Adventure · Science fiction
The Lost World
A furious professor leads an expedition to a South American plateau where dinosaurs still live.
Five levels, about 80 languages
- A2ElementaryShort sentences and everyday words.
- B1IntermediateYou follow clear stories about familiar things.
- B2Upper intermediateLonger sentences, richer vocabulary.
- C1AdvancedClose to the original, lightly condensed.
- C2ProficientThe complete novel.
One purchase is one book, in one language, at one level: $4.99. Another level of a book you own is $1.99. Editions nobody has asked for yet are written on request: chapter 1 in a few minutes, the rest while you read. How the levels work.
About the book
Professor Challenger’s plateau
Edward Malone is a young London journalist in love with a woman who will only marry a man of great deeds. Looking for one, he gets himself sent to interview Professor Challenger, a huge, bearded scientist with a habit of throwing reporters down the stairs. Challenger claims that on a remote plateau in South America, cut off from the rest of the world, prehistoric animals still live. To settle the matter an expedition sets out: Challenger, his sarcastic rival Professor Summerlee, the hunter Lord John Roxton, and Malone. Arthur Conan Doyle published it in 1912, the first of several stories about Challenger.
Why it works for learners
Malone tells the story as a series of reports to his newspaper, which keeps it clear, chronological and full of explanation. The comedy comes from people: Challenger’s rages, Summerlee’s sarcasm, the endless bickering of two elderly scientists in the middle of a jungle. That kind of humor travels well between languages. The vocabulary covers travel, jungle, animals, science and danger, with plenty of verbs of movement and observation. And the dinosaurs are so familiar that you can picture every scene before you’ve finished reading it.
Which level to start at
B1 suits most learners; the story is linear and the cast is small. A2 is possible for readers who want a first adventure with a big payoff. The professors’ sharp exchanges, the funniest part of the book, come through best at B2 and above, and the narration gives each of the four his own voice.
Read next
- Journey to the Center of the Earth, Verne’s earlier trip to a prehistoric world
- King Solomon’s Mines, another expedition into the unknown
- The Hound of the Baskervilles, Conan Doyle’s most famous novel
