The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells (Illustrated)

By H. G. Wells

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘The Island of Doctor Moreau’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of H. G. Wells’.

Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Wells includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

eBook features:
* The complete unabridged text of ‘The Island of Doctor Moreau’
* Beautifully illustrated with images related to Wells’s works
* Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
* Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786565600

H. G. Wells

H.G. Wells (1866–1946) was an English novelist who helped to define modern science fiction. Wells came from humble beginnings with a working-class family. As a teen, he was a draper’s assistant before earning a scholarship to the Normal School of Science. It was there that he expanded his horizons learning different subjects like physics and biology. Wells spent his free time writing stories, which eventually led to his groundbreaking debut, The Time Machine. It was quickly followed by other successful works like The Island of Doctor Moreau and The War of the Worlds.

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The Complete Works of

H. G. WELLS

VOLUME 3 OF 99

The Island of Doctor Moreau

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2015

Version 7

COPYRIGHT

‘The Island of Doctor Moreau’

H. G. Wells: Parts Edition (in 99 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 560 0

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: [e-mail]

www.delphiclassics.com

H. G. Wells: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 3 of the Delphi Classics edition of H. G. Wells in 99 Parts. It features the unabridged text of The Island of Doctor Moreau from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of H. G. Wells, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of H. G. Wells or the Complete Works of H. G. Wells in a single eBook.

Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

H. G. WELLS

IN 99 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

The Novels

1, The Time Machine

2, The Wonderful Visit

3, The Island of Doctor Moreau

4, The Wheels of Chance

5, The Invisible Man

6, The War of the Worlds

7, When the Sleeper Wakes

8, Love and Mr. Lewisham

9, The First Men in the Moon

10, The Sea Lady

11, The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth

12, Kipps

13, A Modern Utopia

14, In the Days of the Comet

15, The War in the Air

16, Tono-Bungay

17, Ann Veronica

18, The History of Mr. Polly

19, The Sleeper Awakes

20, The New Machiavelli

21, Marriage

22, The Passionate Friends

23, The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman

24, The World Set Free

25, Bealby: A Holiday

26, Boon

27, The Research Magnificent

28, Mr. Britling Sees It Through

29, The Soul of a Bishop

30, Joan and Peter: the Story of an Education

31, The Undying Fire

32, The Secret Places of the Heart

33, Men Like Gods

34, The Dream

35, Christina Alberta’s Father

36, The World of William Clissold

37, Meanwhile

38, Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island

39, The Autocracy of Mr. Parham

40, The Bulpington of Blup

41, The Shape of Things to Come

42, The Croquet Player

43, Brynhild

44, Star Begotten

45, The Camford Visitation

46, Apropos of Dolores

47, The Brothers

48, The Holy Terror

49, Babes in the Darkling Wood

50, All Aboard for Ararat

51, You Can’t Be Too Careful

The Short Story Collections

52, The Early Short Stories

53, Select Conversations with an Uncle

54, The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents

55, The Plattner Story and Others

56, Tales of Space and Time

57, Twelve Stories and a Dream

58, The Country of the Blind and Other Stories

59, The Door in the Wall and Other Stories

60, Uncollected Short Stories

Selected Non-Fiction

61, Text-Book of Biology

62, Certain Personal Matters

63, Anticipations of the Reactions of Mechanical and Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and Thought

64, The Discovery of the Future

65, Preface to ‘Underground Man by Gabriel Tarde’

66, Mankind in the Making

67, The Future in America

68, This Misery of Boots

69, New Worlds for Old

70, First and Last Things

71, Floor Games

72, Little Wars

73, The War that Will End War

74, An Englishman Looks at the World

75, What Is Coming?

