The Poison Belt

Last updated
First Edition Copy of The Poison Belt.jpg

The Poison Belt
Professor Challenger.jpg
Cover of the first edition of The Poison Belt
Author Arthur Conan Doyle
Illustrator Harry Rountree [1]
LanguageEnglish
Series Professor Challenger
Genre Science fiction
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date
1913
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pages199
Preceded by The Lost World  
Followed by The Land of Mist  

The Poison Belt is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, the second book about Professor Challenger. Written in 1913, much of it takes place in a single room in Challenger's house in Sussex. This would be the last story written about Challenger until the 1920s, by which time Doyle's spiritualist beliefs had begun to influence his writing. [2]

Contents

Plot summary

Challenger sends telegrams asking his three companions from The Lost World— Edward Malone, Lord John Roxton, and Professor Summerlee— to join him at his home outside London, and instructs each of them to 'bring oxygen'. During their journey there, they see people's behaviour become excitable and erratic. On arrival, they are ushered into a sealed room, along with Challenger and his wife. In the course of his research into various phenomena, Challenger has predicted that the Earth is moving into a belt of poisonous ether which, based on its effect on the people of Sumatra earlier in the day, he expects to stifle humanity. Challenger seals them in the room with cylinders of oxygen, which he (correctly) believes will counter the effect of the ether.

Cover of a later printing of the Arthur Conan Doyle novella The Poison Belt Posion Belt.jpg
Cover of a later printing of the Arthur Conan Doyle novella The Poison Belt

The five wait out the Earth's passage through the poison belt as they watch the world outside, human and animal, die and machines run amok. (Challenger's servants are left outside the sealed room, and they continue to perform their duties until the ether overtakes them.) Finally, the last of the oxygen cylinders are emptied, and they open a window, ready to face death. To their surprise, they do not die and conclude the Earth has now passed through the poison belt. They journey through the dead countryside in Challenger's car, finally arriving in London. They encounter only one survivor, an elderly, bed-ridden woman prescribed oxygen for her health.

After returning to Challenger's house, they discover that the effect of the ether is temporary, and the world reawakens with no knowledge that they have lost any time at all. Eventually, Challenger and his companions manage to convince the world what happened— a task made easier by the tremendous amount of death and destruction caused by runaway machines and fires that took place while the world was asleep—and humanity is shocked into placing a higher value on life.

Dramatic adaptations

The BBC aired a radio drama version of the story in 1944, as a sequel to their well-received adaptation of The Lost World that spring. [3]

An audio recording of The Poison Belt, recorded by Mark F. Smith, is available on the Internet Archive.

A five-part reading was dramatised over the Christmas period on BBC Radio 4 in 1983. It was read by Peter Pacey.

Related Research Articles

<i>A Study in Scarlet</i> 1887 detective novel by Arthur Conan Doyle

A Study in Scarlet is an 1887 detective novel by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would become the most famous detective duo in English literature. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes, a consulting detective, to his friend and chronicler Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scientific romance</span> Old Literary Genre

Scientific romance is an archaic, mainly British term for the genre of fiction now commonly known as science fiction. The term originated in the 1850s to describe both fiction and elements of scientific writing, but it has since come to refer to the science fiction of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, primarily that of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle. In recent years the term has come to be applied to science fiction written in a deliberately anachronistic style as a homage to or pastiche of the original scientific romances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Professor Challenger</span> Fictional character by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

George Edward Challenger is a fictional character in a series of fantasy and science fiction stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Unlike Doyle's self-controlled, analytical character, Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger is an aggressive, hot-tempered, dominating figure.

<i>The Lost World</i> (Doyle novel) 1912 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Lost World is a science fiction novel by British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1912, concerning an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin of South America where prehistoric animals still survive. It was originally published serially in the Strand Magazine and illustrated by New-Zealand-born artist Harry Rountree during the months of April–November 1912. The character of Professor Challenger was introduced in this book. The novel also describes a war between indigenous people and a vicious tribe of ape-like creatures.

<i>The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes</i> 1954 short story collection by Adrian Conan Doyle

The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes is a short story collection of twelve Sherlock Holmes pastiches, first published in 1954. It was written by Adrian Conan Doyle, who was the son of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and by John Dickson Carr, who was the authorised biographer of the elder Conan Doyle. The first six stories were written in collaboration by the two writers, while the last six stories were written solely by Adrian Conan Doyle.

