The Island of Dr. Moreau

Too well known to need a synopsis, but I did want to add one note to the reviews: I know Moreau is supposed to be the villain, but I cannot help but think that H.G.Wells anticipated Transhumanism when he had Moreau state: “I wanted—it was the one thing I wanted—to find out the extreme limit of plasticity in a living shape.”

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".

'What could it all mean? A locked enclosure on a lonely island, a notorious vivisector, and these crippled and distorted men?' This is the actual plot without any details. The details make this a very disturbing story. I forgot just how disturbing.
It is interesting how this was an adventure when I first read it. Not a happy one, but still an adventure before anything else. Now, it is a horror story.

However you choose to see it, it will still be a horrifying account of Prendick's stay on the island.
The strongest and, of course, the most disturbing part of the story is Moreau's explanation of his work. The fact that he talks about it as if pain and suffering don't matter, makes it even worse. Combine that with the sounds of a tortured animal day after day and you'll get it. 'This time I will burn out all the animal.' I felt sorry for most of his subjects, but there is something simply disgusting about pigs and hyenas that sickened me every time they appeared.

Another one for my SF/F class. I'm not sure what I'm going to write about for this one: Wells wrote with such clarity that it feels like everything is completely obvious. I don't find his work the most gripping stuff around, but I do enjoy reading it -- partly because of that sense of clarity: he knows exactly what he wants to say, and says it.There is something dispassionate about all his work, to me, but I can appreciate his ideas.

classic story. LOVED the performance. not enough words to publish review.

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.

Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Eugenics, vivisection and degeneration of man. Anyone studying this topic should read it.

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.