76, The Elements of Reconstruction

77, Introduction to ‘Nocturne by Frank Swinnerton’

78, Introduction to ‘The Pivot of Civilization by Margaret Sanger’

79, God the Invisible King

80, War and the Future

81, In the Fourth Year

82, The Idea of a League of Nations

83, The Outline of History

84, Russia in the Shadows

85, The Salvaging of Civilization

86, A Short History of the World

87, Washington and the Hope of Peace

88, The Story of a Great Schoolmaster

89, A Year of Prophesying

90, Mr. Belloc Objects to The Outline of History

91, The Open Conspiracy

92, World Brain

93, The Fate of Homo Sapiens

94, The New World Order

95, The Common Sense of War and Peace

96, Crux Ansata

97, Marxism Vs. Liberalism

The Criticism

98, The Criticism

The Autobiography

99, Experiment in Autobiography

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The Island of Doctor Moreau

This horror novel was first published in 1896 and, together with The Time Machine, secured Wells’ position as a professional writer that could command a wide readership. The novel tells the story of a shipwreck survivor, who comes ashore on an island inhabited by the scientist Dr. Moreau and his unholy band of ‘beast folk’ – half-human, half-animal creatures created by Moreau’s experiments in vivisection. At the time of writing, vivisection (the dissection of living organisms for medical research purposes) was a much-debated topic and Wells’ novel uses the figure of the amoral scientist Moreau to denounce the irresponsible lengths to which science can travel in a relentless pursuit of knowledge ungoverned by moral concerns.

Like The Time Machine, the novel also plays unsettlingly with the distinction between man and beast. Prendick, the novel’s narrator, like the Time Traveller, finds that his horrendous experiences lend him a new perspective on the instability of human identity within a world where scientific discoveries about the nature of life and the cosmos threatened to dethrone mankind from its previously assumed role at the centre of creation – and, in particular, the idea that Victorian Britain represented the pinnacle of human evolution. The Time Traveller discovers that the process of evolution means that the biological nature of mankind is constantly in flux, and that man is just as likely to devolve into beast-like creatures as to evolve into more perfect forms of life. In The Island of Doctor Moreau, Prendick discovers a society of man-like animals, whose customs and rituals (diligently learned) only barley separate them from the brutes from which they evolve. Human society, it is implied, is similarly illusory – a thin surface veneer hiding mankind’s bestial nature. In a deeply disturbing coda, the point is strongly emphasised as Prendick returns to London and finds himself unable to detect much difference between the customs of society and those of the ‘beasts’ he has escaped…

The first edition

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION.

I. IN THE DINGEY OF THE LADY VAIN.

II. THE MAN WHO WAS GOING NOWHERE.

III. THE STRANGE FACE.

IV. AT THE SCHOONER’S RAIL.

V. THE MAN WHO HAD NOWHERE TO GO.

VI. THE EVIL-LOOKING BOATMEN.

VII. THE LOCKED DOOR.

VIII. THE CRYING OF THE PUMA.

IX. THE THING IN THE FOREST.

X. THE CRYING OF THE MAN.

XI. THE HUNTING OF THE MAN.

XII. THE SAYERS OF THE LAW.

XIII. A PARLEY.

XIV. DOCTOR MOREAU EXPLAINS.

XV. CONCERNING THE BEAST FOLK.

XVI. HOW THE BEAST FOLK TASTE BLOOD.

XVII. A CATASTROPHE.

XVIII. THE FINDING OF MOREAU.

XIX. MONTGOMERY’S BANK HOLIDAY.

XX. ALONE WITH THE BEAST FOLK.

XXI. THE REVERSION OF THE BEAST FOLK.

XXII. THE MAN ALONE.

Theatrical poster for the 1977 film adaptation

Theatrical poster for the 1996 film adaptation

INTRODUCTION.

ON February the First 1887, the Lady Vain was lost by collision with a derelict when about the latitude 1° S. and longitude 107° W.

