Lourdes P P itibaren Queanbeyan East NSW 2620, Avustralya
Definitely a Boy's Own adventure story - the one real woman in it starts as strong and decisive, having a huge impact on the narrator's life, but ends up being capricious and as incomprehensible as the rest of the species were to the bold adventurers of the time. I have vague recollections of film versions of this, and I'm sure Professor Challenger was never portrayed as the ugly brute described by Doyle in those. Is that because a visual medium has a greater need for the appearance of the hero to reflect his status in the narrative? For all that there are elements of the anti-hero about him, he is still more a caricature than a complex character and for this, as well as the (non) role of the female of the species and other inferior beings I would say this certainly shows Doyle as the forerunner to Asimov in the world of sci-fi.
mahsharrrrr