(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called "classics," then write reports on whether or not they deserve the labelBook #16: The Island of Dr Moreau, by HG Wells (1896)The story in a nutshell:Along with French author Jules Verne, the British HG Wells is considered one of the co-founders of the "science-fiction" genre*, in which the latest advances in that field are elegantly enfolded into thrilling or sometimes philosophical fictional narratives. (So in other words, think of him much more as the spiritual godfather of Michael Crichton than Isaac Asimov.) And indeed, his early-career masterpiece The Island of Dr Moreau contains not a single fantastical element at all, but is rather a chilling extrapolation of what was happening at the time in the real world of medicine, starting as these Victorian novels often do with a shipwreck in the middle of an ocean, and of our everyman hero (a gentleman named Prendick) getting picked up by a mysterious ship out in the South Seas somewhere. Taken back to the remote tropical island where his rescuers are heading, he is there introduced to our eponymous doctor, a creepy former London surgeon who was disbarred from his profession for shady ethical practices.And sure enough, it's no coincidence that Moreau happens to be on this remote island, and is having his nutso alcoholic nihilist assistant run around the various nearby islands and acquire as many exotic animals as possible; turns out that he has continued his formerly banned research here, a truly horrific series of experiments that has him seeing if he can somehow turn an animal into a fully rational human, through an elaborate series of delicate surgeries and psychological conditioning. Needless to say, he hasn't exactly succeeded yet, leaving the three humans on an island full of snarling, retarded man-beasts; to protect themselves, Moreau and the assistant have established among the beasts what they call "The Law," a combination of rational rules and religious dogma that keep the human/animal hybrids just barely civilized and not in a constant state of violent bloodlust. The majority of the book, then, concerns Prendick's time on the island and the ways that this delicate peace of course starts quickly falling apart; I'll leave the actual plotline itself as unspoken as possible, in that this 112-year-old story is actually still thrillingly surprising.The argument for it being a classic:Like many of the books reviewed here as part of the CCLaP 100, there is a strong argument for The Island of Dr Moreau being a classic based on its historical, trailblazing aspects; it's one of a handful of books, after all, to singlehandedly kick off the entire genre of science-fiction (now with millions of fans and which generates billions of dollars a year in revenue), not to mention such speculative tech writers as the aforementioned Crichton, Tom Clancey and more. But on top of this, though, this particular book is important too because it's held up so well over the decades, certainly much better than almost all of its Victorian fantastical counterparts; as its many fans will tell you, it still has the power to shock and disturb, and deals with issues like genetic engineering and the ethical role of doctors that are surprisingly relevant to this day. If you're going to pick any of the pseudo-science-babble books of the late 1800s to designate as a must-read, fans say, best to pick a book like this, not only as historically relevant as the others but simply a much more entertaining modern read.The argument against:A weak argument today at best; like many other Victorian fantastical tales, I suppose you can argue that Dr Moreau is too flippant and garish a tale, too focused on pleasing a lurid, mainstream crowd. But then that gets us into the whole subject of whether the forefathers of the various modern artistic genres out there even deserve to be recognized as the authors of "classics," people such as Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne and the aforementioned Jules Verne; and I think most intelligent people at this point in history would say that these are indeed authors worthy of "classic" status, making this not really much of an argument at all.My verdict:Ah, how nice to again come across a book whose "classic" status seems to not be questioned by very many people at all; it happens so rarely, after all, much more rarely than you would think for a series of book reviews all centered around so-called classics. And indeed, it was a sincere and pleasant surprise to read Dr Moreau for the first time (I haven't even seen any of the movie versions) and discover just how legitimately scary and gross and great it was to modern eyes, after a year now of such badly dated 1800s prose like is found in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (to mention one infamous example). Now that I've sampled both, I can definitively state that Wells was a much better writer than Verne, and that his titles can hold up in a canon list without necessarily the Roger-Marin-style asterisk that so many other Victorian genre authors need. That said, please be aware that this is a surprisingly disgusting book, one that deals with such then-current hot topics as vivisection (or the act of cutting open animals while still alive, in order to figure out how their insides work); but then again, it also gets you thinking about all kinds of interesting ethical questions still relevant to current society, like whether the animalistic part of our brains can ever be truly tamed and controlled (another