On January the Fifth, 1888 — that is eleven months and four days after — my uncle, Edward Prendick, a private gentleman, who certainly went aboard the Lady Vain at Callao, and who had been considered drowned, was picked up in latitude 5° 3′ S. and longitude 101° W. in a small open boat of which the name was illegible, but which is supposed to have belonged to the missing schooner Ipecacuanha. He gave such a strange account of himself that he was supposed demented. Subsequently he alleged that his mind was a blank from the moment of his escape from the Lady Vain. His case was discussed among psychologists at the time as a curious instance of the lapse of memory consequent upon physical and mental stress. The following narrative was found among his papers by the undersigned, his nephew and heir, but unaccompanied by any definite request for publication.

The only island known to exist in the region in which my uncle was picked up is Noble’s Isle, a small volcanic islet and uninhabited. It was visited in 1891 by H. M. S. Scorpion. A party of sailors then landed, but found nothing living thereon except certain curious white moths, some hogs and rabbits, and some rather peculiar rats. So that this narrative is without confirmation in its most essential particular. With that understood, there seems no harm in putting this strange story before the public in accordance, as I believe, with my uncle’s intentions. There is at least this much in its behalf: my uncle passed out of human knowledge about latitude 5° S. and longitude 105° E., and reappeared in the same part of the ocean after a space of eleven months. In some way he must have lived during the interval. And it seems that a schooner called the Ipecacuanha with a drunken captain, John Davies, did start from Africa with a puma and certain other animals aboard in January, 1887, that the vessel was well known at several ports in the South Pacific, and that it finally disappeared from those seas (with a considerable amount of copra aboard), sailing to its unknown fate from Bayna in December, 1887, a date that tallies entirely with my uncle’s story.

CHARLES EDWARD PRENDICK.

(The Story written by Edward Prendick.)

I. IN THE DINGEY OF THE LADY VAIN.

I DO not propose to add anything to what has already been written concerning the loss of the Lady Vain. As everyone knows, she collided with a derelict when ten days out from Callao. The longboat, with seven of the crew, was picked up eighteen days after by H. M. gunboat Myrtle, and the story of their terrible privations has become quite as well known as the far more horrible Medusa case. But I have to add to the published story of the Lady Vain another, possibly as horrible and far stranger. It has hitherto been supposed that the four men who were in the dingey perished, but this is incorrect. I have the best of evidence for this assertion: I was one of the four men.

But in the first place I must state that there never were four men in the dingey, — the number was three. Constans, who was seen by the captain to jump into the gig, luckily for us and unluckily for himself did not reach us. He came down out of the tangle of ropes under the stays of the smashed bowsprit, some small rope caught his heel as he let go, and he hung for a moment head downward, and then fell and struck a block or spar floating in the water. We pulled towards him, but he never came up.

Daily News, March 17, 1887.

I say luckily for us he did not reach us, and I might almost say luckily for himself; for we had only a small beaker of water and some soddened ship’s biscuits with us, so sudden had been the alarm, so unprepared the ship for any disaster. We thought the people on the launch would be better provisioned (though it seems they were not), and we tried to hail them. They could not have heard us, and the next morning when the drizzle cleared, — which was not until past midday, — we could see nothing of them. We could not stand up to look about us, because of the pitching of the boat. The two other men who had escaped so far with me were a man named Helmar, a passenger like myself, and a seaman whose name I don’t know, — a short sturdy man, with a stammer.

We drifted famishing, and, after our water had come to an end, tormented by an intolerable thirst, for eight days altogether. After the second day the sea subsided slowly to a glassy calm. It is quite impossible for the ordinary reader to imagine those eight days. He has not, luckily for himself, anything in his memory to imagine with. After the first day we said little to one another, and lay in our places in the boat and stared at the horizon, or watched, with eyes that grew larger and more haggard every day, the misery and weakness gaining upon our companions. The sun became pitiless. The water ended on the fourth day, and we were already thinking strange things and saying them with our eyes; but it was, I think, the sixth before Helmar gave voice to the thing we had all been thinking. I remember our voices were dry and thin, so that we bent towards one another and spared our words. I stood out against