Mrs Anna Challenger
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Mrs Anna Challenger
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“I
know of no woman who has better played the role of nursemaid to unruly genius –
and it was a mere role for her, of that I was sure, for in the course of my
researches into the Professor certain scientific papers had been unearthed under
the name of Anna Smith. The last of Miss Smith’s well-received papers had been
published shortly before that person’s transformation into Mrs Challenger. One
who had never met her might have believed it a case of the butterfly becoming
once more a caterpillar, but I say this, I never saw her unhappy with Professor
Challenger. Perhaps the unhappiness came when the professor left on his
expeditions. At the back of her mind, I might go so far as to suspect, there
came sometimes the thought that if she had never married him, Challenger might
have consented to the company of Miss Anna Smith on his most perilous voyages.
As it was, she was required to keep the home fires burning, a task she fulfilled
with a measure of contentment and, possibly, a touch of resignation.”
However, Edward Malone, when writing those words, knew nothing of her other
role: that of head of Ibis – the Interstellar Bureau of Investigation and
Skulduggery! He
described her husband in this way:
“Professor George Edward Challenger roared into the room, immediately dominating
it as if the very air we breathed had been designed with him in mind. Oh foolish
deity, that created a world with any thought of placing such a man upon it! To
see him is to be at odds with him and to hear him is to be insulted by him in
the most colourful manner. He has often been described as a cave-man in a lounge
suit, and that rings true in more than one way. Without doubt the Neanderthal is
not a distant cousin of the Professor, and then also, as well as resembling the
men who once lived in the cave, he is not at all dissimilar to the cave itself.
His is a yawning cavern of a personality, a crack in the face of the mountain
that is the world, an abysmal threat to the sanity of the rational modern man as
he stares right back into your rational modern eyes and demands the attention of
your most irrational ancient fears. ‘I am here!’ he cries, finding echo in the
darkest realms of your soul. ‘I am here! Deny me if you can!’ He is the
bear-cave, the warm cave, the cave that you always needed and were always afraid
of! He was always the staunchest of companions, and finally I found him to be
the warmest of friends, yet even I should be dismayed to find that maelstrom of
activity and restless intellect unchained. To put it another way, Professor
Challenger was an ambush of a man. Make of that what you please.”
First modern appearance of both characters:
Professor Challenger in Space. Further appearances: Quiet, the Tin Can Brains are Hunting! |
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Wife of
Professor George Edward Challenger, she hides a secret life behind a facade of
roasting dinners and ironing shirts. She was described by one of her
contemporaries, the journalist Edward Malone, thus: