The Island of Dr. Moreau

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More About This Book

Overview

This is a unique edition of Moreau. The text of the first (American) printed version (1896), with appended footnotes recording all variants up to 1924 and annotations of whatever strictly needs such, takes up little more than a third of its pages. Seven appendices provide the only available transcription of Wells’s first draft, details of the emendations that he made before 1900 and reportedly intended to incorporate in a future edition of the book, accounts of six film versions and one stage adaptation of Moreau, critical synopses of Moreau's literary "children," etc. Preceding all this are almost 50pp. on Wells's life and thoughts, with particular reference to Moreau.

Editorial Reviews

Dale Kramer
This is a useful book for its placing the novel against its background of late-Victorian intellectual issues.
—English Literature in Transition
Darren Harris-Fain
Philmus's variorum edition of The Island of Doctor Moreau is a shining example of the quality of work that can and should be done in the [science-fiction] field.
—Extrapolation
More Reviews (2) Fewer Reviews
David Seed
[T]his edition ... [leaves] the reader well placed to observe Wells's changing conception of his work and particularly to see how the novel grows out of the Gothic tradition. [I]t is important to stress what a wealth of materials is assembled in this volume.
—Udolpho
John Clute
It is hard to think of a more qualified person to give us, at long last, a version of an H. G. Wells novel which could be trusted... Professor Philmus's edition is extraordinarily full.
—Interzone

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780553214321
  • Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 5/28/1994
  • Format: Mass Market Paperback
  • Edition description: Reprint
  • Pages: 160
  • Sales rank: 72,902
  • Product dimensions: 4.17 (w) x 6.88 (h) x 0.33 (d)

Meet the Author

H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley, Kent, England, on September 21, 1866. His father was a professional cricketer and sometime shopkeeper, his mother a former lady’s maid. Although "Bertie" left school at fourteen to become a draper’s apprentice (a life he detested), he later won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science in London, where he studied with the famous Thomas Henry Huxley. He began to sell articles and short stories regularly in 1893. In 1895, his immediately successful novel rescued him from a life of penury on a schoolteacher’s salary. His other "scientific romances"—The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), The First Men in the Moon (1901), and The War in the Air (1908)—won him distinction as the father of science fiction.

Henry James saw in Wells the most gifted writer of the age, but Wells, having coined the phrase "the war that will end war" to describe World War I, became increasingly disillusioned and focused his attention on educating mankind with his bestselling Outline of History (1920) and his later utopian works. Living until 1946, Wells witnessed a world more terrible than any of his imaginative visions, and he bitterly observed: "Reality has taken a leaf from my book and set itself to supercede me."

Biography

Social philosopher, utopian, novelist, and "father" of science fiction and science fantasy, Herbert George Wells was born on September 21, 1866, in Bromley, Kent. His father was a poor businessman, and young Bertie's mother had to work as a lady's maid. Living "below stairs" with his mother at an estate called Uppark, Bertie would sneak into the grand library to read Plato, Swift, and Voltaire, authors who deeply influenced his later works. He shoed literary and artistic talent in his early stories and paintings, but the family had limited means, and when he was fourteen years old, Bertie was sent as an apprentice to a dealer in cloth and dry goods, work he disliked.

He held jobs in other trades before winning a scholarship to study biology at the Normal School of Science in London. The eminent biologist T. H. Huxley, a friend and proponent of Darwin, was his teacher; about him Wells later said, "I believed then he was the greatest man I was ever likely to meet." Under Huxley's influence, Wells learned the science that would inspire many of his creative works and cultivated the skepticism about the likelihood of human progress that would infuse his writing.

Teaching, textbook writing, and journalism occupied Wells until 1895, when he made his literary debut with the now-legendary novel The Time Machine, which was followed before the end of the century by The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds, books that established him as a major writer. Fiercely critical of Victorian mores, he published voluminously, in fiction and nonfiction, on the subject of politics and social philosophy. Biological evolution does not ensure moral progress, as Wells would repeat throughout his life, during which he witnessed two world wars and the debasement of science for military and political ends.

