I have an on-again, off-again relationship with classic literature. As a graduate of an American high school, I was introduced to many classic books, some of which I liked (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, The Merchant of Venice) and some I didn’t (East of Eden, The Chosen). HG Wells wasn’t a writer that was ever assigned in class, but he was a writer that was hard to ignore. It was impressed upon me that realistic literature was considered “good” while anything of a speculative nature wasn’t. Being a contrarian at the time, I was determined to prove to myself that this distinction was meaningless. That was how I encountered The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, and the novel I will be talking about today, The Island of Dr. Moreau.
I listened to all three of these short novels in a single year about eleven years ago, when I was studying architectural history at the University of Virginia. I had just discovered LibriVox, which was a treasure trove to a guy like me who was too broke to afford books and who braved the thirty minute walk from the UVA campus to downtown Charlottesville regularly for work.
The Island of Dr. Moreau concerns the exploits of a shipwrecked man named Edward Prendick who finds himself on an island filled with all sorts of strange animal-human hybrids and the mad scientist who created them. If you’ve never read this book, I’d suggest checking it out. While it contains some of the period’s outdated vocabulary on racial features, it is surprisingly restrained in this area. I have a feeling this novel would not have endured as a classic if it tried too hard to mirror contemporary views on eugenics, which were popular at the time and which served as an inspiration to Nazi ideologies on race.
This novel is short and the pacing is good. There was never a sense that we were lingering too long on any one scene, and there weren’t a lot long sections of exposition (which is one of the main reasons I give up on certain novels from this era). The ending still remains the strongest aspect of the novel for me. The final few pages were seared into my memory ever since I first listened to the audiobook back in 2013, and reading it again only cemented my love for this novel.
I also have to comment on the cover. This edition is a Tor Classics edition, which all feature dynamic painted covers which are coming back in style (am I the only one tired of these damn “minimalist” covers for classics?). The madness of Moreau with his barbed whip, the feral nature of the beasts, and the burning tower in the background promise a violent end to the mad doctor’s experiments, and Wells makes sure to deliver in the text. If anyone happens to know who the cover artist is, let me know. I couldn’t find a name in the book itself.
5/5 stars.
Buy the book:
Bookshop (Penguin Black Classics edition)
Tor Classic edition (ebay search link)
Read/Listen for free:
Project Gutenberg (ebook)
YouTube – Steve Parker Audiobooks
The Night Bulletin 