Customer Reviews

The Island of Dr. Moreau (Signet Classics)

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Although it is less often read than such Wells novels as THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, the basic story of THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU is very well known through several extremely loose film adaptations. Pendrick, a British scientist, is shipwrecked--and by chance finds himself on an isolated island where Dr. Moreau and his assistant Montgomery are engaged in a series of experiments. They are attempting to transform animals into manlike beings.

Wells, a social reformer, was a very didactic writer, and his novels reflect his thoughts and theories about humanity. Much of Wells writing concerns (either directly or covertly) social class, but while this exists in MOREAU it is less the basic theme than an undercurrent. At core, the novel concerns the then-newly advanced theory of natural selection--and then works to relate how that theory impacts man's concept of God. Wells often touched upon this, and in several novels he broaches the thought that if mankind evolved "up" it might just as easily evolve "down," but nowhere in his work is this line of thought more clearly and specifically seen than here.

At times Wells' determination to teach his reader can overwhelm; at times it can become so subtle that it is nothing short of absolutely obscure. But in THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, Wells achieves a perfect balance of the two extremes, even going so far as to balance the characters in such a way that not even the narrator emerges as entirely sympathetic. It is a remarkable achievement, and in this sense I consider MOREAU possibly the best of Wells work: the novel is as interesting for the story it tells as it is for still very relevant themes it considers.

It is also something of an oddity among Wells work, for while Wells often included elements of horror and savagery in his novels, MOREAU is not so much horrific as it is disturbingly gruesome and occasionally deliberately distasteful. This is not really a book than you can read and then put away: it lingers in your mind in a most unsettling way. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This book is less known than Wells' other works like The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine, but in many ways it exceeds these other, more popular works. This novel is a story essentially about the nature of humanity. What is it that makes us people? What, exactly, separates man from the beasts? Wells' insidious Dr. Moreau is the perfect character to explore these questions as he has no conscience. As you read this book you find yourself identifying more with the "beasts" than with the Dr. or his assistant; and you find yourself wondering whether or not the noble beasts are in fact more human than the human characters. This work is decades before its' time; as today genetic research and animal rights are garnering more attention and headlines. I believe Wells was somehow able to see these issues decades ago when he wrote this story; and it remains one of the most salient writings on the topic to date. I heartily endorse this book for any fan of science fiction. Enjoy!

I got this on Kindle simply because it looked interesting and was $0.00. Once I began to preview the book to determine whether or not I was going to keep in on my Kindle or delete it...I couldn't put it down! The language is somewhat dated however, it adds to the story line and keeps the events back in the time they should be rather than allowing them to creep into today's timeframe. It is so interesting to read something that was written that long ago and let your imagination decide how it may pertain to today's life in the form of genetic, hybrid and biological engineering. The fictional events on The Island of Dr. Moreau seem as though they could be going on in the local university biology research lab and hidden from the public eye. Typically I'm not into science fiction reads but this may be a turning point for me. I enjoyed this book a great deal and have recommended it to several friends to read. Enjoy!

Filiquarian Publishing, LLC published this book under the idea that it is in "public domain status." Meaning, it is not any better than you would find online. The book is readable, but emphasis (bold or italics) are done by an underscore before and after the word(s). Example: "_His_ is the lightning flash, we sang. _His_ is the deep, salt sea." (page 82) To me, it is annoying to read it this way. You occasionally find extra quotation marks and a double dash (--) in the place of an ellipsis (...). On page 41, you get all of the above.

The binding is right up there with self-published titles. The cover is as basic as it gets, and has no text on the spine (see picture.) The back cover has merely a UPC barcode. On my copy, the glue they used for the spine was pressed out and made a rather strange bind. By strange, I mean cheap-looking.

Anyway, if you are looking for an inexpensive copy of this book and don't care about the bindery or text issues, then this book is for you.

