The Island of Doctor Moreau

By H G Wells

Edward Prendick, an Englishman with a scientific education survives a shipwreck in the southern Pacific Ocean. A passing ship takes him aboard, and a man named Montgomery revives him. Prendick also meets a grotesque bestial native named M'ling, who appears to be Montgomery's manservant. The ship is transporting a number of animals which belong to Montgomery. As they approach the island, Montgomery's destination, the captain demands Prendick leave the ship with Montgomery...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fantastica
• Release date: Feb 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781787241848

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.

Book preview

H. G. Wells

The Island of Doctor Moreau

Fantastica

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ISBN: 9781787241848

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.

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,{1} 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.

{1} 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 it with all my might, was rather for scuttling the boat and perishing together among the sharks that followed us; but when Helmar said that if his proposal was accepted we should have drink, the sailor came round to him.

I would not draw lots however, and in the night the sailor whispered to Helmar again and again, and I sat in the bows with my clasp-knife in my hand, though I doubt if I had the stuff in me to fight; and in the morning I agreed to Helmar’s proposal, and we handed halfpence to find the odd man. The lot fell upon the sailor; but he was the strongest of us and would not abide by it, and attacked Helmar with his hands. They grappled together and almost stood up. I crawled along the boat to them, intending to help Helmar by grasping the sailor’s leg; but the sailor stumbled with the swaying of the boat, and the two fell upon the gunwale and rolled overboard together. They sank like stones. I remember laughing at that, and wondering why I laughed. The laugh caught me suddenly like a thing from without.

I lay across one of the thwarts for I know not how long, thinking that if I had the strength I would drink sea-water and madden myself to die quickly. And even as I lay there I saw, with no more interest than if it had been a picture, a sail come up towards me over the sky-line. My mind must have been wandering, and yet I remember all that happened, quite distinctly. I remember how my head swayed with the seas, and the horizon with the sail above it danced up and down; but I also remember as distinctly that I had a persuasion that I was dead, and that I thought what a jest it was that they should come too late by such a little to catch me in my body.

For an endless period, as it seemed to me, I lay with my head on the thwart watching the schooner (she was a little ship, schooner-rigged fore and aft) come up out of the sea. She kept tacking to and fro in a widening compass, for she was sailing dead into the wind. It never entered my head to attempt to attract attention, and I do not remember anything distinctly after the sight of her side until I found myself in a little cabin aft. There’s a dim half-memory of being lifted up to the gangway, and of a big round countenance covered with freckles and surrounded with red hair staring at me over the bulwarks. I also had a disconnected impression of a dark face, with extraordinary eyes, close to mine; but that I thought was a nightmare, until I met it again. I fancy I recollect some stuff being poured in between my teeth; and that is all.

II. THE MAN WHO WAS GOING NOWHERE.

THE cabin in which I found myself was small and rather untidy. A youngish man with flaxen hair, a bristly straw-coloured moustache, and a dropping nether lip, was sitting and holding my wrist. For a minute we stared at each other without speaking. He had watery grey eyes, oddly void of expression. Then just overhead came a sound like an iron bedstead being knocked about, and the low angry growling of some large animal. At the same time the man spoke. He repeated his question,—How do you feel now?

I think I said I felt all right. I could not recollect how I had got there. He must have seen the question in my face, for my voice was inaccessible to me.

You were picked up in a boat, starving. The name on the boat was the Lady Vain, and there were spots of blood on the gunwale.

At the same time my eye caught my hand, so thin that it looked like a dirty skin-purse full of loose bones, and all the business of the boat came back to me.

Have some of this, said he, and gave me a dose of some scarlet stuff, iced.

It tasted like blood, and made me feel stronger.

You were in luck, said he, to get picked up by a ship with a medical man aboard. He spoke with a slobbering articulation, with the ghost of a lisp.

What ship is this? I said slowly, hoarse from my long silence.

It’s a little trader from Arica and Callao. I never asked where she came from in the beginning,—out of the land of born fools, I guess. I’m a passenger myself, from Arica. The silly ass who owns her,—he’s captain too, named Davies,—he’s lost his certificate, or something. You know the kind of man,—calls the thing the Ipecacuanha, of all silly, infernal names; though when there’s much of a sea without any wind, she certainly acts according.

