The Island of Dr. Moreau

Herbert George Wells

Jan 1896 · Garden City Publishing Company

About this ebook

Edward Prendick, a young naturalist, is shipwrecked on the Pacific island where Doctor Moreau, once-famous vivisector, is "humanizing" animals. Strange newly-moulded creatures inhabit the island and some have been made into Beast Men, able to think and speak. Moreau, his drunken assistant Montgomery and Prendick are the only true humans - their greatest fear that one day the Beast Men will taste blood ...

Ratings and reviews

The Island of Doctor Moreau is classic sci-fi, of course, and I don't really know why it's taken me so long to read it. Didn't love it as much as War of the Worlds or The Time Machine, but it was great fun - lots of excitement and surprises, and very creepy. Just a bit racist, of course, but you have to expect that sort of thing from 19th Century adventure tales, I suppose. Also, the world had been recently shaken by Darwin's writings and the theory of evolution - everyone was worried about the "degeneration" of the human race; this book shows that influence, and weaves it into a great story.

I really enjoyed the creepiness of this book and the underlying religious commentary makes it that much darker. It was exciting all the way through and I found it difficult to put it down. Would definitely recommend it to anybody looking for something a little eerie and with a bit of an early 20th century edge.

I really liked this book. It opens to the reader the possibilities of science as well as the caveats which should be faced before engaging in ethically questionable practices. Like mentioned in Jurassic Park, just because we can do something, doesn't necessarily mean that we should.

About the author

H. G. Wells was born in Bromley, England on September 21, 1866. After a limited education, he was apprenticed to a draper, but soon found he wanted something more out of life. He read widely and got a position as a student assistant in a secondary school, eventually winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Science in South Kensington, where he studied biology. He graduated from London University in 1888 and became a science teacher. He also wrote for magazines. When his stories began to sell, he left teaching to write full time. He became an author best known for science fiction novels and comic novels. His science fiction novels include The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Wonderful Visit, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon, and The Food of the Gods. His comic novels include Love and Mr. Lewisham, Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul, The History of Mr. Polly, and Tono-Bungay. He also wrote several short story collections including The Stolen Bacillus, The Plattner Story, and Tales of Space and Time. He died on August 13, 1946 at the age of 79.