Orakel Classics
The Lost World
The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, prepared as a public-domain Orakel edition with 16 chapter-aware companion links.
Chapters
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CHAPTER I: "There Are Heroisms All Round Us"
CHAPTER I: "There Are Heroisms All Round Us" from The Lost World. Mr. Hungerton, her father, really was the most tactless person upon earth,--a fluffy, feathery, untidy cockatoo of a man, perfectly good-natured, but absolutely centered upon his own silly self. If anything could have driven me from Gladys, it would have been the thought of such a father-in-law. I am convinced that he really believed in his heart that I came round to the Chestnuts three days a week for the pleasure
Open2CHAPTER II: "Try Your Luck with Professor Challenger"
CHAPTER II: "Try Your Luck with Professor Challenger" from The Lost World. I always liked McArdle, the crabbed, old, round-backed, red-headed news editor, and I rather hoped that he liked me. Of course, Beaumont was the real boss; but he lived in the rarefied atmosphere of some Olympian height from which he could distinguish nothing smaller than an international crisis or a split in the Cabinet. Sometimes we saw him passing in lonely majesty to his inner sanctum, with his eyes staring
Open3CHAPTER III: "He is a Perfectly Impossible Person"
CHAPTER III: "He is a Perfectly Impossible Person" from The Lost World. My friend's fear or hope was not destined to be realized. When I called on Wednesday there was a letter with the West Kensington postmark upon it, and my name scrawled across the envelope in a handwriting which looked like a barbed-wire railing. The contents were as
Open4CHAPTER IV: "It's Just the very Biggest Thing in the World"
CHAPTER IV: "It's Just the very Biggest Thing in the World" from The Lost World. Hardly was it shut when Mrs. Challenger darted out from the dining-room. The small woman was in a furious temper. She barred her husband's way like an enraged chicken in front of a bulldog. It was evident that she had seen my exit, but had not observed my
Open5CHAPTER V: "Question!"
CHAPTER V: "Question!" from The Lost World. What with the physical shocks incidental to my first interview with Professor Challenger and the mental ones which accompanied the second, I was a somewhat demoralized journalist by the time I found myself in Enmore Park once more. In my aching head the one thought was throbbing that there really was truth in this man's story, that it was of tremendous consequence, and that it would work up into inconceivable copy
Open6CHAPTER VI: "I was the Flail of the Lord"
CHAPTER VI: "I was the Flail of the Lord" from The Lost World. Lord John Roxton and I turned down Vigo Street together and through the dingy portals of the famous aristocratic rookery. At the end of a long drab passage my new acquaintance pushed open a door and turned on an electric switch. A number of lamps shining through tinted shades bathed the whole great room before us in a ruddy radiance. Standing in the doorway and glancing round me, I had a general impression of
Open7CHAPTER VII: "To-morrow we Disappear into the Unknown"
CHAPTER VII: "To-morrow we Disappear into the Unknown" from The Lost World. I will not bore those whom this narrative may reach by an account of our luxurious voyage upon the Booth liner, nor will I tell of our week's stay at Para (save that I should wish to acknowledge the great kindness of the Pereira da Pinta Company in helping us to get together our equipment). I will also allude very briefly to our river journey, up a wide, slow-moving, clay-tinted stream, in a steamer which was little
Open8CHAPTER VIII: "The Outlying Pickets of the New World"
CHAPTER VIII: "The Outlying Pickets of the New World" from The Lost World. Our friends at home may well rejoice with us, for we are at our goal, and up to a point, at least, we have shown that the statement of Professor Challenger can be verified. We have not, it is true, ascended the plateau, but it lies before us, and even Professor Summerlee is in a more chastened mood. Not that he will for an instant admit that his rival could be right, but he is less persistent in his incessant
Open9CHAPTER IX: "Who could have Foreseen it?"
CHAPTER IX: "Who could have Foreseen it?" from The Lost World. A dreadful thing has happened to us. Who could have foreseen it? I cannot foresee any end to our troubles. It may be that we are condemned to spend our whole lives in this strange, inaccessible place. I am still so confused that I can hardly think clearly of the facts of the present or of the chances of the future. To my astounded senses the one seems most terrible and the other as black as
Open10CHAPTER X: "The most Wonderful Things have Happened"
CHAPTER X: "The most Wonderful Things have Happened" from The Lost World. The most wonderful things have happened and are continually happening to us. All the paper that I possess consists of five old note-books and a lot of scraps, and I have only the one stylographic pencil; but so long as I can move my hand I will continue to set down our experiences and impressions, for, since we are the only men of the whole human race to see such things, it is of enormous importance that I should
Open11CHAPTER XI: "For once I was the Hero"
CHAPTER XI: "For once I was the Hero" from The Lost World. Lord John Roxton was right when he thought that some specially toxic quality might lie in the bite of the horrible creatures which had attacked us. On the morning after our first adventure upon the plateau, both Summerlee and I were in great pain and fever, while Challenger's knee was so bruised that he could hardly limp. We kept to our camp all day, therefore, Lord John busying himself, with such help as we could
Open12CHAPTER XII: "It was Dreadful in the Forest"
CHAPTER XII: "It was Dreadful in the Forest" from The Lost World. I have said--or perhaps I have not said, for my memory plays me sad tricks these days--that I glowed with pride when three such men as my comrades thanked me for having saved, or at least greatly helped, the situation. As the youngster of the party, not merely in years, but in experience, character, knowledge, and all that goes to make a man, I had been overshadowed from the first. And now I was coming into my own.
Open13CHAPTER XIII: "A Sight which I shall Never Forget"
CHAPTER XIII: "A Sight which I shall Never Forget" from The Lost World. Just as the sun was setting upon that melancholy night I saw the lonely figure of the Indian upon the vast plain beneath me, and I watched him, our one faint hope of salvation, until he disappeared in the rising mists of evening which lay, rose-tinted from the setting sun, between the far-off river and
Open14CHAPTER XIV: "Those Were the Real Conquests"
CHAPTER XIV: "Those Were the Real Conquests" from The Lost World. We had imagined that our pursuers, the ape-men, knew nothing of our brush-wood hiding-place, but we were soon to find out our mistake. There was no sound in the woods--not a leaf moved upon the trees, and all was peace around us--but we should have been warned by our first experience how cunningly and how patiently these creatures can watch and wait until their chance comes. Whatever fate may be mine through life, I
Open15CHAPTER XV: "Our Eyes have seen Great Wonders"
CHAPTER XV: "Our Eyes have seen Great Wonders" from The Lost World. I write this from day to day, but I trust that before I come to the end of it, I may be able to say that the light shines, at last, through our clouds. We are held here with no clear means of making our escape, and bitterly we chafe against it. Yet, I can well imagine that the day may come when we may be glad that we were kept, against our will, to see something more of the wonders of this singular place, and of the
Open16CHAPTER XVI: "A Procession! A Procession!"
CHAPTER XVI: "A Procession! A Procession!" from The Lost World. I should wish to place upon record here our gratitude to all our friends upon the Amazon for the very great kindness and hospitality which was shown to us upon our return journey. Very particularly would I thank Senhor Penalosa and other officials of the Brazilian Government for the special arrangements by which we were helped upon our way, and Senhor Pereira of Para, to whose forethought we owe the complete outfit
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