Arthur Conan Doyle Trivia

1. How would the Professor best be described?

From Quiz Professor Challenger

Answer: Deeply learned in many subjects, but aggressive and domineering

There is no question that Challenger possesses a profound knowledge of, and will not hesitate to express an opinion on, any scientific subject. He is also noted for his self-esteem and shortness of temper. One character refers to his "his insufferable rudeness and impossible behaviour", and another describes him as "a primitive cave-man in a lounge suit".

From Quiz The Lost Special

Answer: 1890

'The Lost Special' is a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. The story is about a special train that is mysteriously lost. The story starts on 3rd June 1890, when one Monsieur Caratal visits the Liverpool railway station to demand a special train.

From Quiz The Lost World

Answer: They end up on the streets after a fight

Professor Challenger, the nemesis of many a journalist, realises that he has been tricked by Malone and assaults him and both do a Catherine wheel of somersaults ending up on the streets. Malone refuses to press charges after which the Professor invites him back.

From Quiz Professor Challenger

Answer: The Lost World

"The Lost World" was the first of the Professor Challenger stories, published in 1912. It describes the Professor and three companions exploring a plateau in South America. It is surrounded by high cliffs which cause it to be inaccessible. As a result the fauna and flora have not evolved as have those of the outside world and it is populated by dinosaurs and other creatures which are extinct elsewhere. "The Land of Mist" is another Challenger novel; "The Land that Time Forgot" is a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, again describing a land populated by prehistoric animals, but set in the South Atlantic. "The Darkest Hour" is a chapter in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novel "The Valley of Fear", and also the title of an unrelated 2011 film.

From Quiz The Lost Special

Answer: Because he had missed the London Express

Monsieur Caratal met the superintendent of the London & West Coast Central Station on 3rd June 1890. Caratal had missed the London Express and he wanted to reach Paris urgently. Since money was of no importance, he wanted to book a special train.

From Quiz The Lost World

Answer: Waldron

Waldron was the speaker whose talk is interrupted by Challenger, who then informs the audience of the Lost World. A team is then constituted to test the veracity of Challenger's claims. The team comprises Professor Summerlee, Malone and Lord John Roxton.

From Quiz Professor Challenger

Answer: Newspaper reporter

Malone is introduced in "The Lost World" as a newspaper reporter. At a public meeting he volunteers to join an expedition to South America to test Challenger's story of the isolated plateau and describes himself as "the reporter of the "Daily Gazette", an odd choice of words, implying that he is the only one. Challenger dislikes and distrusts reporters, whom he describes as "infernal scribblers" and "creeping vermin". Malone initially gains his trust by not pressing charges after the Professor has assaulted him for gaining an interview under false pretences, and later showing a real and intelligent interest in Challenger's story.

From Quiz The Lost Special

Answer: Fifty pounds five shillings

The money for booking the special train was fifty five pounds five shillings, at the rate of five shillings a mile. The train contained two carriages, with a guard's van.

From Quiz The Lost World

Answer: Edward Malone

Edward Dunn Malone is a journalist at the 'Daily Gazette' and joins the expedition to participate in an adventure so that he can win the affections of fair Gladys.

From Quiz Professor Challenger

Answer: Spiritualism

"The Land of Mist" is unusual in the Challenger series in that it is narrated in the third person. Conan Doyle may have used this literary device because the book demonstrates a strong support of Spiritualism, in which he himself had an increasing belief following the death of his first wife in 1906, and those his son, his brother, two brothers-in-law and two nephews during and after the First World War. It is rather pathetic that shortly after his death a Spiritualist meeting was organised in the Albert Hall in London so that Sir Arthur could make a final appearance. He failed to make the rendezvous. Conan Doyle refers to Mormonism in the Sherlock Holmes novel "A Study in Scarlet". The pseudo-religion Scientology was not invented by L. Ron Hubbard until 1952.

From Quiz The Lost Special

Answer: Kenyon Junction-Barton Moss

The special train leaves Liverpool station at 4:31. The train passes Collins Green at 5:00, Earlstown at 5:06, Newton at 5:10 and Kenyon Junction at 5:20. But the train fails to reach the next station of Barton Moss.