"When the World Screamed" is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his character Professor Challenger. It was first published in Liberty magazine, from 25 February to 3 March 1928.

Four to Doomsday is the second serial of the 19th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 18 to 26 January 1982.

<i>The Lost World</i> (1925 film) 1925 silent film by Harry O. Hoyt

The Lost World is a 1925 American silent fantasy giant monster adventure film directed by Harry O. Hoyt and written by Marion Fairfax, adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel of the same name.

<i>The Lost World</i> (TV series) American action/adventure television series

The Lost World is a syndicated television series loosely based on the 1912 novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World. The show premiered in the United States in the fall of 1999. It ran for three seasons, the final two of which aired in syndication in the United States, before it was cancelled in 2002 after funding for a fourth season fell through. The final episode ended with an unresolved cliffhanger. All three seasons were released in DVD box sets in 2004.

The lost world is a subgenre of the fantasy or science fiction genres that involves the discovery of an unknown Earth civilization. It began as a subgenre of the late-Victorian adventure romance and remains popular into the 21st century.

<i>The Land of Mist</i> 1926 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Land of Mist is a novel by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1926.

<i>The Lost World</i> (1960 film) American film directed by Irwin Allen

The Lost World is a 1960 American fantasy adventure film directed by Irwin Allen, loosely based on the 1912 novel of the same name by Arthur Conan Doyle. Shot in De Luxe Color and CinemaScope, the film's plot revolves around the exploration of a plateau in Venezuela inhabited by cannibals, dinosaurs, carnivorous plants, and giant spiders. The cast includes Claude Rains, David Hedison, Fernando Lamas, Jill St. John, and Michael Rennie.

"A Study in Emerald" is a short story written by British fantasy and graphic novel author Neil Gaiman. The story is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche transferred to the Cthulhu Mythos universe of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Gaiman describes it as "Lovecraft/Holmes fan fiction". It won the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Short Story. The title is a reference to the Sherlock Holmes novel A Study in Scarlet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Conan Doyle</span> British writer and physician (1859–1930)

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.

<i>King of the Lost World</i> 2005 American film

King of the Lost World is a 2005 American fantasy monster adventure film produced by The Asylum. The film is adapted loosely from the 1912 novel The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, but the film bears a closer resemblance to the remake of King Kong released in the same year, particularly as both stories center on a giant ape. Hence, King of the Lost World is a mockbuster of said film, a tradition that The Asylum usually undergoes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Undershaw</span>

Undershaw is a former residence of the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. The house was built for Doyle at his order to accommodate his wife's health requirements, and is where he lived with his family from 1897 to 1907. Undershaw is where Doyle wrote many of his works, including The Hound of the Baskervilles.

<i>The Narrative of John Smith</i> 2011 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Narrative of John Smith (2011) is a novel written in 1883 by Arthur Conan Doyle, published posthumously by The British Library. In a work of narrative fiction, Doyle writes from the perspective of a middle-aged bachelor named John Smith recovering from rheumatic gout. Unlike his later work in detective fiction, fantasy, and science fiction, this novel unfolds through a series of tangential, essay-like thoughts stemming from observations on everyday life. The subjects are of a “personal-social-political complexion”.

The year 1913 was marked, in science fiction, by the following events.

<i>Zanthodon</i> 1980 novel by Lin Carter

Zanthodon is a science fiction novel by American writer Lin Carter, the second in his series about the fictional "Hollow Earth" land of Zanthodon. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in June 1980, with an ebook edition following from Gateway/Orion in October 2018. It was also gathered together with the other volumes in the series into the omnibus ebook collection The Zanthodon Megapack.

References

  1. Facsimile of the 1st edition (1913), stating illustrator on Title page
  2. Pascal, Janet (1999). Arthur Conan Doyle: Beyond Baker Street. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 134. ISBN   9780195122626.
  3. Carr, John Dickson, "The Many-sided Conan Doyle," in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Poison Belt Together with "The Disintegration Machine" and "When the World Screamed", Berkley Medallion Books, April 1966 (2nd printing, October 1969), p.12.