Recommended Reads
Have you enjoyed reading The Lost World? We've picked out some other lost worlds below, and a few more books that you might like. There's also a new online-only Professor Challenger short story.
Atlantis - Plato
(360BC) – first account of this mythical location.
Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne
It should be noted that the idea of prehistoric animals surviving into the present day was not new, but had already been introduced by Jules Verne in "Journey to the Center of the Earth". In that book, published in 1864, the creatures live under the earth in and around a subterranean sea.
King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard
It is significant as the first English fictional adventure novel set in Africa, and is considered the genesis of the Lost World literary genre, given that it resembles the plot. It was first published in 1885.
She - H. Rider Haggard
A lost Egyptian civilization is discovered by explorer. While this book was first published in 1887, and by the time The Lost World came out (1912), the acknowledged master of the exotic adventure tale was H. Rider Haggard, whose novels are still widely read today.
The Time Machine - H G Wells
A tale of lost civilisations that battle each other. Plenty of inspiration from the work of Charles Darwin, and this book has gone on to inspire countless writers over the last century. Credited with coining the term 'time machine,' without Wells' imagination, would we ever have had Dr Who?
The Land That Time Forgot - Edgar Rice Burroughs
First published in 1918 and set during WWI, the novel begins as a tale of the war at sea, but evolves as evidence of a lost world is discovered.
Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton
A lost world of dinosaurs? A novel that addresses questions of evolution? Sounds familiar. Crichton's book was inspired by Conan Doyle, and became the basis for Steven Spielberg's film of the same name - and the third film in that franchise was called Jurassic Park: The Lost World.
Arthur and Geroge - Julian Barnes
Arthur and George grow up worlds and miles apart in late 19th century Britain: Arthur in shabby-genteel Catholic Edinburgh, George in the vicarage of a small Staffordshire village. But as the new century begins, they are brought together by a sequence of events that made sensational headlines at the time as The Great Wyrley Outrages. Arthur & George is a novel in which the events of a hundred years ago constantly set off contemporary echoes. It is a novel about low crime and high spirituality; guilt and innocence; identity, nationality and race; and thwarted passion.
back to top
The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle
A classic tale of world-famous detective Sherlock Homes, as he confonts the hounds of hell.
