"Professor Challenger" is, of course, a much less well-known literary creation of Doyle's than Sherlock Holmes, but is still a worthy figure whose books deserve to be read. Challenger is the original bad-tempered professor, brilliant but completely lacking in "social skills". This omnibus contains all the novels and short stories Doyle wrote which feature Professor Challenger, as follows:
The Lost World
This is the one that everyone's heard of through its innumerable movie adaptations, but probably relatively few have read the book. The architypal story of heroic explorers discovering a lost land where dinosaurs still exist, etc etc. Much cliched, but this is the "original".
The Poison Belt
A novella featuring the same characters who appear in "The Lost World". Astronomers discover that the Earth is about to pass through a region of poisonous gas in space. Is this the end of the world? Professor Challenger to the rescue...
The Land of Mist
"Spiritualism" was hugely popular in Victorian times, and Doyle was very much influenced by it in many of his later works. This novel, again featuring Professor Challenger, has spiritualism as its basis. Lots of spooky goings on.
The Disintegration Machine
A short story, the title of which says it all!
When the World Screamed
Another long short story or short novella (take your pick). The final Professor Challenger story. I won't describe the plot, because it would be a "spoiler".
Enjoy!
EDIT: 24 Apr 08
Completely recreated the book with greatly improved layout and formatting. Added an illustration. Uploaded v2.
EDIT: 20 Sep 08
MR user Jellby has very kindly supplied me with numerous corrections to both "The Lost World" and "The Land of Mist". Applied these and created a new version 3.
EDIT: 27 Sep 08
Wonderful new cover added thanks to Paul Durrant. Many thanks for this! Uploaded new v4.
EDIT: 10 Oct 13
Thoroughly revised and proof-read. Illustrations added to "The Lost World" and "The Poison Belt". Numerous formatting improvements and many errors fixed. I would now regard this as a finished product, so please let me know if you find even the smallest error in it. Version 5 uploaded.
Previous download count: 1424
This work is assumed to be in the Life+70 public domain OR the copyright holder has given specific permission for distribution. Copyright laws differ throughout the world, and it may still be under copyright in some countries. Before downloading, please check your country's copyright laws.
If the book is under copyright in your country, do not download or redistribute this work.
To report a copyright violation you can
contact us here.