In addition to social commentary presented in the guise of science fiction, Wells authored comic novels like Love and Mrs. Lewisham, Kipps, and The History of Mister Polly that are Dickensian in their scope and feeling, and a feminist novel, Ann Veronica. He wrote specific social commentary in The New Machiavelli, an attack on the socialist Fabian Society, which he had joined and then rejected, and literary parody (of Henry James) in Boon. He wrote textbooks of biology, and his massive The Outline of History was a major international bestseller.

By the time Wells reached middle age, he was admired around the world, and he used his fame to promote his utopian vision, warning that the future promised "Knowledge or extinction." He met with such preeminent political figures as Lenin, Roosevelt, and Stalin, and continued to publish, travel, and educate during his final years. Herbert George Wells died in London on August 13, 1946.

Author biography from the Barnes & Noble Classics edition of The War of the Worlds.

Good To Know

In 1891, Wells married his cousin Isabel. However, he eventually left her for one of his brightest students, Amy Catherine, whom he married in 1895.

Wells was once interviewed on the radio by an extremely nervous Orson Welles. The two are unrelated, of course.

Many of Wells's novels became film adaptations, including The Island of Dr. Moreau, filmed in 1996 by Richard Stanley and John Frankenheimer, and The Time Machine, filmed in 2002 by Wells's great-grandson, Simon Wells.

    1. Also Known As:
      Herbert George Wells (full name)
    1. Date of Birth:
      September 21, 1866
    2. Place of Birth:
      Bromley, Kent, England
    1. Date of Death:
      August 13, 1946
    2. Place of Death:
      London, England

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1
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 lucky for us he did not reach us, and I might almost say luckily for himself; for we had only a small breaker 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 red 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.

Table of Contents

1 In the Dinghy of the Lady Vain 1
2 The Man who was going Nowhere 5
3 The Strange Face 9
4 At the Schooner's Rail 17
5 The Landing on the Island 21
6 The Evil-looking Boatmen 27
7 The Locked Door 33
8 The Crying of the Puma 39
9 The Thing in the Forest 43
10 The Crying of the Man 55
11 The Hunting of the Man 61
12 The Sayers of the Law 69
13 A Parley 79
14 Doctor Moreau Explains 85
15 Concerning the Beast Folk 99
16 How the Beast Folk tasted Blood 107
17 A Catastrophe 123
18 The Finding of Moreau 129
19 Montgomery's "Bank Holiday" 135
20 Alone with the Beast Folk 145
21 The Reversion of the Beast Folk 153
22 The Man Alone 167

Reading Group Guide

1. At the time The Island of Dr. Moreau was published, Wells had gained success with The Time Machine. However, critics felt the plot of Dr. Moreau was just as unbelievable as that of The Time Machine. While time travel is, and always was, pure science fiction, the late 1800s did see many medical breakthroughs. Why would it be so hard for Wells’s audience to believe in biological engineering?

2. In the Foreword, Peter Straub speaks of the text being “at war with itself, ” with the result that the narrative is tense and multi-layered. Do you agree with this assessment?

3. Notice the many stylesof language throughout the novel: Prendick’s continual misreading of sounds and explanations, the Beast Folk’s slurring speech, Moreau’s bumbling excuse for his experiments, and so on. How does Wells use these variations in language? Is his use of variations a comment on society or merely a literary device to further the plot?

4. Consider the strange litany the Beast Folk recite in chapter 12. What is Wells saying about religion? Is this strange religion positive or negative, and if positive, whom does it benefit -- the creatures or their master?

5. Look at the three men in the novel. Compare Prendick’s mannerisms with those of Montgomery and Moreau throughout the book. What do each man's mannerisms say about him? Do the mannerisms help or hinder each man throughout the action?

6. Wells was an educated man and studied under the famous scientist T. H. Huxley. Both men fully supported Darwin’s theory of evolution. Why, then, did Wells write a novel that seems to view science, and scientificexperimentation, as a threat to society?