(Then the noise overhead began again, a snarling growl and the voice of a human being together. Then another voice, telling some Heaven-forsaken idiot to desist.)

You were nearly dead, said my interlocutor. It was a very near thing, indeed. But I’ve put some stuff into you now. Notice your arm’s sore? Injections. You’ve been insensible for nearly thirty hours.

I thought slowly. (I was distracted now by the yelping of a number of dogs.) Am I eligible for solid food? I asked.

Thanks to me, he said. Even now the mutton is boiling.

Yes, I said with assurance; I could eat some mutton.

But, said he with a momentary hesitation, you know I’m dying to hear of how you came to be alone in that boat. Damn that howling! I thought I detected a certain suspicion in his eyes.

He suddenly left the cabin, and I heard him in violent controversy with some one, who seemed to me to talk gibberish in response to him. The matter sounded as though it ended in blows, but in that I thought my ears were mistaken. Then he shouted at the dogs,

Reviews for The Island of Doctor Moreau

[jigarpatel-6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Classed as "scientific romance" at the time, this is on the surface an adventure novel. The protagonist Prendick survives a shipwreck and finds himself on an island filled with curious creatures. Pendrick, like Wells himself, studied biology under Darwinist Thomas Huxley, and this forms the scientific backdrop. Like Lord of the Flies, The Island of Dr. Moreau has many layers. There's an underlying mockery of organized religion, a blurring of lines between human and inhuman, suggestions of a link between ethnicity and culture. The characters are flawed and malleable, changing with their environment. Their interaction represents the base around which the story revolves.A couple of possible influences, suggested by Margaret Atwood in her 2005 introduction, are The Tempest and Treasure Island. If you enjoyed this, you may also enjoy Atwood's own MaddAddam Trilogy.

[squeakychu · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I found this to be quite a fun read. That's a great compliment since I'm not really a fan of science fiction. However, I thought I'd give this story a go since I had previously found The Invisible Man, by the same author, very entertaining, In The Island of Dr. Moreau, a man named Prendick, ends up on an island inhabited by only two other men, one of who is a doctor intent on making animals into humans by vivisection. The results of his experimentation abound on the island as well as a rule of order known as The Law. Circumstances happen which change the status quo. It's interesting to follow along on this man-animal continuum to see how everything plays out and to learn if there us any chance that Prendick would make it off of this strange island alive.

[borrows0n0wants · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a good book. It was pretty interesting, but there were a few parts where the story lagged and I found my mind wandering. This is my third Wells book, and I honestly found it not to be as good as the other two I've read so far (The Time Machine and The First Men in the Moon).

[benuathanasia · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Boring and forgettable.

[msaucier818 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Another short novel by Wells with an over the top social commentary. On a secluded island in the Pacific, Dr. Moreau experiments on animals through physical and brain surgery in an attempt to make them human (or at least more human). Although he has some success, the story shows us how after time, all of the beast return to a state of being beasts. I think the purpose of the story is to show us the dangers of letting science get out of control. Also, it shows us how maybe we should enjoy the way we are and not always be looking to make things "better".

[benjamin.duffy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

One thing I've found to be true about science fiction is that even though sci-fi authors aspire to speculate on future technology and culture, alien races, and faraway worlds, what they ultimately end up documenting most tellingly is their own time and place. What really shows up in the pages are the philosophical and cultural concerns of the author's own era, the timeless questions that come of being human, and a view of the future that is constrained by the limits of scientific knowledge at the time the book was written.

Because of this, the sci-fi that ages most gracefully tends to be that sci-fi that makes the fewest specific predictions about future technology. A good example of this is Wells' own The Time Machine, which wisely steers clear of trying to explain in detail how the titular machine works. As a result, a 21st century reader can enjoy the book for its many strengths - as a fantastic tale of adventure, a disturbing commentary on class distinctions in the late 19th Century, etc. - rather than concentrating on hopelessly quaint and outdated science.

