The Lost World: Arthur Conan Doyle

[poliphilo]

Here's Doyle muscling in on Wells' territory- intrepid white men go exploring beyond the edges of the maps- only where Wells is more than a little disgusted by the colonial enterprise Doyle backs his European adventurers to the hilt- even when they commit genocide. I like Doyle- he was a straight up guy- but he couldn't get his head above the cigar-fug of the Edwardian gentleman's club.

He has the knack of creating quirky, memorable characters- like Professor Challenger here- only to push them into caricature.

This isn't the first adventure story involving dinosaurs (I believe Jules Verne got there first) but it's a good half century earlier than Crichton and Spielberg.