hot topic among Victorians), and if the torture and slaughter of animals can ever be a morally justifiable action. It not only gets an enthusiastic yes from me today, but I can even declare it better than a lot of the contemporary genre novels I've read in the last year. Highly recommended.Is it a classic? Oh my, yes*And by the way, it's no surprise that Wells ended up as one of the founders of science-fiction; he was actually a dual student of biology and sociology at university, who pursued not only creative writing as a lucrative hobby at the same time but also the visual arts as well. In fact, Wells was much, much more well-known when alive as a brilliant political analyst, socialist activist, and a forefather of "futurism:" among other accomplishments, in the 1910s he predicted the outbreak of World War I, in the '20s predicted that the war's destruction would pave the way for the rise of fascism, in the '30s predicted that fascism would culminate in another world war right around 1940, and in the '40s called for the creation of what we now know as Wikipedia (which he called the "World Brain"). Oh yeah, and he was a founding member of both the League of Nations and the United Nations, and incidentally was the inventor of the world's very first miniature war-game ("Little Wars," in 1913). What a surprisingly fascinating guy!
I started this in early August, but it took me a while to finish it. One of the reasons is it's a profoundly unsettling book. I'm a scientist by training, and I take the ethics of science pretty personally. Dr. Moreau crosses so many ethical/moral lines in his experimentation, it's not even funny. Some things just should not be done, even if it's to advance scientific knowledge. I am also a inveterate lover of animals, and I felt a horrible rage at the way Dr. Moreau was torturing animals. I feel it's fair to admit I am a meat eater, and I don't feel that eating meat is wrong. This book did make me feel extreme discomfort and think about what an animal goes through so I can eat a hamburger (something that I know intellectually but still ponder the ethics of regularly). However, there is a clear line that even both vegans and avowed carnivores can agree on: torturing animals for no reason, and inflicting pain on them because they are merely animals and don't feel pain the way humans does is terribly wrong. Also, to treat animals he had ostensibly humanized with no decency or respect was capping off the wrong that Moreau was doing. I admit I wasn't sad about Dr. Moreau's fate at all. I could feel Prendick's sense of pervasive horror acutely. Because of that, I had to put the book down at one point and didn't go back to it until yesterday/today. I listened to this on Kindle Text-to-Speech and it adds an element of horror to experiencing the book as an auditory experience. HG Wells is a good writer. He immerses the reader fully into the story. He writes descriptively and seems to be aware of science in a way that lends credibility to the story (although my mind went to what we know about tissue matching, organ donation and graft rejections today). I felt all the emotions that Prendick felt, although not his sense of superiority that comes from being a white Englishman of the 19th century. I know I would feel the weirdness of humanlike animals put in a situation where they are forced to act human but are denied the same respect and decency that humans deserve. I believe in the quality of life for animals and as a veterinarian this is a huge issue for me. I felt so sorry and angry on behalf of the Beast Men that it was a huge discomfort factor for me as I read. That's probably a good thing. I don't think anyone should be okay with how those poor beings were treated.There is a touch of racism but it's not as bad as some of the classic novels can be. I always notice it, because I'm a black woman, and for good reason, I am clearly sensitive to such things. It's good to read books from different periods and see how things were then and be grateful that things have changed for the better, or at times, realize things haven't changed all that much. I wonder what Wells would say about some of the things we do in modern medicine/medical research without blinking an eye at. Thankfully, there are stringent limitations on animal research (although I admit that I think some research that takes place is beyond what I consider moral or ethical). If anything, this kind of story will make a reader feel uncomfortable and ask themselves about what is ethically okay, and challenge them to feel things from a different perspective that they might not always be sensitive to.Prendick was mostly a sympathetic character. He was in a very extreme situation way beyond his control or comprehension, and his actions were probably what one could expect for someone put in such a horrific situation. I can see why he would remain scarred emotionally for the rest of his life. Who could blame him?This is a book that can easily be classified as science fiction horror. The horror is psychological because of being confronted with the extremes of science and the unnatural results of it on nature. HG Wells is considered a foundational science fiction writer, and I believe he definitely writes something prophetic about biomedical research that still can serve as a warning to us in the 21st Century. There is a line and we must not cross it.I can't give this more than 3.5 stars because of the ick factor. The writing is good but it made me feel icky inside. As an emotional reader, I have to listen to those instincts.