From Quiz The Lost World

Answer: Because the lost world is in an isolated area where the laws of nature don't apply

Professor Challenger believed that an area the size of Sussex was lifted by a volcanic upheaval and cut off by perpendicular precipices of a hardness that defies erosion from the rest of the continent. This, he believed was an isolated area where the laws of nature were suspended.

From Quiz The Lost Special

Answer: His dead body is found among the gorse bushes

The driver of the special train, John Slater, is found dead. His body is found among the gorse bushes at a point two and a quarter miles from Kenyon Junction.

From Quiz The Lost World

Answer: A blank sheet

Challenger had given an envelope with a blank sheet of paper with nothing printed on it. It was his intention to reach them before the envelope is opened, so that he can personally take them to the Lost World.

From Quiz Professor Challenger

Answer: Scotland

"The Lost World" contains a "Who's Who" type of potted biography on the Professor, which starts: "Challenger, George Edward. Born: Largs, N. B., 1863. Educ.: Largs Academy; Edinburgh University". "N.B." (North Britain) was an old term for Scotland, and Largs is a town in Ayrshire in that country. Conan Doyle himself was born in Edinburgh and gained his medical degree from its University.

From Quiz The Lost Special

Answer: Sherlock Holmes

The baffling disappearance of the train leaves everyone stunned. The Times newspaper receives a letter from an amateur reasoner, who presents a solution to the problem. It is presumed that this person is none other than Sherlock Holmes. This assumption can be safely made as the letter starts with a famous maxim of Holmes, "It is one of the elementary principles of practical reasoning that when the impossible has been eliminated, the residuum however improbable must contain the truth". Holmes goes on to suggest that the train must have been run off a side track and advises to make a detailed search of the various pawnbroker shops.

From Quiz Professor Challenger

Answer: Medicine

In "The Poison Belt" Challenger sends invitation cards to a number of people to witness a great scientific experiment. Characteristically, the cards are headed: "Professor G. E. Challenger, F.R.S., M.D., D.Sc., etc. (late President Zoological Institute and holder of so many honorary degrees and appointments that they overtax the capacity of this card)" Nowhere are we told that he was a professor of zoology, but internal evidence (including the above) point strongly to this. The fact that he was a Fellow of the Royal Society and held the degree of D.Sc. (Doctor of Science, which in Britain is a higher doctorate than the more usual Ph.D.) indicates professional eminence. M.D. ("Medicinae Doctor"), on the other hand, is a medical qualification.

From Quiz The Lost Special

Answer: He sends a letter to his wife from New York

The train's guard, James McPherson, sends a letter to his wife asking her to join him. The letter is posted from New York. The police accompany McPherson's wife, but fail to apprehend the train guard. It is revealed at the end of the story that McPherson was killed by the villains for committing the foolish act of writing to his wife.

From Quiz The Lost World

Answer: Because Lord Roxton had killed his brother

Gomez brings down the tree bridge, trapping the explorers in the lost world. This was because Lord John Roxton had killed his brother Lopez. For doing this, Gomez pays with his life as he is shot dead by Roxton.

From Quiz Professor Challenger

Answer: Peerless

Peerless Jones was the engineer chosen by Challenger to complete the mighty experiment described in "When the World Screamed". With his customary tact, the Professor admitted when writing to Jones that "looking down the list of artesian authorities, a certain oddity - I had almost written absurdity - in your name attracted my attention." "Peerless" means "incomparable", and an artesian engineer is a specialist in boring deep wells. It is worth quoting further from this letter because it shows Challenger's insolent style in dealing with other people: "I will not conceal from you that my opinion of experts is not a high one, and that I have usually found that a man who, like myself, has a well-equipped brain can take a sounder and broader view than the man who professes a special knowledge (which, alas, is so often a mere profession), and is therefore limited in his outlook." The other three options have all been used as first names. The best known example of Endeavour is perhaps Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse, and Jubilation T. Cornepone was the founder of the town of Dogpatch in the comic-strip-turned-musical "Li'l Abner".