Unfortunately, The Island of Dr. Moreau is not so circumspectly written. The way in which the good doctor goes about his aims is far too well described, and comes off as positively laughable by the standards of even 1960s science, let alone that of 2011. It ended up diminishing my enjoyment of the rest of the story, which is a shame because the book has a lot going for it. For one, it's exciting: Wells writes fast-paced action scenes better than just about any other writer of his era. Also, for as silly as the biology babble is, the actual end results are creepy as hell. And regarding "the philosophical and cultural concerns of the author's own era," this book shows the signs of having been written in the years directly after Darwin in much the same way that The Time Machine has to be viewed through the lens of being less than a generation removed from Karl Marx. It's fascinating as a mirror of the cultural issues of the day. There's even a dash of dry humor here and there, and the human characters in general (all four or five of them) are believable and well-developed.

Definitely worth the read; just prepare to roll your eyes at some of the science.

[amelish · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Pure unadulterated paranoia and gore. Pretty fucking scary.

[baswood · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"What could it all mean?. A locked enclosure on a lonely island, a notorious vivisector and these crippled and distorted men These are the thoughts of Edward Prendick: Well's anti-hero who is in effect a castaway on the island of Doctor Moreau. Most readers would be able to tell Prendick exactly what it means, because there has been at least three film versions and the story has been widely imitated. This is a horror story and the horror is palpable: if vivisection is the stuff of your nightmares then this novel will not be easy reading. Doctor Moreau is obsessed with his theories of being able to create men from beasts and has set up his laboratory on an island in the Pacific ocean far from any shipping lanes. He spends his time slashing and cutting away at live animals in an attempt to create something recognisable in human form and Wells makes us feel the pain and the degradation of his cruelty. In the chapter "The crying Puma" Prendick is given a room on the other side of a locked door leading into the laboratory and Doctor Moreau is operating on the puma:Suddenly the Puma howled again, this time more painfully. Montgomery swore under his breath. I had half a mind to attack him about the man on the beach. Then the poor brute within gave vent to a series of short, sharp cries.......I found myself that the cries were singularly irritating, and they grew in depth and intensity as the afternoon wore on. They were painful at first, but their constant resurgence at last altogether upset my balance. I flung aside a crib of Horace I had been reading, and began to clench my fists, to bite my lips, and to pace the room. Presently I got to stopping my ears with my fingers.The emotional appeal of those yells grew upon me steadily, grew at last to such an exquisite expression of suffering that I could stand it in that confined room no longer. I stepped out of the door into the slumberous heat of the late afternoon, and walking past the main entrance - locked again, I noticed - turned the corner of the wall. The crying sounded even louder out of doors. It was as if all the pain in the world had found a voice. Yet had I known such pain was in the next room, and had it been dumb, I believe - I have thought since - I could have stood it well enough. It is when suffering finds a voice and sets our nerves quivering and this pity comes troubling usThere are over 100 of the man-beasts still alive on the island who have all undergone days of surgery in the house of pain. They live as best they can according to a ritual of law imposed by Doctor Moreau in an attempt to stop them reverting to mindless beasts.It is an adventure story as well as a horror story but the sickness of the life on the island is never far away from our thoughts as we read on to discover what happens next. Wells has used the literary device of the story being discovered amongst Prendicks papers after his death and so it is told by him in the first person. This adds immediacy to the writing and we witness the fear, the degradation, and the pain at first hand, it also allows for a certain amount of tension and mystery especially in the first part of the novel. Prendick believes that he might be a subject for vivisection and his escape from the compound and headlong flight amongst the man-beasts on the tropical island is exciting and vividly told.There is more to Well's novel than an adventure/horror story. At the time of the novel's publication 1896 there was a debate raging about the morality of vivisection and Wells story pitches right in with the horrors that medical science can and will inflict if it remains unchecked. Evolution through natural selection or Darwinism was also much in the minds of the late Victorians and Thomas Huxley was seen as a propagator of Darwin's theories. Prendick in the novel says that he spent some years studying under Huxley, whose views that morality is determined independently of the biological origins of humanity is another key theme explored by Wells. The man-beasts must be indoctrinated by a set of rules, chanted by them at frequent intervals to help arrest their degeneration back into wild animals.Man as a social animal is another theme fully explored by Wells in his novel. The three characters that feature on the island are Prendick, Doctor Moreau and Montgomery, they are all in their way outcasts and it is typical of Wells to make his main character very much an anti-hero. Prendick finds himself sent to the island after an altercation with the ships captain, he is not welcome on the island despite his knowledge of biology, Montgomery calls him a prig, because of his standoffish behaviour and refusal to drink alcohol. Prendick himself although appalled by what is going on in the laboratory, has no thoughts of intervening, he would rather run away from the cruelty than challenge it. His practical knowledge is almost non-existent and when he is called upon to show courage or take action he always demurs. When he returns to civilisation he becomes again "the man alone," who would rather be with his books and papers than mix with other people. Doctor Moreau is an obsessional scientist whose moral code one might think is typical of such a man. Montgomery is a born follower, under the spell of the Doctor, but who has some sympathies with the beast-men, but takes solace in his alcoholism.Other themes that might easily be read into the novel are colonialism and religion, but care should be taken not to read to much from our 21st century perspective. As is usual with H G Wells there is much going on; I sometimes get the feeling that so many questions about the human condition are raised that it would take a much longer novel than this to deal with them all, however all power to Well's elbow for raising them here in a novel that is both original and looks forward to realisable horrors that would take place in the century following the novels publication. Nothing should get in the way of the fact that this horror story is genuinely creepy, certainly horrible, superbly well paced and reads like an adventure story. A great read 4.5 stars.

