The Island of Dr Moreau
by H. G. Wells
Edition: Barnes & Noble Classics volume of five H. G. Wells stories.
Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars. I would say that it's for older teens and up.
After enduring starvation and near-death in a boat on the Pacific ocean, Edward Prendick is rescued by a young man called Montgomery, who is the passenger of a Hawaii-bound ship. On board the ship is a collection of chained and caged animals, which Montgomery is taking to another island en route, for reasons he won't tell. Prendick finds his situation changing from bad to worse, when he gets taken by Montgomery to this unnamed island and becomes the de facto prisoner of a Dr Moreau, who uses the island to carry out his terrible experiments. Tormented by disgust and fear for his own life, Prendick enters into another, and much longer, quest to survive.
My thoughts: I wouldn't recommend this as a first H. G. Wells novel. The story is more of a horror story than science-fiction, and definitely much creepier than his other famous novels. This is probably due to the fact that this story is about a "scientist" using plastic surgery to try turning animals into humans. Thus, the story is not 100% fantasy. And, as usual, Wells's writing style is very effective; he doesn't go into gory, up-close detail, but instead there is a good deal left to the reader's imagination. I think these kind of books tend to be the scariest.
Dr Moreau himself is mainly described as being an elderly gentleman with white hair, a beard, and a calm countenance. It's in his actions that we get to really see what kind of person he is. He is obsessed with his experiments; the animals' pain is nothing to him, he is only concerned with the end result. And most of the "Beast People" that do result have to live under his tyrannical reign. It goes without saying that Dr Moreau is one of the worst characters I've ever read of.
Mind you, the Beast People (as they are called) are in some ways like humans, but they are definitely not humans; and Moreau's belief that he will eventually turn one into a human is just self-deceit. They can, to some extent, walk and act like humans, and they are trained to talk in very simple phrases, but when left to themselves, they go back to their animal state. Like Prendick, the reader comes to both pity and fear them.
Overall, it was an interesting story, but I don't think I'd call this book a "must read". I had a hard time trying to figure out what this book is about, and even now I'm not sure what its message is supposed to be. I don't feel like I learned much (if anything) from it...to me, it was mostly a really creepy story; in fact, the animal cruelty was so disgusting, that it almost made me want to become a vegetarian. This book gets 4 stars because it's written well, and it was pretty much what I expected it to be. But it wasn't outstanding. Read The Invisible Man instead. :)
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