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3.5
( 22 )

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 31 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted May 19, 2004

    ANOTHER CLASSIC SCI-FI BOOK FOR ALL TO READ

    I thought the Island of Dr. Moreau was an excellent book to read. It was very imaginative and interesting. I would recommend for anyone to read this H.G. Wells classic but only if you like sci-fi. Otherwise it is not the book for you.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 13, 2011

    Big words and boring

    Originally, I was going to read "The War of the Worlds" by the same author, but my school library was all out of copies. So I went to the WEL shelves and chose the first H.G. Wells book I laid my eyes on. When my mom first saw that I was reading this book she laughed out loud and told me that the movie wasn't any good. So I started this book expecting to find some poorly written story that H.G. Wells wrote before he perfected his writing skill and wrote "The War of the Worlds." That is still pretty much how I feel. It wasn't poorly written in the sense that it described what was happening very thoroughly,I just couldn't understand all of it. It used words like "vivisection" and "propitiatory" that I could only guess the meanings of and sometimes I had to look up in the dictionary. However, to a more intelligent person with a larger vocabulary this would be a fun, little read. That is if that intelligent person doesn't mind a poorly written plot. Because for me, the plot was very predictable, un-original and a little boring. Predictable in the sense that it followed the "get stranded, find a problem, solve the problem, get rescued" type of outline really closely. Un-original in that I have heard of many stories that start with a shipwreck, take place on a mysterious island, and then the characters are eventually saved. Boring in that there were long stretches of reading to do between major scenes, mostly of Prendick (the main character) thinking about the island. For example, the book could have actually ended about 30 pages before it did, and in those 30 pages it just dragged on until something finally happened. This made for a very slow read, which I did not like. Several times I caught myself falling asleep becasue I was so bored. The characters, however, were a little interesting, and very different. Montgomery is a drunken assistant who is all brawn and almost no brains. Edward Prendick is all brains and no brawn and makes every situation seem worse than it really is. Dr. Moreau is a crazy mad scientist who (I think) desperately needs to drop his obsession for torturing animals, which, by the way, is really shocking. I felt pretty disturbed when Dr. Moreau explained his scientific studies, when animal screames were heard from within the labratory, or when gruesome details of hideous animals were described. When I finally finished the book, I felt really nervous and insecure. The bottom line is that if you have a big vocabulary, like island mysteries and think you can handle a little more horror than usual, try this book out. It will definately make you wonder if the scientific experiments in the book are actually possible. But if you are the type of person that loves animals, has a smaller vocabulary, or just plain does not like horror, you don't need to waste your time with this book. All it will do is make you cry, confuse you, or make you way too scared to go anywhere without someone else with you.

    2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 2, 2000

    Very enjoyable

    A very nice effort by H.G. Wells. This is a quick read that would be ideal for boys ages 13 and up. The tale is about Dr. Moreau, a scientist, who has been forced out of England for his strange experiments. His experiments consist of taking animals and through surgical processes giving them human like intelligence and form. However, his creations are imperfect and it is these imperfections that help cause his downfall. Fast paced and full of action. Also, on a deeper level it makes you think if there are places science should not travel. Moreau played God. Are we doing the same today with cloning, for example? These connections make the book very current.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted June 15, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    A Transforming Experience

    I knew the high level concept of this book from allusions in other stories and movies, but I'd never read the original novel. It was a bit different from what I expected.

    The writing style is very accessible and fluid while also being jam-packed with very vivid and detailed descriptions as well as some in-depth scientific and moralistic discussions. The first few pages were a little slow, but the rest of the book, except for a paragraph here and there, flew by and kept me very hooked.

    The story is presented as a written report from the point of view of a narrator who finds himself stranded on the island for a time after some disasters at sea. The narrator has some scientific background which lends to very analytical and in-depth commentary.

    Without adding any real spoilers, the summary is this: Doctor Moreau, after being chased out of London for his practices, is living on an island in the pacific conducting outrageous experiments. Our narrator, Pendrick, finds the island populated with creatures that are neither completely human nor completely bestial...they are aberrations....creatures partially human and partially beasts....the face of a man with almost snout-like nose and lips, pointed hairy ears, elongated torso and shorter than normal legs, etc., etc., etc. The horrors and grotesque nature of the experiments are explored in depth and naturally progress to some rather disturbing conclusions.

    I rather enjoyed the story and found myself immersed in the plot and the concepts. My only real complaint by the end of the book was that it all ended too quickly. I would have loved another 50 or 100 pages. Still, it is a tightly woven tale with a lot of meet in it to leave you thinking.

    Wells presents a thoughtful narrative addressing some of the social concerns of his day through this science-fiction story. At that point in history (late 1800s), this was all seen as fiction but based on the fears people had of experiments in the medical community. It's even more potent now, since some 30-50 years after the book, the Nazis engaged in similar "scientific" experimentation during the Holocaust (not with the same results, but with a similar type of horror upon society).

