The journalist who accompanies Professor Challenger in “The Lost World” is Edward Malone. Malone is a young reporter for the Daily Gazette and narrates Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1912 adventure novel in the first person.
Malone seeks a dangerous assignment partly to prove himself to Gladys Hungerton, the woman he loves. His editor sends him to investigate Professor George Edward Challenger, an aggressive zoologist whose claims about prehistoric animals surviving in South America have been dismissed by much of the scientific community.
Although Malone initially disguises himself as a student and is thrown out by Challenger, his courage and persistence eventually earn the professor’s respect. He joins Challenger, Professor Summerlee, Lord John Roxton and their companions on the expedition to a remote plateau, where they encounter dinosaurs and other ancient creatures.
Readers sometimes confuse Malone with Gladys, his love interest, or with Roxton, the experienced adventurer. Summerlee is also part of the expedition, but he is a scientist rather than the journalist. The novel’s choice of Malone as narrator gives the expedition an energetic reporter’s viewpoint.