A shipwreck in the South Seas, a palm-tree paradise where a mad doctor conducts vile experiments, animals that become human and then "beastly" in ways they never were before--it's the stuff of high adventure. It's also a parable about Darwinian theory, a social satire in the vein of Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels), and a bloody tale of horror. Or, as H. G. Wells himself wrote about this story, "The Island of Dr. Moreau is an exercise in youthful blasphemy. Now and then, though I rarely admit it, the universe projects itself towards me in a hideous grimace. It grimaced that time, and I did my best to express my vision of the aimless torture in creation." This colorful tale by the author of The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds lit a firestorm of controversy at the time of its publication in 1896.


From Library Journal
Like the Hugo and the James above, this is being published to tie in with a recent film adaptation. It nonetheless offers a high-quality hardcover at a reasonable price.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Released in conjunction with the movie featuring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer, this audiobook enjoys the talents of a particularly effective reader. Michael Williams has a low-key, cultured British intonation, which sounds almost jaded in parts. Yet he distinguishes the various characters with fluid skill: A sea captain's voice is so rough it sounds like a metal rasp; the beast-men created by Moreau's vivisection sound almost ethereal, as if still exhausted by torture under the knife. There's no musical punctuation or any other enhancement. Williams carries the somber story alone, his voice tense with excitement at times, almost whispering at more contemplative moments. D.W.Ê (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Review
“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 Trade Paperback edition.


Review
?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 Trade Paperback edition.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A shipwreck in the South Seas brings a doctor to an island paradise. Far from seeing this as the end of his life, Dr Moreau seizes the opportunity to play God and infiltrate a reign of terror in this new kingdom. Endless cruel and perverse experiments ensue and see a series of new creations -- the 'Beast People' -- all of which must bow before the deified doctor. Originally a Swiftian satire on the dangers of authority and submission, Wells' The Island of Dr Moreau can now just as well be read as a prophetic tale of genetic modification and mutability. Known as the 'Father of Science Fiction', H G Wells was responsible for an entirely new genre of writing. It was his bold, daring and hugely innovative books that first introduced readers to the concepts of time travel, invisibility, genetic experimentation and interstellar invasion -- ideas that have gone on to inspire future generations and given rise to the entire science fiction industry. Disturbingly accurate in his prophetic writing, H G Wells was also the author of a number of key sociological and historical works.

SYNOPSIS

Ranked among the classic novels of the English language and the inspiration for several unforgettable movies, this early work of H. G. Wells was greeted in 1896 by howls of protest from reviewers, who found it horrifying and blasphemous. They wanted to know more about the wondrous possibilities of science shown in his first book, The Time Machine, not its potential for misuse and terror. In The Island of Dr. Moreau a shipwrecked gentleman named Edward Prendick, stranded on a Pacific island lorded over by the notorious Dr. Moreau, confronts dark secrets, strange creatures, and a reason to run for his life.

While this riveting tale was intended to be a commentary on evolution, divine creation, and the tension between human nature and culture, modern readers familiar with genetic engineering will marvel at Wells’s prediction of the ethical issues raised by producing “smarter” human beings or bringing back extinct species. These levels of interpretation add a richness to Prendick’s adventures on Dr. Moreau’s island of lost souls without distracting from what is still a rip-roaring good read.

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