The Island Of Doctor Moreau

The Island of Doctor Moreau is an 1896 science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. The text of the novel is the narration of Edward Prendick, a shipwrecked man rescued by a passing boat who is left on the island home of Doctor Moreau, a mad scientist who creates human-like hybrid beings from animals via vivisection. The novel deals with a number of philosophical themes, including pain and cruelty, moral responsibility, human identity, and human interference with nature. Wells described it as "an exercise in youthful blasphemy."

The Island of Doctor Moreau is a classic of early science fiction and remains one of Wells' best-known books. The novel is the earliest depiction of the science fiction motif "uplift" in which a more advanced race intervenes in the evolution of an animal species to bring the latter to a higher level of intelligence.

By : H. G. Wells (1866 - 1946)

01 - Part 1



02 - Part 2



03 - Part 3



04 - Part 4



05 - Part 5



06 - Part 6



07 - Part 7



08 - Part 8


The Island of Doctor Moreau is the account of Edward Prendick, an Englishman with a scientific education who survives a shipwreck in the southern Pacific Ocean. A passing ship called Ipecacuanha takes him aboard, and a man named Montgomery revives him. Prendick also meets a grotesque bestial native named M'ling, who appears to be Montgomery's manservant. The ship is transporting a number of animals which belong to Montgomery. As they approach the island, Montgomery's destination, the captain demands Prendick leave the ship with Montgomery. Montgomery explains that he will not be able to host Prendick on the island. Despite this, the captain leaves Prendick in a dinghy and sails away. Seeing that the captain has abandoned Prendick, Montgomery takes pity and rescues him. As ships rarely pass the island, Prendick will be housed in an outer room of an enclosed compound.

The island belongs to Dr. Moreau. Prendick remembers that he has heard of Moreau, formerly an eminent physiologist in London whose gruesome experiments in vivisection had been publicly exposed, and who fled England as a result of his exposure.

The next day, Moreau begins working on a puma. Prendick gathers that Moreau is performing a painful experiment on the animal, and its anguished cries drive Prendick out into the jungle. While he wanders, he comes upon a group of people who seem human but have an unmistakable resemblance to swine. As he walks back to the enclosure, he suddenly realises he is being followed by a figure in the jungle. He panics and flees, and the figure gives chase. As his pursuer bears down on him, Prendick manages to stun him with a stone and observes the pursuer is a monstrous hybrid of animal and man. When Prendrick returns to the enclosure and questions Montgomery, Montgomery refuses to be open with him. After failing to get an explanation, Prendick finally gives in and takes a sleeping draught.

Prendick awakes the next morning with the previous night's activities fresh in his mind. Seeing that the door to Moreau's operating room has been left unlocked, he walks in to find a humanoid form lying in bandages on the table before he is ejected by a shocked and angry Moreau. He believes that Moreau has been vivisecting humans and that he is the next test subject. He flees into the jungle where he meets an Ape-Man who takes him to a colony of similarly half-human/half-animal creatures. Their leader is a large grey unspecified creature named the Sayer of the Law who has him recite a strange litany called the Law that involves prohibitions against bestial behavior and praise for Moreau.

Suddenly, Dr. Moreau bursts into the colony looking for Prendick, but Prendick escapes to the jungle. He makes for the ocean, where he plans to drown himself rather than allow Moreau to experiment on him. Moreau explains that the creatures called the Beast Folk were not formerly men, but rather animals. Prendick returns to the enclosure, where Moreau explains that he has been on the island for eleven years and has been striving to make a complete transformation of an animal to a human. He explains that while he is getting closer to perfection, his subjects have a habit of reverting to their animal form and behaviour. Moreau regards the pain he inflicts as insignificant and an unavoidable side effect in the name of his scientific experiments.

One day, Prendick and Montgomery encounter a half-eaten rabbit. Since eating flesh and tasting blood are strong prohibitions, Dr. Moreau calls an assembly of the Beast Folk and identifies the Leopard-Man (the same one that chased Prendick the first time he wandered into the jungle) as the transgressor. Knowing that he will be sent back to Dr. Moreau's compound for more painful sessions of vivisection, the Leopard-Man flees. Eventually, the group corners him in some undergrowth, but Prendick takes pity and shoots him to spare him from further suffering. Prendick also believes that although the Leopard-Man was seen breaking several laws, such as drinking water bent down like an animal, chasing men (Prendick), and running on all fours, the Leopard-Man was not solely responsible for the deaths of the rabbits. It was also the Hyena-Swine, the next most dangerous Beast Man on the island. Dr. Moreau is furious that Prendick killed the Leopard-Man but can do nothing about the situation.