From Quiz The Lost Special

Answer: One of the culprits confesses to the crime

Herbert de Lernac was one of the key culprits involved in the disappearance of the lost special. De Lernac was apprehended by the police for the murder of a merchant named Bonvalot. He confesses to being the kingpin behind the disappearance of the train. The disappearance of the train takes place in 1890, but the confession comes only in 1898.

From Quiz The Lost World

Answer: Iguanodon

The explorers come across a herd of iguanodons - huge dinosaurs twenty feet in height which looked like monstrous kangaroos and had skins like black crocodiles.

From Quiz Professor Challenger

Answer: Professor Summerlee and Lord John Roxton

Both Professor Summerlee, a professional colleague of Challenger's, and Lord John Roxton, traveller and sportsman, accompanied him to "The Lost World" and feature in "The Poison Belt". In "The Land of Mist" Roxton appears in the unlikely rôle of an enquirer into psychic matters, and Summerlee (now deceased) makes a brief manifestation as a spirit. Dr Watson was, of course, the companion and biographer of Sherlock Holmes. "Dr Illingworth of Edinburgh" is a colleague, held in contempt by both professors, in "The Lost World". Mr Nemor (without a title) was the villain in "The Disintegration Machine".

From Quiz The Lost Special

Answer: To kill Monsieur Caratal

Monsieur Caratal knew a secret that could destroy a syndicate and expose a major political scandal. The syndicate decided to remove Caratal, destroy the papers he had and also anyone with him. The syndicate hired Herbert de Lernac to carry out the deed. De Lernac had a plan for all eventualities and since Caratal booked a special, he executed his plan to make the train and Caratal disappear.

From Quiz The Lost World

Answer: They are kidnapped by ape men

When Malone returns to Fort Challenger, he finds the camp in a mess and meets Lord Roxton, who informs him that a horde of apes attacked the camp and took away the two professors.

From Quiz Professor Challenger

Answer: The Disintegration Machine

"The Disintegration Machine" tells the story of Theodore Nemor, a Latvian inventor who has created a machine capable of reducing objects to their component "atoms or molecules" and reversing the process. Challenger and Malone visit Nemor, who demonstrates a small version of the machine by disintegrating and reassembling each of them. Challenger perceives the danger of the machine if used in warfare and, when Nemor states that he has sold the secret to a foreign European power, is repulsed by Nemor's greed. He tricks Nemor into allowing himself to being disintegrated and fails to reassemble him. "The Lost World" and "The Poison Belt" are, of course, other Challenger tales, whereas "The Five Orange Pips" is a Holmes story.

From Quiz The Lost Special

Answer: The train was diverted to a side track to a mine

Once de Lernac has decided to do away with Caratal, he decided to make the train disappear. From near Kenyon Junction, there were tracks leading to unused mines. Lernac selected the abandoned Heartsease mine and switched the train to the side track that led to the mine. The train was made to run into the pit of the mine, killing Caratal and his guard and also completely destroying the train. The murderers then ripped up the rails and disconnected the side line. All this was done so meticulously that no one could ever solve the mystery. The story ends with de Lernac facing death sentence and warning the syndicate that he would expose them if they don't help him.

From Quiz The Lost World

Answer: They find a cave with an opening to the outside world

The explorers find a map of the cave openings and realise that there is an opening to the outside world and escape through the caves.

From Quiz The Lost World

Answer: A pterodactyl

Lord Roxton realises that to convince the outside world, a living sample needs to be taken back to civilization. He traps a pterodactyl and carries it in a box back to civilization.

From Quiz The Lost World

Answer: Stegosaurus

The Stegosaurus is the only dinosaur which is featured in both Doyle's and Crichton's 'Lost World'. The Pterodactyl and Iguanodon are found only in Doyle's book and the Tyrannosaurus features in Crichton's book. The pterodactyl is present in Crichton's 'Jurassic Park' but not in the 'Lost World'. In Crichton's 'Lost World', there is a trailer named 'Challenger trailer', this is probably Crichton's way of paying a tribute to Doyle's 'Lost World'. Also, in the movie version of 'Lost World', there is a scene of a dinosaur escaping in a city. This scene was not present in the novel. This again is probably Spielberg and Crichton's tribute to Doyle, as Doyle's 'Lost World' features a pterodactyl that escaped in London.

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