Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World belongs to a now defunct subcategory of young adult literature called "boys' books," a genre that may well, in fact, have been ended by the publication and popular reception of The Lost World. "Boys' books" were tales of adventure that were supposed to teach teenage boys the "manly virtues" and how to behave like men in times of crisis. H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (1885; see separate entry, Vol. 4), a tale of a search for the diamond mines of King Solomon in southern Africa, is a still popular example of this kind of book. Haggard's novel set the standard for authentic detail in "boys' books"; the various African tribes he describes were known to him from his experiences exploring in South Africa. The Lost World satirized the manly.....
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