a lake (quickly named "Gladys Lake") and encounters a stegosaurus. He also sees caves in the distance, glowing with firelight apparently made by peoples. On the way back to camp, he is pursued by an allosaurus but eludes it when he falls into a large pit, apparently a dinosaur trap made by humans. When he finally returns to camp, he finds that the other three members of his expedition have been abducted into the forest.

    

    (Harry Rountree)

13. A Sight Which I Shall Never Forget: After a long night alone at the camp, the next morning Roxton appears, bruised and with his clothes in tatters. He tells Malone that red ape-men had ambushed the camp and captured the three men. Later, after witnessing their horrible human sacrifice rituals, Roxton had managed to break out of the ape-men's village and now intends to rescue the two professors after retrieving rifles from the camp. Malone and Roxton make a new base camp some distance away from their first camp and then proceed back to the ape-men village. They arrive just in time to prevent the creatures from throwing Summerlee off the cliff into the forest of sharpened bamboo spears. Using their rifles, the four men eventually manage to escape back to the second camp, along with some human savages liberated from the ape-men.  
14. Those Were the Real Conquests: The explorers learn that the savages are called the Accala, and that they are at war with the red ape-men. When Malone leaves camp to seek out a missing Accala, he is nearly captured by the ape-men, who have discovered their camp. The party quickly make their way to Gladys Lake where they encounter a large group of savages, apparently on a mission to rescue their abducted Prince (who is among Challenger's party). After a brief encounter with a lake plesiosaur, the explorers and the combined party of Accala (of about 500 members) sets out towards the ape-men's territory. After several vicious battles (aided by the explorers' rifles), the Accala drive the ape-men warriors back and send them over the plateau cliff to their deaths.

    

    (Harry Rountree)

15. Our Eyes Have Seen Great Wonders: The explorers make a new camp near the caves of the Accala. One day, two allosauruses attack but are eventually slain by the Accala's poison spears. Professor Challenger tries to build a homemade balloon ship, but it goes out of control. Fortunately, one of the savages, feeling sympathetic to the explorers' wishes to leave the plateau, shows them a cave tunnel leading to a cliff from which they safely descend back to civilization.   
16. A Procession! A Procession!: After returning to London, the explorers hold a conference at the Zoological Institute where Summerlee and Challenger describe their adventures. When some of the crowd continue to remain skeptical, Challenger unveils a captured baby pterodactyl which, after shocking the audience, escapes the building and flies out to sea. The explorers are then carries in a procession through the city. When Malone returns to Gladys however, he learns that she has already married an unremarkable clerk while in his absence. Finally, at Roxton's home, the hunter reveals to his friends that he had surreptitiously brought a few diamonds back from the lost plateau, and now that they have been appraised as genuine, intends to share the wealth. Challenger and Summerlee vow to devote their shares to scholarly pursuits, while Roxton and Malone decide to mount another expedition to the lost world.

    

    (Harry Rountree)

Jessica Amanda Salmonson's Lost Race Checklist (ca. 2000)
Vintage Illustrations and Text at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com
1975 BBC Radio 4 Adaptation