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called "classics," then write reports on whether or not they deserve the labelBook #16: The Island of Dr Moreau, by HG Wells (1896)The story in a nutshell:Along with French author Jules Verne, the British HG Wells is considered one of the co-founders of the "science-fiction" genre*, in which the latest advances in that field are elegantly enfolded into thrilling or sometimes philosophical fictional narratives. (So in other words, think of him much more as the spiritual godfather of Michael Crichton than Isaac Asimov.) And indeed, his early-career masterpiece The Island of Dr Moreau contains not a single fantastical element at all, but is rather a chilling extrapolation of what was happening at the time in the real world of medicine, starting as these Victorian novels often do with a shipwreck in the middle of an ocean, and of our everyman hero (a gentleman named Prendick) getting picked up by a mysterious ship out in the South Seas somewhere. Taken back to the remote tropical island where his rescuers are heading, he is there introduced to our eponymous doctor, a creepy former London surgeon who was disbarred from his profession for shady ethical practices.And sure enough, it's no coincidence that Moreau happens to be on this remote island, and is having his nutso alcoholic nihilist assistant run around the various nearby islands and acquire as many exotic animals as possible; turns out that he has continued his formerly banned research here, a truly horrific series of experiments that has him seeing if he can somehow turn an animal into a fully rational human, through an elaborate series of delicate surgeries and psychological conditioning. Needless to say, he hasn't exactly succeeded yet, leaving the three humans on an island full of snarling, retarded man-beasts; to protect themselves, Moreau and the assistant have established among the beasts what they call "The Law," a combination of rational rules and religious dogma that keep the human/animal hybrids just barely civilized and not in a constant state of violent bloodlust. The majority of the book, then, concerns Prendick's time on the island and the ways that this delicate peace of course starts quickly falling apart; I'll leave the actual plotline itself as unspoken as possible, in that this 112-year-old story is actually still thrillingly surprising.The argument for it being a classic:Like many of the books reviewed here as part of the CCLaP 100, there is a strong argument for The Island of Dr Moreau being a classic based on its historical, trailblazing aspects; it's one of a handful of books, after all, to singlehandedly kick off the entire genre of science-fiction (now with millions of fans and which generates billions of dollars a year in revenue), not to mention such speculative tech writers as the aforementioned Crichton, Tom Clancey and more. But on top of this, though, this particular book is important too because it's held up so well over the decades, certainly much better than almost all of its Victorian fantastical counterparts; as its many fans will tell you, it still has the power to shock and disturb, and deals with issues like genetic engineering and the ethical role of doctors that are surprisingly relevant to this day. If you're going to pick any of the pseudo-science-babble books of the late 1800s to designate as a must-read, fans say, best to pick a book like this, not only as historically relevant as the others but simply a much more entertaining modern read.The argument against:A weak argument today at best; like many other Victorian fantastical tales, I suppose you can argue that Dr Moreau is too flippant and garish a tale, too focused on pleasing a lurid, mainstream crowd. But then that gets us into the whole subject of whether the forefathers of the various modern artistic genres out there even deserve to be recognized as the authors of "classics," people such as Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne and the aforementioned Jules Verne; and I think most intelligent people at this point in history would say that these are indeed authors worthy of "classic" status, making this not really much of an argument at all.My verdict:Ah, how nice to again come across a book whose "classic" status seems to not be questioned by very many people at all; it happens so rarely, after all, much more rarely than you would think for a series of book reviews all centered around so-called classics. And indeed, it was a sincere and pleasant surprise to read Dr Moreau for the first time (I haven't even seen any of the movie versions) and discover just how legitimately scary and gross and great it was to modern eyes, after a year now of such badly dated 1800s prose like is found in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (to mention one infamous example). Now that I've sampled both, I can definitively state that Wells was a much better writer than Verne, and that his titles can hold up in a canon list without necessarily the Roger-Marin-style asterisk that so many other Victorian genre authors need. That said, please be aware that this is a surprisingly disgusting book, one that deals with such then-current hot topics as vivisection (or the act of cutting open animals while still alive, in order to figure out how their insides work); but then again, it also gets you thinking about all kinds of interesting ethical questions still relevant to current society, like whether the animalistic part of our brains can ever be truly tamed and controlled (another hot topic among Victorians), and if the torture and slaughter of animals can ever be a morally justifiable action. It not only gets an enthusiastic yes from me today, but I can even declare it better than a lot of the contemporary genre novels I've read in the last year. Highly recommended.Is it a classic? Oh my, yes*And by the way, it's no surprise that Wells ended up as one of the founders of science-fiction; he was actually a dual student of biology and sociology at university, who pursued not only creative writing as a lucrative hobby at the same time but also the visual arts as well. In fact, Wells was much, much more well-known when alive as a brilliant political analyst, socialist activist, and a forefather of "futurism:" among other accomplishments, in the 1910s he predicted the outbreak of World War I, in the '20s predicted that the war's destruction would pave the way for the rise of fascism, in the '30s predicted that fascism would culminate in another world war right around 1940, and in the '40s called for the creation of what we now know as Wikipedia (which he called the "World Brain"). Oh yeah, and he was a founding member of both the League of Nations and the United Nations, and incidentally was the inventor of the world's very first miniature war-game ("Little Wars," in 1913). What a surprisingly fascinating guy!

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).

Some short novels are really just extended short stories and could have been wrapped up in half the pages. THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU could easily have been much longer. It is a tight little novel—every moment is devoted to tipping the scales, finding where we are on the line of humanity. At the very start our main character is dehumanized by being lost at sea…long enough to have abandoned reason. When found, he is nursed back to health by someone who is constantly losing his reason to alcohol. Even Dr. Moreau is never as savage as when imparting science to his creations. The narrator Prendick says toward the end of the novel, “An animal may be ferocious and cunning enough, but it takes a real man to tell a lie.” This includes of course lying to oneself—Moreau has made this into an art form. The Man-Beasts that Moreau creates are not static either—there is a constant tug and pull between animal and man. They are created during an act of brutality and it is largely the fear of it’s return that keeps them human. Once that fear is gone, they revert to a form of their animal selves. Not a favorable critique of humanity. There is a point where Prendick (what can that name possibly mean?) drifts into a stasis with the Man-Beasts—for some weeks there is relative peace on the island. But any form of man will eventually fail to keep the peace. Much is written about H G Wells seeing the future—here forecasting genetic engineering. But really he was just a keen observer of his own times—extrapolating off the world around him. He saw the great acceleration of change at the end of the 19th century and realized it would not slow down. In the midst of a world becoming more mechanical, Wells writes here to ponder just what it is to be human. He discovers just how intangible that can be and how quickly it can elude us.

