Rating: Not rated
Tags: Science Fiction, SF Masterworks, Lang:en
Summary
H.G. Wells's science fiction classic, The Island of Doctor
Moreau, asks the reader to consider the limits of natural
science and the distinction between men and beasts. A strange
mix of science fiction, romance, and philosophical
meandering, it is one of the standards of early science
fiction.
It begins with the protagonist, an upper class gentleman
named Prendick, finding himself shipwrecked in the ocean. A
passing ship takes him aboard, and a doctor named Montgomery
revives him. He explains to Prendick that they are bound for
an unnamed island where he works, and that the animals aboard
the ship are traveling with him. Prendick also meets a
grotesque, bestial native named M'ling who appears to be
Montgomery's manservant.
When they arrive on the island, however, both the captain of the ship and Doctor Moreau refuse to take Prendick. The crew pushes him back into the lifeboat from which they rescued him, but seeing that the ship really intends to abandom him, the islanders take pity and end up coming back for him. Montgomery introduces him to Doctor Moreau, a cold and precise man who conducts research on the island. After unloading the animals from the boat, they decide to house Prendick in an outer room of the enclosure in which they live. Prendick is exceedingly curious about what exactly Moreau researches on the island, especially after he locks the inner part of the enclosure without explaining why. Prendick suddenly remembers that he has heard of Moreau, and that he had been an eminent physiologist in London before a journalist exposed his gruesome experiments in vivisection.
SF Masterworks #80