[laurochka-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a clever and disturbing story. I found it reminiscent of Lord of the Flies but almost in reverse. The description of the hybrid beast-men is graphic enough to be unpleasant, yet the creatures still retain enough humanity to be sympathetic. A thought provoking read.

[buffalogr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A powerful novel in it's day (1896) and still great fantasy/sci-fi...even if the science is a bit dated, it's still fun. On an island in the Pacific Ocean, the evil Moreau conducts grizzly experiments while the able assistant drinks himself into oblivion and the newcomer watches this queer drama. This would make a great movie---wait, there have been five made of this plot/theme. I'll go find one and watch it.

[dulac3_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

2 - 2.5 stars. Not a bad book by any means, but perhaps the fact that I knew the basic story and ideas that would be presented caused it to have less impact for me. Wells was laying the ground work for what would become the basic ideas and concerns of the science fiction genre in his ouvre, but this does mean that coming to it "after the fact" can make the book seem predictable even though he's generally the first person to have done it.
We have the story of a shipwrecked man rescued from drowning only to be taken to a perhaps worse fate: a year on the strange island of Doctor Moreau where he comes face-to-face with the surgically altered horrors of the eponymous doctor. I was surprised to see that the society of beast men was more or less a creation of these creatures themselves and that Moreau had little interest in them after his experiemnts on them were complete as he was obsessed with moving forward in his search for the ultimate "plasticity of the flesh" and seemed to view each completed experiment as at least a partial failure on this road. The movies I have seen made it seem more like Moreau was purposely building a slave race to rule over, so the difference was interesting.
Overall though, while I readily concede that this book is a foundational classic in the genre, I just wasn't very captivated with the story overall.

[rsplenda477 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

H. G. Wells presents a wonderful science fiction novel that dives straight into what it means to be a human being. We are a highly evolved species, but at our core, we are bloodthirsty animals as well. This is definitely one of the greatest science fiction novels of all-time, and can also serve as a great study about the human condition.