The concept of melding humans and animals through physical surgery, incuding organ transplants, has given way to genetic engineering now, but at the time it probably looked like a feasible notion, if you were insane enough to want to do it, and Dr. Moreau was. This was the second major work of fiction by Wells.The Introduction by "Charles Edward Prendick" is a fictional framing device common in the 19th Century.Style It was a slap-bang, horror-filled, mad-scientist hit when published, but seems over-the-top and has many plot holes now.Note: my reading dates are because of just doing a chapter a night; it can be read in a single sitting of a couple of hours.

"An animal may be ferocious and cunning enough, but it takes a real man to tell a lie."Edward Prendick, a private gentleman and naturist is shipwrecked and on rescue is taken to an island where a once eminent English vivisector, Dr. Moreau, has made his retreat and on which hideous misfits are living. Dr. Moreau was forced to leave England his experiments were exposed by the press but hidden away on his private island he is able to work in his laboratory called the House of Pain to continue his attempts to manufacture 'humanised' animals known as the the Beast People. When Moreau's experiments fails he releases them to live on the island ruling them by fear. Prendick's time on the island becomes a nightmare as he spends his time running from Moreau's experiments and uncovering the truth about the crazy doctor. First written in 1896 some 40 or so years after Darwin published the 'Origins of Man' this on the face of it appears to be a science fiction novel that deals with vivisection, a section of science that was very popular at the time of writing. However, this is H.G.Wells and things are never that straight forward.Obviously science and in particular the idea of science for science sake is central to this book as is the distinction between man and animals but much of Well's writing also deals about social inequality and this is no different. This book can be seen as a social critique where a relatively useless aristocratic protagonist (Prendrick) finds himself ill-equipped to deal with the circumstances that he finds himself in and must throw himself onto the mercy of the Beast Man. Similarly this book can be regarded as having Marxist elements and is a pretty harsh indictment on authoritarian rule, where Moreau is a dictator and the animals the underclass who eventually manage to overthrow and expel their rulers. "It is when suffering finds a voice and sets our nerves quivering that this pity comes troubling us."Another theme of this novel is religion or to put it more accurately some readers will see this as a parody of organised religion. Moreau's teaching the beasts the Law in turn leads to a deification of himself with his assistant Montgomery as one of his emissaries. Given that this book was written in excess of a hundred years ago the real genius of Well's is that it can still can be seen as relevant today. We live in an era where GM food is seen by some as the salvation of the human race and where scientists are looking at breeding cloned animals to deal with transplant shortages, similarly we live in an age where social media has led to an almost cult following of some participants. Overall, despite its brevity, this book covers a number of important themes and as such deserves to be widely read however I feel that Frankenstein explores the themes covered here far better..

Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Wells saw history as a race between education and catastrophe."

Published in 1896, the novel could be read as a cautionary tale of the consequences of science for science's sake. There is foreboding throughout - beasts! madmen! danger!

Yet there are also many layers of meaning. In the edition I read Margaret Atwood describes ten interpretations of the novel - from a social commentary on the class system of the age to a religious allegory. Don't read it before the novel, though, as there are spoilers. Wells, himself, described his book as a "science romance," a dark, sinister adventure story. It's a great book!

An amazing novel. Gripping from start to finish and it is one of the finest science fiction stories that I have come across. A great tale to read.

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.

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.

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).

For such a short book, it packs a powerful punch. Simply as a story it is fascinating enough, but it is what Wells was trying to convey, and the time in which he so boldly dared do it. The story deals with vivisection, the practice of performing operations on live animals in the name of science, but that's not all. Wells writes of a mad scientist who uses no anesthetic during the procedures, and who is creating something quite sinister in the name of science. But it is what Wells intended to convey through the storyline that made the book so controversial, and considered blasphemy among many who read it."The Island of Dr. Moreau is an exercise in youthful blasphemy. Now & then, tho I rarely admit it, the universe projects itself towards me in a hideous grimace. It grimaced that time, & I did my best to express my vision of the aimless torture in creation." ~H.G. WellsI am glad that I finally read The Island of Dr. Moreau. Beyond it's interesting history, there is so much more. It is a thought provoking story, especially today as we make advances in science that come into moral question. Also, and probably one of the most impressive things to me is just how well the story is developed and how well the characters are defined for such a short book. Mind you, it would have been so much better if it had been longer and more developed, but it's a nice little drink of classic science fiction / fantasy.

