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The Island of Dr. Moreau

H.G. Wells,

Alan Lightman (Introduction)

Start date: August 1, 2023

Finish date: August 31, 2023

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February 2016 Old School Group Read
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What Members Thought

Mar 25, 2008 Brad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, mieville50

Much creepier than I expected and much smarter, The Island of Dr. Moreau, as with so much of H.G. Wells' science fiction, addressed the ethical pitfalls of a scientific eventuality far too early to be anything other than prophetic, yet it still manages to be more entertaining than preachy.

Edward Prendick finds himself shipwrecked on an island with Doctors Montgomery and Moreau. The former a follower of the latter, who just happens to be a mad vivisectionist. Beyond these scientists, Prendick fi Much creepier than I expected and much smarter, The Island of Dr. Moreau, as with so much of H.G. Wells' science fiction, addressed the ethical pitfalls of a scientific eventuality far too early to be anything other than prophetic, yet it still manages to be more entertaining than preachy.

Edward Prendick finds himself shipwrecked on an island with Doctors Montgomery and Moreau. The former a follower of the latter, who just happens to be a mad vivisectionist. Beyond these scientists, Prendick finds himself intensely weirded out by the other inhabitants of the island, frightening man-animals created by Dr. Moreau.

Moreau captures the island's animals and painfully turns them into half-men, then forces them to live by strict standards that he believes will overcome their bestial natures. Moreau's primary commandment is that they cannot eat meat. This is, of course, a recipe for suspense and horror, for how can one expect Leopard Men or Puma Men to curb their need for meat, when the humans conducting the experiments cannot curb their own bestial natures? It simply can't be done.

Prendick finds himself becoming a participant, although not entirely willingly, in Moreau's society of vivisection. And once the animals finally rebel, as we know they must, he becomes the last man on the island, watching the tortured animals return to their natures and throw off Moreau's pseudo-society.

Even now, one hundred and thirteen years after it was written, The Island of Dr. Moreau is spooky enough to work as an effective horror/sci-fi story, but its still relevant thematic depth is what makes Moreau essential to anyone who loves books. Genetics (eugenics), animal experimentation, psychology, colonization, imperialism, patriarchy, scientific chauvinism, religion, and ethical imposition are seriously and intelligently explored. Wells' implied conclusions may be unsettling at times, but The Island of Dr. Moreau will make you think.

China Mieville says that Moreau is "a kind of fantasy echo of Shakespeare’s The Tempest." Could there be higher praise than that? ...more

124 likes · Like · see review

Aug 04, 2023 RJ - Slayer of Trolls rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-read, guardian-1000-read

There is, though I do not know how there is or why there is, a sense of infinite peace and protection in the glittering hosts of heaven. There it must be, I think, in the vast and eternal laws of matter, and not in the daily cares and sins and troubles of men, that whatever is more than animal within us must find its solace and its hope.

The second of H.G. Wells' major "scientific romances" was published a year after The Time Machine but was not as well received at that time, despite the fact ...more

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Dec 06, 2013 Laura rated it liked it

Shelves: 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, gutenberg, read-2014, novellas, british-literature, fiction-19th-century, viciados-em-livros, science-fiction, mtbr-challenge-2014, e-books

Free download available at eBooks@Adelaide.

Opening lines:
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.

Two movie versions were made based on this boo ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 17, 2019 Ketutar Jensen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1000-soleils

solid horror :-)
Not really anything to smile at, I'm smiling at the solidity. This story is cruel.

Don't read this book if you love animals and cannot abide with animal abuse. It's not graphic, but the puma was screaming of pain the first part of the book... and I can imagine :'(

I read this too to better appreciate The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter
I don't appreciate it much at all.

...more

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