The Island of Dr. Moreau (Signet Classics) Mass Market Paperback – June 3, 2014

This HG Wells book is quite fascinating to read, partly because it is written so badly. Needless to say, the "science" in this science fiction is laughably wrong. The quality of the prose is somewhat amateurish. But it's an entertaining book which does have some interesting ideas. Although we can't currently transform a panther into a human by changing the genes one by one, generation by generation, to transform such an animal into a human, some people do think of transforming elephants into mammoths by adding mammoth genes gradually to make the transformation. Or in the reverse direction, one could start with a human and add all kinds of other genes to make a human partly animal, like adding fish genes to tomatoes. Maybe the message Wells wanted to communicate was that humans are not so distant from animals as some would have liked to believe at that time.It has a kind of gloomy dream-like atmosphere which creates a kind of alternative universe where surgery can effectively change the species, a bit like alchemists using chemical reactions to transform elements into each other. It's certainly suitable for light reading to help get to sleep at night. This is the kind of book I would consider giving to a teenager. At least it's more realistic than "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes".

I believe this is one of the more shocking and disturbing classic novels I have read, and I could see how this would have created a big stir and been a huge source of controversy in its time. Among other things, to me this novel taps far more into the horror genre (than the science fiction realm) in some of its grotesqueness and repulsiveness.I’m sure many are well versed with the basis of the novel. Edward Pendrick, our narrator, is saved and picked up on a boat and ultimately taken to an island. Something seems a bit unusual about some of the inhabitants, and it does not take him long to realize that a man, Dr. Moreau is participating in rather ungodly and barbaric experiments, using animals to create a human-like creature.I think one of the telling points is that Pendrick begins to see through Moreau’s awfulness and cruelty of putting the animals through his reckless endeavors:“Now they stumbled in the shackles of humanity, lived in a fear that never died, fretted by a law they could not understand; their mock-human existence, begun in an agony, was one long internal struggle, one long dread of Moreau—and for what? It was the wantonness of it that stirred me.”From a moralistic standpoint, however, I think Wells is making a case about meddling with science, with nature and technology, and how it can lead to immorality and have disastrous, chaotic results. We see this in Dr. Moreau, who is akin to a Victor Frankenstein with his God-complex in following through with his plans at all costs.Above all, this is a cautionary tale that has a disturbing, haunting lesson and will leave the reader contemplating. I have heard there are a couple of film renditions of this (“The Island of Lost Souls” (1932), “The Island of Dr. Moreau” (1977), and “The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), with the 1932 version being the closest to the novel). I might check them out.Four disturbing stars.

Prendick, the protagonist, is victim of a shipwreck. His ordeal starts there but never ends. After almost dying he is rescued by Montgomery, a sad man with secrets. In his weak state the small world of the ship is like a floating nightmare populated by doomed animals. The nightmare gets worse when he is left stranded in the island of the elusive doctor Moreau. Is like he never really gets to recover conscience or has just died and is into a hell made of creatures, an island where everything seems bound to fail. In the end (without giving spoilers of course), as it happens with any story in hell, even the horrors left us alone, without place to escape, to ourselves. I loved so much to read The Island of Doctor Moreau and I can recommend it effusively.The horrors I felt reading this novel are in part due to our modern world. Viral videos of cruelty of today toward animals around the world give body to the descriptions of yesterday of the fictional experiments in the story. I don't know if contemporary readers of Wells felt the same, maybe yes: the characters are well developed and the events are told in a masterful way that it possibly felt gory and painful for them too. What Jonathan Swift tried to (unsuccessfully) express in his "Gulliver's Travels," that idea that civilization perhaps is not that human nor civilized, Wells gets to say it in a mature way. It doesn't feel preachy or resentful, just illuminating. Suddenly myself as a reader started to be conscious of my own monstrosity, my hands with bones and blood and nails grabbing the kindle, and recalled about the mystery that still today are islands to us.About the AmazonClassics Edition this is an excellent edition. The formatting is professional, the typography is modern and both makes the experience of reading comfortable. There is the X-Ray function, which I did not use much here, as the book despite being set in an exotic geography, with exotic animals and medical and biological experimentation... actually is quite clear to read. The book is pure as the first day it was published, without introductions or studies to spoil the plot, only a short biography at the end. The only absence is the lack of the year of original publication, I don't know why. A minor detail that doesn't discourage me to recommend without reservation this edition.

It borrows from Mary Shelly's Frankenstein but expands on it and brings Darwin's evolution into the mix.Expertly written and no filler as it is a very short novel.Recommended as history lesson and heavy gothic horror novel

Um clássico da literatura da fantasia e ficção cientifica mundial! Não deve perder a oportunidade de ler e comprar. É imprescindível na sua biblioteca.

Aumentando mi colección, es un libro delgado, con letras un poco pequeñas, pero muy practico para llevarlo en un viaje, y practicar mi inglés.

Un excellent ouvrage d’anticipation. La narration est directe et efficace, mais une fois de plus Wells sait poser les questions éthiques qui n’ont toujours pas été résolues sur les frontières entre l’humanité et l’animalité, la légitimité des manipulations génétiques, les fin de la science et du progrès, etc.

I have never thought a horror story might shock me but this little novella from Mr Wells has shocked me quite a bit. When Doctor Moreau is experimenting pain treatment on the puma next door behind which the shrieking and howling disturbs the main character Mr Prendick, I also feel discomposed. Such creeping effect is extremely powerful even after a lengthened gap of more than one hundred years.Despite its nightmarish depiction, the work itself cries out to the reader that it is very good. Right from the first page, its setting reminds me of Robinson Crusoe as island fiction, except it is an even richer story in which man tries to be god and creates monsters that in the end haunts the ungodly master. Shocking but never shallow!I must say, Mr Wells is a genius, mastering several genres with perfection. His Time Machine is a sci-fi work. But his range is wide enough to cover the Gothic and the fantasical: The Island of Doctor Moreau is a Gothic story with a moral; his First Men in the Moon is a fantasy. He is not just a sci-fi writer; he is an imaginative prophet.I am very pleased with this OUP edition with the introduction by D. Jones. The suggestion of degeneration in the late Victorian times is implicitly linked with the sexual orientation of Oscar Wilde is very revealing about contemporary reception of the work. Of course with the benefit of hindsight, modern readers can say such alarm was rather mis-attributed. But given the fact that Darwin's idea and its implications greatly disturbs the Victorians, it is hardly the case that Victorians might think otherwise.The introduction is also very informative as well. If the editor did not mention the set-up of Royal Society of Prevention of Cruelty against Animals, I would not have been aware that the impending 200th anniversary of RSPCA and how humanity has made the leap forward.