I have recently become a fan of Wells' writing for the unique voice with which he tells a story in addition to his unique tales. References to "The Island of Dr. Moreau" seem to surface frequently in pop culture, so I felt compelled to read this book. Some might go so far as to argue that this is Wells' best book. I may not disagree.

While the book was written before the advent of genetic engineering as we know in the 21st Century, it could be applied. Wells seems to have intended the book as a commentary on the theories of Darwin and evolution. When Edward Prendick finds himself on a remote island, he recalls rumors of Dr. Moreau. But only when he sees his handy work does the horror begin. Using manipulative techniques that include primitive grafting, Moreau made the animals more human. Yet the ultimate question of the book is whether Moreau could make the animals into human, removing any trace of animal from them.

This is certainly a case of the book being better than the movie as the book makes Wells true intent evident. Like many of Wells' works, it is also a powerful social commentary that makes great reading.

This book is one of a relatively small number of stories that could all be considered prototypes of the "mad scientist" subgenre of the science fiction genre. (Some of the others are "Frankenstein", by Mary Shelley, "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea", by Jules Verne, and "Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde", by Robert Louis Stevenson.) As such, there are many elements of the story that to a modern reader may seem trite and overused; what is necessary for the reader to understand is that these concepts were NOT trite and overused at the time; this is one of the writers who CREATED these concepts, which are so powerful that they've been copied by later writers until they seem downright hackneyed. If a modern writer had written this story, I'd rate it two or three stars for a fairly competent style, by no higher because it adds nothing new to the genre. But as it is, it's one of the originals, and is worth reading if for no other purpose than to be able to see the references back to it in later novels, such as "Jurassic Park", by Michael Crichton.

If you're bored with the "mad scientist" subgenre, you probably needn't read this book. But if you're at all curious to see one of the books that originated the concept, this is an excellent early example of the idea. And if you are a fan of the genre, this book is definitely a must-read.

H.G. Wells may be best known for The Time Machine and the War of the Worlds, but don't overlook The Island of Dr. Moreau. This short novel, 160 pages, isn't so much a fast read as it is a good one. The titular Dr. Moreau is the quintessential "mad" scientist whose life's work involves vivisection. He takes animals and through surgery and brain manipulation attempts to give them humanity. The result is a twisted menagerie of beasts who share both human and animal traits. His experimentation has allowed them to understand human speech, and his brainwashing makes them believe he is a god whose laws must be obeyed.

The protagonist of the story is Prendrick who gets shipwrecked on the island and then "rescued" by you know who. Prendrick's main purpose in the story is to be the outsiders who sees the island and the macabre goings on through discriminating eyes. He is also the trigger that helps the fragile society break down with the beasts regressing more and more into their animal instinct, which causes the grim downfall of Moreau.

This is a story full of metaphors and deep-reaching themes. The obvious theme concerns man's desire to play God and the negative consequences of such efforts, but also the deeper conclusions one can draw about Wells' view of humanity itself.

Overall The Island of Dr. Moreau, clearly shows the depths of Wells' thinking and his deep interest in society and its ills. The story challenges one to think about the negative consequences of genetic and social engineering. It also shows that H.G. Wells was a far-reaching thinker and a man truly before his own time.

This is certainly an interesting work, though not nearly as exciting or gripping as The Time Machine or War of the Worlds. For some reason, I had the notion in mind that this short novel was a "most dangerous game" type of story where the protagonist is hunted, but this is of course not true. Dr. Moreau is a scientist--a quite mad one, actually--whose life's work involves vivisection; in essence, he takes a plethora of animals and, through surgery and mental indoctrination of some sort, attempts--with varying success---to endow them with humanity. The result is a twisted menagerie of beasts who share both human and animal traits of myriad sorts. They can understand human speech, in fact, which has allowed the doctor to indoctrinate them into a worldview wherein he is the god whose laws must be obeyed. While the story of the protagonist, Prendrick, is interesting, from his initial shipwreck to his "rescue" and eventual escape, his main purpose in the story is to describe the inhabitants of this macabre island. As one may imagine, this isolated, fragile society eventually breaks down and the beasts regress more and more into their animal instincts, to the great detriment of the "god" Moreau and his rather pitiful assistant Montgomery.

