The Island of Doctor Moreau in Classics for Beginners

Aug 07, 2015 Danielle The Book Huntress rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ick-factor, 2015-challenge-factory-challenge, epistolary-narrative, classic, animal-centered-fiction, 2015-cover-to-cover-challenge, not-for-the-faint-of-heart, stranded-marooned, exotic-setting-jungle-island-desert, 2015-action-adventure-challenge

I started this in early August, but it took me a while to finish it. One of the reasons is it's a profoundly unsettling book. I'm a scientist by training, and I take the ethics of science pretty personally. Dr. Moreau crosses so many ethical/moral lines in his experimentation, it's not even funny. Some things just should not be done, even if it's to advance scientific knowledge. I am also a inveterate lover of animals, and I felt a horrible rage at the way Dr. Moreau was torturing animals. I fee I started this in early August, but it took me a while to finish it. One of the reasons is it's a profoundly unsettling book. I'm a scientist by training, and I take the ethics of science pretty personally. Dr. Moreau crosses so many ethical/moral lines in his experimentation, it's not even funny. Some things just should not be done, even if it's to advance scientific knowledge. I am also a inveterate lover of animals, and I felt a horrible rage at the way Dr. Moreau was torturing animals. I feel it's fair to admit I am a meat eater, and I don't feel that eating meat is wrong. This book did make me feel extreme discomfort and think about what an animal goes through so I can eat a hamburger (something that I know intellectually but still ponder the ethics of regularly). However, there is a clear line that even both vegans and avowed carnivores can agree on: torturing animals for no reason, and inflicting pain on them because they are merely animals and don't feel pain the way humans does is terribly wrong. Also, to treat animals he had ostensibly humanized with no decency or respect was capping off the wrong that Moreau was doing. I admit I wasn't sad about Dr. Moreau's fate at all. I could feel Prendick's sense of pervasive horror acutely. Because of that, I had to put the book down at one point and didn't go back to it until yesterday/today. I listened to this on Kindle Text-to-Speech and it adds an element of horror to experiencing the book as an auditory experience.

HG Wells is a good writer. He immerses the reader fully into the story. He writes descriptively and seems to be aware of science in a way that lends credibility to the story (although my mind went to what we know about tissue matching, organ donation and graft rejections today). I felt all the emotions that Prendick felt, although not his sense of superiority that comes from being a white Englishman of the 19th century. I know I would feel the weirdness of humanlike animals put in a situation where they are forced to act human but are denied the same respect and decency that humans deserve. I believe in the quality of life for animals and as a veterinarian this is a huge issue for me. I felt so sorry and angry on behalf of the Beast Men that it was a huge discomfort factor for me as I read. That's probably a good thing. I don't think anyone should be okay with how those poor beings were treated.

There is a touch of racism but it's not as bad as some of the classic novels can be. I always notice it, because I'm a black woman, and for good reason, I am clearly sensitive to such things. It's good to read books from different periods and see how things were then and be grateful that things have changed for the better, or at times, realize things haven't changed all that much.

I wonder what Wells would say about some of the things we do in modern medicine/medical research without blinking an eye at. Thankfully, there are stringent limitations on animal research (although I admit that I think some research that takes place is beyond what I consider moral or ethical). If anything, this kind of story will make a reader feel uncomfortable and ask themselves about what is ethically okay, and challenge them to feel things from a different perspective that they might not always be sensitive to.

Prendick was mostly a sympathetic character. He was in a very extreme situation way beyond his control or comprehension, and his actions were probably what one could expect for someone put in such a horrific situation. I can see why he would remain scarred emotionally for the rest of his life. Who could blame him?

This is a book that can easily be classified as science fiction horror. The horror is psychological because of being confronted with the extremes of science and the unnatural results of it on nature. HG Wells is considered a foundational science fiction writer, and I believe he definitely writes something prophetic about biomedical research that still can serve as a warning to us in the 21st Century. There is a line and we must not cross it.

I can't give this more than 3.5 stars because of the ick factor. The writing is good but it made me feel icky inside. As an emotional reader, I have to listen to those instincts. ...more

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Oct 10, 2011 Rick-Founder JM CM BOOK CLUB rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The Island of Dr. Moreau is the third HG Wells novel I have read this year. The Time Machine and The Invisible man are the others. I have enjoyed all three so very much, each are so engaging and far far ahead of their time. The Island of Dr. Moreau is very much the achetype of a perennial classic. Why? Simply because it becomes more and more relevent as the medical achievments CATCH UP to his theories! With all the recent advances in gene therapy, cloning ect, what seemed to many in late 19th Ce The Island of Dr. Moreau is the third HG Wells novel I have read this year. The Time Machine and The Invisible man are the others. I have enjoyed all three so very much, each are so engaging and far far ahead of their time. The Island of Dr. Moreau is very much the achetype of a perennial classic. Why? Simply because it becomes more and more relevent as the medical achievments CATCH UP to his theories! With all the recent advances in gene therapy, cloning ect, what seemed to many in late 19th Century when The Island of Dr. Moreau was written, is not so very far fetched now.

The main plot, a shunned biologist, Dr. Moreau, attempting to create a new species of animals by combining biological elements of the original animal with human and other animal bloods and cells, is handled in both a dramatic, yet accessible sicentific manner.

What surpised me the most is that the main character, and true anchor of the book, is not Moreau at all, but Edward Prendick, a man of science lost at sea, who ends up on Moreau's island. The use of Prendick's nephew and heir in the beginning, explaining how he came across his late Uncle's papers, and felt the need to have them published adds an air of authenticity and is a superg starting point.
While Moreau's presence is felt throughout, he actually has a relatively minor role in the narrative, Prendick, speaking in first person, talks more about Moreau's assistant, a drunken, discraced (the cause is hinted at but never explained)and most important, the "beast people" that inhabit the Island.

Like Shelly's Frankenstein, these "monsters" are not simply portrayed as one dimensional Godzillas, rather, each have complex, and at times touching attributes that Wells so deftly portrays. The battle between their natural instincts, and the synthetic human aspects of each make for a facinating portrait of nature versus man's attempt to change the natural order, and what results is nothing short of unforgetable.

A very highly recommended read. Wells seemed to see that as human understanding of biology increased, many moral questions would arise. He was quite right, as today's medical headlines prove. The Island of Dr. Moreau should be a read as both a very original and interesting novel as well as a cautionary tale.

RICK FRIEDMAN
FOUNDER
THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOKCLUB ...more

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Aug 21, 2023 André Macho da Costa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A minha estreia em H.G. Wells. Perfeita!
Em 1º lugar gostei da escrita. Formal, algo datada e com sentido de humor implícito e inteligente.
Em 2º lugar, história intrigante, com destino incerto e filosófica.
Aborda vários temas. Não podemos fugir do que somos. Acabamos sempre por convergir para o nosso verdadeiro eu, sem máscaras morais. Existem formas para impedir esse encontro com os nossos instintos, de modo a que a vida em sociedade civilizada exista: lei (lei essa que apenas cumprimos, sem per ...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Emma rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The Island of Dr. Moreau: A Parody of Colonialism?

The Island of Dr Moreau was written at a time when the British Empire was still powerful and can be read as a parody of colonialism. The Island is a colonial enclave where Moreau and his cohorts are the colonists and the Beast Men are symbolic of indigenous peoples. The Beast Men are on the whole black or brown and at first Prendick thinks them to be ‘natives’ or ‘savages’ who speak a pigeon English. This echoes prejudices at the time of writing, ...more

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