[nmele_4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Before I read this short novel, my sense of the story was formed by the 1977 movie which didn't do much for me. The original is an oddly-dated, oddly-relevant exploration of bioethics disguised as an adventure tale.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I vaguely knew what this book was about and I knew I wouldn't really care for it so I avoided reading it for a long time. However, the audiobook was available from my library as a free download and it was on the 1001 list so I decided to give it a try.A survivor of a ship wreck, Edward Prendrick, is picked up by a ship which is returning with supplies to the Island of Doctor Moreau. On board is Dr. Montgomery who assists Moreau and he restores Prendrick to consciousness. When the ship reaches the island the captain refuses to take Prendrick any further so he is forced on Moreau and Montgomery. Prendrick learns that Moreau creates human animal hybrids by performing vivisection (i.e. surgery while the animal is conscious) on various animals. Prendrick is sickened by this but, given his circumstances, he is unable to interfere. He wonders if he will ever leave the island or will he go insane as Moreau and Montgomery seem to have done.Very disturbing subject matter. I suppose Wells meant it to be as antivivisectionism was quite a movement in the late 1800s.

[p_s_patrick · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a harrowing memoir of a castaway's time on a small island off South America, inhabited by a mad scientist and his creations. Inspired in part I would guess by Frankenstein, it raises some of the same questions as to the ethics of experimentation, and the philosophical notion of personhood, though in this case on the boundary between the human and the animal, as opposed to the living and the dead.In its turn, it must have been an inspiration for Jurassic Park in some of its peripheral details, though again, that raises a different set of ethical questions and doesn't tread into the territory of the man-beasts of Dr Moreau. Though the plausibility of the science aspect of this novel suffers slightly from it being written quite a while ago, it is quite possible to see how similar ends could be brought about in the future with the wacky misuse of genetic engineering.I really enjoyed this novel, and despite it being relatively short (160 pages), it is complete in its plot and makes for a page-turning read. A really good introduction to H G Wells, and a clever and exciting novel, though some people will find it too creepy to enjoy.

[bayardus-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The first H.G. Wells book to explore the work of a scientist more concerned with if he can do something than if he should. What most intrigued me about this book was that at one point it gets downright nightmarish. Warped creatures with warped minds chant the mantra "are we not men?" in a grotesque parody of human civilization. This was by far the most affecting passage of the book, the rest of it was rather standard early science fiction. There isn't any real climax, as the key event happens out of the narrator's view, and the story just ends after an escape that seems as though it could have happened far earlier. H.G. Wells here presents an interesting idea most notable because of its bizarre nature, but his pacing leaves something to be desired.

[anitatally · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

weird but well-written

[isabelx_21 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"You cannot imagine the strange colourless delight of these intellectual desires. The thing before you is no longer an animal, a fellow-creature, but a problem."Edward Prendrick is rescued after being shipwrecked, but unfortunately gets on the captain's bad side and abandoned on a remote island where Doctor Moreau and his assistant Montgomery conduct their experiments away from the disapproval of the scientific establishment.The dated style stopped me from empathising with any of the characters and only the screams of the leopard on the operating table drew me in towards them. I think I have read at least one story based on The Island of Doctor Moreau, and they did a much better job of getting the readers to empathise.

[themulhern · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first book I'm certain I've read by H.G. Wells. His writing is not exceptional. But when I had done with the book I had much the same feeling as when I have awoken from a very bad dream. It is a hard book to get out of your head, but I'm not really sure what it is about.

[stbalbach_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I could rate this anywhere between 2 and 5 stars. Certainly daring for its day, but was it more daring than Stevenson's Hyde decades earlier or Frankenstein a century before? The idea of a mad scientist doing experiments on an island is now a standard trope but was this idea new in 1896? -- if so, that idea alone would make it a classic. The notion of merging biological creatures is still cutting edge when glowing rabbits are created from jelly fish cells. The plot does have problems, if the brutes are not made from humans why do they appear human-like? One suspects Wells might have written a different book and changed it later to suit censors who found it too creep.. or done on purpose to play with the reader's fears.

[csweder · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I decided that I wanted to read this book after reading the crappy young-adult knockoff Dr. Franklin's Island earlier this year. And, as far as knock-offs go...really all Dr. Franklin did was update the technology and terminology.

I'm not sure how to describe this book other than to say, I believe that if I lived during the time it was written...I would have found it super scary. That being said, I would still say this was a good book...not quite a GREAT book, but good. :)

[la2bkk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As a fan of most of Wells true science fiction works, as opposed to his socialist commentaries, I believe this is his finest effort. The basic story line is a true classic, and the work flows seamlessly throughout. Wells style is descriptive yet not burdened with excess imagery. He paints a vivid picture of the sometimes gruesome adventures of the protagonist and builds suspense throughout. A must read.