    I really liked the way the book finished up. In the last few pages, we find our narrator trying to sort through everything he's witnessed and come to terms with it. I really enjoyed the way Wells shows him trying to recognize "humanity" in people and distinguish between the "human" and the "animal."

    A great read.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted April 21, 2010

    more from this reviewer

    The Island of Dr. Moreau

    Undoubtedly, H.G. Wells was a man who was years ahead of his time. Like Huxley, he seems to have anticipated the issues surrounding genetic manipulation years before such a thing was even a topic. As a book, The Island of Dr. Moreau reads like a slightly less stuffy gothic horror novel. While the characters may seem slightly cookie cutter for the genre (especially the doctor and the narrator) they all have slight quirks that set them apart from the normal lot. Each chapter is only about seven pages long and the story reads quickly. I can see how a really neat movie could be made from this, but nobody has succeeded yet (the version with Brando and Kilmer...ouch). For someone looking for a good 'abandoned on an island' type story, this is a really good one.

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  • Posted April 8, 2010

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    A Favorite

    This book was incredibly exciting the whole way through. It is a fairly short story, but packed with so much adventure. It seemed like there was never a dull moment and the writing was so vivid and thrilling!
    The whole idea/theme of the book is a bit on the scary side, but it is not too gorey or terrifying, so I still enjoyed it and didn't have nightmares. This was my first book of HG Wells and I cannot wait to read another one of his novels now. Just from reading this one book, he may prove to be one of my new favorite writers. What a clever/genius storyteller!

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  • Posted April 16, 2009

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    I Also Recommend:

    9780440237815

    Interesting Take On Genetic Engineering

    A very interesting take on genetic engineering. A pretty good read overall. I reccomend this short book to all.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 1, 2004

    This book is awful.

    It consists of lots of naturalist and religionist hodge-podge and relates the fear of such terrible things as vivisection and grafting which at the turn of the century (when Wells was writing) were viewed as unacceptable, but are now better tolerated and uncommon, respectively. (A healthy nodding session for technophobians everywhere.)

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 3, 2002

    Science Fiction That Lives as Scientific Moralizing

    Pity the poor science fiction writer. She or he builds on the scientific knowledge of the day to extrapolate into the future . . . only to be undermined by shifts in scientific understanding. As a result, the careful development of science fiction becomes irrelevant in light of more advanced knowledge. Those writers who do this best, like H.G. Wells, are able to capture some more important theme that remains compelling . . . and the modern reader doesn¿t mind all of the incorrect science in the book. The Island of Dr. Moreau is a very thoughtful consideration of what a human is . . . and isn¿t. This question is considered at the level of physiology, emotions, thinking, psychology, and behavior. If that were not enough, H.G. Wells was among the first to raise the important question of what the limits should be of animal experimentation. As I read this novel, I was reminded of Dr. Jane Goodall¿s writing about the conditions of chimpanzees in some scientific laboratories. At its most ethereal level, H.G. Wells also focuses our attention on what the foundations of human happiness are. The inhumanity that recurs in the book may seem hard to take. Be patient. What may upset you in the beginning turns out to have importance in developing the book¿s major ideas and plot. Those who are upset by reading about violence or cruelty should probably think twice before reading this book. I found myself musing about why English authors in the 19th century were so fond of putting their stories onto uncharted or unfrequented South Sea islands. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had no problem putting on a full scheme of horrors into London for Sherlock Holmes to deal with. Why were others reluctant to do the same? Donald Mitchell, co-author of The 2,000 Percent Solution and The Irresistible Growth Enterprise

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 4, 2000

    The book of adventure

    The novel that I read was The Island of Dr. Moreau and let me tell you that if you read this book, wear a seatbelt because your going to be on the edge of your seat! This juicy novel is an excellent story of adventure, treachery and action-filled exciting thrills. My favorite thing in the book was how well they explained what was going on, and I like books like that. I would say that The Island of Dr. Moreau is one of the best books I've ever read. That's why I recommend you read it.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 14, 2000

    Switch's Review

    This is a must read book. If you are into sci-fi and like books that keep you on the edge, read the Island of Dr. Moreau. You won't want to put this down until you finish.

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    Posted January 30, 2012

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