The Island of Dr. Moreau

by H. G. Wells, John L. Flynn, Nita A. Farahany (Introduction)

Overview

A cautionary tale of the horrors that can ensue when man experiments with nature, from the father of science fiction, H. G. Wells.  

A lonely island in the Pacific. The sinister scientist who rules it. And the strange beings who dwell there....

This is the scenario for H. G. Wells’s haunting classic, one of his most intriguing and visionary novels. Living in the late nineteenth century and facing the impact of Darwin’s theory of evolution, Wells wrote this chilling masterpiece about the characteristics of beasts blurring as the animals turn into men. Dr. Moreau, a scientist expelled from his homeland for his cruel vivisection experiments, finds a deserted island that gives him the freedom to continue torturous transplantations and create hideous creatures with manlike intelligence. But as the brutally enforced order on Moreau’s island dissolves, the true consequences of his experiments emerge, and his creations revert to beasts more shocking than nature could devise.

A genius of his time, H. G. Wells foresaw the use of what he called the “atom bomb,” the practice of gene-splicing, and men landing on the moon. Now, when these have become part of everyday life, his dark fable serves as a compelling reminder of the horrors that reckless experiments with nature can produce.
 
With an Introduction by Nita A. Farahany
and an Afterword by Dr. John L. Flynn

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451468666
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/03/2014
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	633,015
Product dimensions:	4.13(w) x 6.75(h) x 0.56(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Herbert George Wells (1866–1946) left school at thirteen 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 T. H. Huxley. He began to sell articles and short stories regularly in 1893. His immediately successful novel The Time Machine (1895) rescued him from poverty. His other “scientific romances”—The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), and The First Men in the Moon (1901)—made him the father of science fiction.

Dr. Nita A. Farahany is a Professor of Law and Philosophy and the Director of the Science and Society Initiative at Duke University. In 2010, she was appointed by President Obama to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. She is a widely published scholar on the ethical, legal, and social implications of the biosciences and emerging technologies, and a frequent commentator for national media and radio shows. Farahany is an elected member of the American Law Insitute, a Board member of the International Neuroethics Society, a coeditor and chief founder of the Journal of Law and the Biosciences, and recipient of the 2013 Paul M. Bator Award given annually to the outstanding legal academic under forty. She holds an AB (Genetics) from Dartmouth College, a JD, MA, and PhD (Philosophy) from Duke University, and an ALM (Biology) from Harvard University.

Dr. John L. Flynn is a three-time Hugo-nominated author and longtime science fiction fan and critic who has written ten books, numerous short stories, articles, reviews, and a screenplay. A professor at Towson University in Towson, Maryland, he teaches both graduate and undergraduate writing courses, including a course on Writing Science Fiction. He holds two PhDs, in literature and psychology.

Date of Birth:

September 21, 1866

Date of Death:

August 13, 1946

Place of Birth:

Bromley, Kent, England

Place of Death:

London, England

Education:

Normal School of Science, London, England

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Island of Dr. Moreau"
by .
Copyright © 2014 H.G. Wells.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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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

What People are Saying About This

George Orwell

Wells was in the main a true prophet. In physical details his vision of the New World has been fulfilled to a surprising extent.

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?

Editorial Reviews

The Island of Dr. Moreau takes us into an abyss of human nature. This book is a superb piece of storytelling.”—V. S. Pritchett

From the Publisher

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

John Clute

[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

David Seed

This is a useful book for its placing the novel against its background of late-Victorian intellectual issues.
—English Literature in Transition

Dale Kramer

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

Darren Harris-Fain