Metaphors and broad, deep-reaching themes abound in this tale. While one can certainly make out an obvious theme concerning man's desire to play God and the negative consequences of such efforts by science, there are deeper and more mysterious conclusions one can draw about Wells' view of humanity itself. While this is certainly not a racist novel, one can conceivably see it as a warning against racial mixing, particularly in terms of the notion that the lower and more "bestial" traits will eventually win out over any "higher" traits imbued into a mixed creation, a common idea at that time. However, I tend to see the strange human-animal creations of Dr. Moreau as a microcosm of mankind itself. There is evil (or bestiality) present in all men which has the danger of erupting to the surface at any time; no set of external factors can make a truly good man. Society will always have a minority who are bestial in nature and who cannot be redeemed despite the best efforts of that society's members to form a perfect world. The tale is a rather unusual one for Wells, it would seem, particularly in terms of this seemingly negative interpretation of society itself. There are no good guys in this tale; every character is a victim; the experimentation (social as well as physiological) of Dr. Moreau is an unadulterated failure. Perhaps the conclusions I have drawn from reading this story are my own alone. The Island of Dr. Moreau, however, clearly shows the depths of Wells' thinking and his deep interest in society and its ills, and it challenges the reader to think about the negative consequences of genetic and social engineering. As always, H.G. Wells shows himself to be a far-reaching thinker and a man truly before his own time.

This novella is interesting as a piece of science fiction, the genre of which H.G. Wells is sometimes called the father. It was written a few decades after Darwin presented his theory of evolution. The concept of evolution produced a lot of anxiety among intellectuals of the time, including Wells, who looks at the implications of the theory here. He puts the narrator, Prendick, on a secret island populated by Moreau's man-beast creations. The events which follow continually blur the line between man and animal, just as evolution forces man to see itself in the context of other species. Oh yeah, the novella, like any good sci-fi book, is suspenseful, and a little scary. And it's not very long, so you'll have plenty of time to read all your other books too.

The mad scientist has been with us since the early 1800s. And while H.G. Wells didn't create the mad scientist stereotype, he certainly gave it a boost in his harrowing novella "The Island of Dr. Moreau" -- beast-men forced to live like humans, a crazy scientist carrying out mad plans, and a bland Englishman stuck in the middle of it.

After he is shipwrecked, the English gentleman Edward Prendick is rescued by a passing boat. The man who saved him, Montgomery, is taking a number of wild animals to a remote deserted island, where the creepy Dr. Moreau does some kind of research on the animals that are brought there. Naturally, Prendick is suspicious of Moreau's activities.

It doesn't take long for him to stumble across the products of Moreau's work -- grotesque hybrids of animal and human, who are surgically turned into humanoids and ordered not to act in animalistic ways. And with the laws of nature being horribly perverted, it's only a matter of time before Dr. Moreau's experiments lash out.

It's pretty obvious from this book that H.G. Wells was nervous about the ramifications of meddling in nature -- be it vivisection, evolutionary degeneration, or even just the idea that scientific progress could be used for horribly evil things. As a result, "The Island of Dr. Moreau" is perhaps his darkest, most horrific book.

The first couple chapters are rather stuffy in the 18th-century style, with Prendrick fussily noting everything that's happened to him. But the creepiness begins to enter once he arrives on the island, and explodes into weird, almost dreamlike scenes once he encounters the Beast Folk, culminating in the slow decay of everything on the island.

Prendrick is also perhaps the weakest link in the book. When the only other humans on the island are.... well, a mad scientist and his sidekick, you need a protagonist who really grips your imagination. But he's honestly kind of bland, to the point where any number of the beastly folk have far more presence and power than he does.

"The Island of Dr. Moreau" is a dark, eerie cautionary tale about science run amuck, and only its bland protagonist keeps it from fully engaging.