As time passes, Prendick becomes inured to the grotesqueness of the Beast Folk. However one day, the half-finished puma woman rips free of her restraints and escapes from the lab. Dr. Moreau pursues her, but the two end up fighting each other, leading to their mutual deaths. Montgomery breaks down and decides to share his alcohol with the Beast Folk. Prendick resolves to leave the island, but later hears a commotion outside in which Montgomery, his servant M'ling, and the Sayer of the Law die after a scuffle with the Beast Folk. At the same time, the compound burns down because Prendick has knocked over a lamp. With no chance of saving any of the provisions stored in the enclosure, Prendick realizes that during the night Montgomery has also destroyed the only boats on the island.

Prendick lives with the Beast Folk on the island for months after the deaths of Moreau and Montgomery. As the time goes by, the Beast Folk increasingly revert to their original animal instincts, beginning to hunt the island's rabbits, returning to walking on all fours, and leaving their shared living areas for the wild. They cease to follow Prendick's instructions. Eventually the Hyena-Swine kills Prendick's faithful companion, the Dog-Man created from a St. Bernard, and helped by the Sloth Creature he shoots the Hyena-Swine in self-defence.

Prendick's efforts to build a raft have been unsuccessful, but luckily for him, a lifeboat that carries two corpses drifts onto the beach (perhaps the captain of the ship that picked Prendick up and a sailor). Prendick uses the boat to leave the island and is picked up three days later. When he tells his story he is thought to be mad, so he feigns amnesia.

Upon his return to England, Prendick is no longer comfortable in the presence of humans, all of whom seem to him to be about to revert to an animal state. He leaves London and lives in near-solitude in the countryside, devoting himself to chemistry as well as astronomy in the studies of which he finds some peace.

Comments

Random Post

  • Sói và cừu tránh rét - truyện cổ tích '' Ngụ Ngôn''
    23.10.2023 - 0 Comments
    Ngày xưa, có một bé cừu con chẳng may bị lạc trong rừng sâu, loanh quanh mãi mà không tìm thấy lối. Vừa mệt…
  • Candide
    02.11.2018 - 0 Comments
    Candide is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment.…
  • Nero, the Circus Lion
    11.01.2021 - 0 Comments
    Nero lived in the jungle with his family, his mom and dad, his brother and sister. He liked to play with his…
  • The Great Pearl Secret
    09.02.2021 - 0 Comments
    It is the afternoon before a grand society wedding between Juliet Phayre and the Duke of Claremanagh, when…
  • English as She is Spoke
    12.11.2020 - 0 Comments
    English as She is Spoke is a 19th century Portuguese-to-English phrasebook that has become a classic of…
  • Heart of Darkness
    15.01.2019 - 0 Comments
    Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1903 publication, it appeared as a…
  • Vụ kiện Châu Chấu - Truyện cổ tích Việt Nam
    28.10.2023 - 0 Comments
    Ngày ấy có một con châu chấu mải mê kiếm ăn lạc mất đường về. Tối đến, trời rét lại mưa rơi rả rích, làm cho…
  • Mơ mộng ngớ ngẩn | Chương 18 | Harry Potter | Tên tù nhân ngục Azkaban | Tập 3
    18.10.2023 - 0 Comments
    Phải mất mấy giây sau, sự vô lý của lời nới ấy mới ngấm được vào tai của bọn trẻ. Rồi Ron thốt lên điều mà…
  • Ancient Tales and Folklore of Japan
    20.11.2020 - 0 Comments
    Tales of Folklore are often of special interest. Anything may happen to ordinary mortals in the world painted…
  • Quạ và Cáo - Truyện Ngụ Ngôn Về Loài Vật - Phần 8
    21.10.2023 - 0 Comments
    Phần 1 : Kho Báu Của Vàng Tro (Mỹ)Phần 2 : Thức Suốt (Trung Quốc)Phần 3 : Vợ Chồng Linh Miêu (Mỹ)Phần 4 : Quạ…
  • The Secret City
    21.07.2020 - 0 Comments
    Written in the first person, The Secret City is a novel in three parts of a journey through post World War…
  • Santa Claus, Kriss Kringle or St. NIcholas
    24.12.2019 - 0 Comments
    Volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Santa Claus, Kriss Kringle or St. NIcholas. This poem was published…
  • The Pawns Count
    02.04.2020 - 0 Comments
    "I am for England and England only," John Lutchester, the Englishman, asserted. "I am for Japan and Japan…
  • The Four Million
    08.02.2020 - 0 Comments
    The man with the surprise endings: that was O. Henry's trademark. This is the second published collection…
  • Barchester Towers
    25.01.2020 - 0 Comments
    Barchester Towers, published in 1857 by Anthony Trollope, is the second novel in his series known as the…
  • The Meaning of the Glorious Koran
    12.03.2020 - 0 Comments
    The Koran (Qur'an) is regarded by Muslims as the word of God (Allah) as revealed to the prophet Muhammad.…