Boring and forgettable.

Summary: Mr. Prendrick is stranded on a strange island with two people – the drunken and uncaring Montgomery and the enigmatic, violent Doctor Moreau. As Prendrick begins to discover the mysteries of the island, he feels more and more danger to his life.My thoughts: Wells’ stories are so deep and thoughtful. He explores his unique belief system in a way that is inspiring and energetic. I love his allegory, I love the plot, and I love how much this book made me think.

This is one of the most terrifying classics I’ve ever read. Wells builds the tension beautifully as he unveils the island’s true monster.

Published in 1896, The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells is a classic novel of science fiction that still captures the imagination of today’s audience. It has been made into several films and has become widely known in popular culture. Combining elements of both science fiction and horror, the story is based on one of Well’s favorite themes – that reckless meddling in science results in unspeakable horrors being unleashed.The story is told by Edward Prendick, who through a series of unfortunate events arrives on a mysterious island inhabited by horrible beasts. These beasts are half animal and half human, and the horrified Prendick fears for his life and his sanity, as he learns about the strange Doctor Moreau and the experiments he is conducting. Of course the science in this book is improbable, a fact that has become more apparent as the book ages but The Island of Doctor Moreau is a quick and fairly light read with some serious undertones about the qualities that separate animals from humans. While Doctor Moreau shows Prendick that beasts can be turned into men, it is also made very clear how easy it is for men to become vicious and beast-like themselves.

Even though the science behind Moreau's animal experimentation will seem ridiculous from a 21st century perspective, Wells's 1896 horror sci-fi still has the power to terrify. We can mentally substitute the possibility of modern day gene and cloning experimentation as a current day proxy and the increased awareness and appreciation of animal rights adds an extra layer of chills to the mix.I listened to the 2011 Recorded Books/Audible Audio edition read by Simon Prebble which was very well done.

"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.

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.

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.

Pendrick landet nach einem Schiffsunglück zusammen mit seinem Retter auf einer kleinen abgeschlagenen Insel.Die Menschen dort verhalten sich seltsam und wecken in Pendrick ungeahnte Ängste. Bald erfährt er, dass ein gewisser Moreau auf der Insel arbeitet, der vor einiger Zeit schon in den britischen Medien durch biologische Experimente auffällig geworden war.Pendrick bekommt ein ihm eigens zugewiesenes Zimmer, doch hinter verschlossenen Türen bahnen sich unmenschliche Schreie ihren Weg in seinen Geist. Er flieht, doch was er dann sieht, lässt ihn den Glauben an das Gute im Menschen verlieren.H. G. Wells gilt als Begründer der modernen Science Fiction.Der Schauplatz hier: eine kleine verschlagene Insel mitten im Nirgendwo. Ein Arzt, der es sich zum Ziel gemacht hat, biologische Prozesse außer Kraft zu setzen und zu verändern. Pendrick erzählt als Überlebender diese unglaubliche Geschichte, die ihm niemand glaubt. Und doch ist er der einzige Zeuge eines Wahnsinns, der nicht nur Tiere, sondern auch Menschen leiden lässt. Er lebt in ständiger Angst vor den Wesen der Insel, versucht sie zu beherrschen, sie zu verstehen, sich anzupassen und endet schließlich wieder in der Angst vor ihrer wahren Natur.Ein wunderbarer Roman über den Größenwahn eines einzigen Menschen, der sich in seinen Experimenten ergeht und dem Moral und Anstand nichts bedeuten. Er stellt die Wissenschaft über alles. Wells ist ein großartiger Geschichtenerzähler, der den Leser mitnimmt, ihn durch die Geschichte trägt und ihn hier und dort zu einer Stellungnahme zwingt.