[sturlington_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't think this is Wells' best book, although perhaps if the plot had been a surprise to me instead of already familiar, I might have rated it higher. Still, Wells is a compelling writer always, and I admire his straightforward style from a time when many writers seemed to tie themselves in knots just to get out a sentence. Wells feels more "modern" because of that. This one is a bit more grotesque than the others of Wells' novels I have read, although still not as scary as War of the Worlds. Once again, Wells proves himself an originator of tropes that now seem like cliches: mad scientist on an isolated island, conducting extreme experiments just because he can. The story does have its weaknesses. For being in the title, Moreau could have been a more well-rounded character, and it might have been more exciting if he had not died off-screen. This might be dismissed as mere pulp fiction, but Wells' writing is smarter than that. Here are two examples where it rises above: the genuinely creepy scene with Pendrick sitting in the dark among the manimals, all chanting, "Are we not men?" And the end, where Pendrick, returned to civilization, looks at the people all around him and can't help but seeing the beasts hidden within."Read" as an audiobook (2015).

[prozacstan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was my first H.G. Wells book. What a brilliant writer!!! He did an excellent job of making me feel as though I was in the story running alongside the main character. I could feel the tension. I downloaded several more of his books for my Kindle!

[moriquen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was more or less as I expected it to be. It was gripping and I can see how it would have stirred some emotions in its day. But I'm also (just like amcamp mentioned) not able to think that this might ever happen. Not that humankind could not be so savage, I believe that there are those who might be as savage as Moreau and Montgomery. The science of the book just felt really wrong. (And I am by no means a scientist.) However my heart went out to the poor Brutes who were thrust into a life they could never understand even if they tried their hardest to live according to the Law!

[rbeffa_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When I was a lad I found many scientific romances such as "The Island of Dr. Moreau" rather interesting and enchanting. All these years later, reading Moreau, now I find the storytelling manner rather naive even if it still entertains quite a bit. The story didn't really begin to engage me until perhaps a quarter of the way through, or more, and then I became much more caught up in the story. This isn't a bad book by any means, it just isn't the sort of thing that entertains a middle-aged me like it would have a 12 year old me. There are, however, some interesting adult issues to consider when reading this book, regarding the morality of man and scientific research. This is a cautionary tale with rather timeless issues.

[trilliams · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What if we're all just man-beasts?

[brakketh-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The use of vivisection (experimentation on live animals) to create animal-human hybrids and the consequence of this. Not my favourite Wells. Book looks at our ability to create our own destruction and the inevitable degeneration of 'beasts' when not supervised by white men.

[kaethe_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really don't know why I keep thinking that Wells' stories aren't any good. Before much reading time had passed I was talking to the Spouse about how much more plausible and realistic the story was than I thought it was going to be. And also, his structure is good, how he brings the reader in, how information is revealed, how our narrator changes his opinion as he understands more. The story never went where I expected it to, either.

Who anticipates being surprised by a hundred year old story that's been adapted to film I don't know how many times? An interesting read, entertaining, but also, one that doesn't raise issues and try to pass off easy answers.

Personal copy.

[lamotamant · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In it's entirety, The Island of Dr. Moreau definitely kept my interest. But I don't think I would have rated it as highly as I have if it weren't for the last chapter (CH. 22: The Man Alone). I just fell for how aptly Wells was able to capture the results of Prendick's "adventure." Also, the very basis for the story, is infinitely intriguing. What really makes these 'beasts' monsters? The experiments, the pain, or the simple fact of the yoke of humanity being cast upon them? And, depending on your perspective, who is the real monster? The animalistic traits of the creations or the person trying so grotesquely to suppress/change them? As we see with Prendick, it's a bit more relative in a moment of human peril than most of us would tend to think. His monsters are formed by what's unknown to what seems the most dangerous at present. But the idea of monsters isn't extinguished in the escaping, they simply live on in new ways.