Fairy Tales and stories for childrens. Book 30

Fairy Tales and stories for childrens. Book 30: 1. The Lost World; 2. The Poison Belt; 3. The Land of Mist; 4. The Madman and the Pirate; 5. The Wild Man of the West.


1. The Lost World 

Published: 1912

The Lost World is a novel released in 1912 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle concerning an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin of South America where prehistoric animals (dinosaurs and other extinct creatures) still survive.

Edward Malone, a reporter for the Daily Gazette, goes to his news editor, McArdle, to procure a dangerous and adventurous mission in order to impress the woman he loves, Gladys Hungerton. He is sent to interview Professor George Edward Challenger, to determine the truth of his claims about his trip to South America. After a fight with Malone, Challenger reveals his discovery of living dinosaurs in South America, and invites Malone, along with Professor Summerlee and Lord John Roxton, an adventurer who knows the Amazon, on a trip to prove his story. 


2. The Poison Belt

Published: 1913

The Poison Belt was the second story, a novella, that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about Professor Challenger. Written in 1913, roughly a year before the outbreak of World War I, much of it takes place in a single room in Challenger's house in Sussex – rather oddly, given that it follows The Lost World, a story set largely outdoors in the wilds of South America. This would be the last story written about Challenger until the 1920s, by which time Doyle's spiritualist beliefs had begun to influence his writing.

Challenger sends telegrams asking his three companions from The Lost World — Edward Malone, Lord John Roxton, and Professor Summerlee – to join him at his home outside London, and instructs each of them to 'bring oxygen'. On arrival they are ushered into a sealed room, along with Challenger and his wife. In the course of his researches into various phenomena, Challenger has predicted that the Earth is moving into a belt of poisonous ether which, based on its effect on the people of Sumatra earlier in the day, he expects to stifle humanity. Challenger seals them in the room with cylinders of oxygen, which he (correctly) believes will counter the effect of the ether.


3. The Land of Mist

Published: 1926

The Land of Mist is a novel written by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1926.

Although this is a Professor Challenger story, it centres more on his daughter Enid and his old friend Edward Malone. Another friend from The Lost World, Lord John Roxton, is also involved in the novel's second half. Professor Summerlee, who has died of old age around this time, is referred to by the mediums (much to the anger of Professor Challenger).

There is a suggestion in chapter two that the deaths of "ten million young men" in World War I was punishment by the "Central Intelligence" for humanity's laughing at the alleged evidence for life after death.


4. The Madman and the Pirate.

Published: 1883

The Madman, Antonio Zeppa, is abandoned on Ratinga, an island in the Pacific, where there later appears a miserable ex-pirate called Richard Rosco. The two start up a sort of love-hate relationship. The natives put Rosco on a fire to burn him at the stake, but he is rescued by Zeppa, who carries him up to his cave in the mountains, and tends to his injured feet. Eventually a vessel calls at the island, with Zeppa’s son on board. From then on the story winds to an end, with everyone who belongs there safely back home in Britain.


5. The Wild Man of the West

Published: 1863

While Gibault was gazing at this scene with mingled feelings of anxiety, rage, and horror, the whole band of Indians suddenly sprang to their feet and seized their weapons. Almost at the same moment Bounce strode into the circle of light and deposited his cask on the ground. Then, making signs of peace, he advanced towards one of the Indians, who, from his dress and appearance, seemed to be the chief, and presented him with a piece of tobacco. The chief accepted the gift in silence.