What do You think about The Island Of Dr. Moreau (1994)?
This was surprisingly good. No idea why I thought it would be rough reading*, but beyond some initial "GET ON WITH IT" that didn't even rise to the point of a status update, I feel like this did what it set out to do and is worthy of its 'classic' stamp.As a small thing, hopefully your ebook has footnotes, because there are several references to things a reader in the late 1800's would know that today's reader will be clueless about. Nothing important to the plot though.*Just kidding. This thing was written in 1896.
—Christopher
رواية مرعبة لا، بل هي رواية كابوسية لمن هم مثلي ... فأنا أخاف بشدة من الأمور الخاصة بالأمراض التي تشوه من يصاب بها كالجًُذام مثلا أو ما ندر من أمراض تغير شكل المصابين بها وتشوههم، كذلك لم أقو يوما على النظر في الصور الخاصة بضحايا القنابل النووية في هيروشيما ونجازاكي ، ولا أطيق بالمثل ما يتعلق باللعب في الجينات والهندسة الوراثية وكل ما من شأنه التغيير في ما خلقه الله خاصة إذا ما تعلق ذلك بالبشر أو الحيوانات وأتذكر يوما أرسل لي فيه صديق فيديو ضد التجارب على الحيوان ... وكان فيديو قمئ لا يمكن مشاهدته على اليوتيوب إلا بعد الولوج للحساب والتأكد من سن المُشاهد ... وأتذكر أنني ثرت عليه -المسكين- فقال لي أنه يرسله لصديقاته وزميلاته ممن يستخدمن مستحضرات تجميل قد تكون لشركات تُجري تجاربها على الحيوانات !! وكان فيديو قاسٍ جدا، ضايقني كثيرا الرواية هنا فيها شيئا مشابها... وأستغرب أن يكون هذا تأثير داروين ونظرياته في التطور! فأنا أذكر أنني درست تلك النظريات في مادة الأحياء بكثير من الهذر من أستاذ المادة بل وقد ألَّف لنا أغانٍ نحفظ بها شروط التطور الرواية تلعب على تيمات مختلفة للرعب ... فهناك الرعب من الغرباء، والرعب من المسوخ، والرعب من العلوم القاسية والابتعاد عن الدين، والخوف من الأماكن المنعزلة النائية والبعيدة عن رقابة الدولة والتي قد تكون مقرا لممارسات غير أخلاقية ومحظورة الرواية تعج بالمسوخ التي هي نتاج لتجارب مؤلمة على الحيوانات مسختها وقام بها طبيب مجنون منبوذ من مجتمعه بسبب لا أخلاقية أبحاثه ومساعده ... ويكتشف ذلك بطل الرواية الذي قاده حظه العاثر ليكون معهم على الجزيرة، ويختبر مشاعر متعددة من خوف واحتقار واشمئزاز لكثير ممن حوله من كائنات ممسوخة وصل الرعب ذروته حينما بدأت المسوخ تخرق القوانين التي صممت عكس فطرتها ... خرقتها حتى وهي تعلم العقاب المؤلم لمن يخرق تلك القوانين ... فالقوانين مجحفة والعقاب صارم ولذلك كان الولاء يصل لحد التأليه لذلك الذي وضع القوانين، وتتعرض تلك القوانين وتتعرض تلك الكائنات ومعها الأبطال لمفاجآت تقلب الموازين، وتعيد الأمور لفطرتها الأولىوحتى حينما يعود بطل الرواية ويكتب مذكراته -التي هي نص الرواية- نرى تساؤلاته بخصوص الطبيعة البشرية التي أصبح يحتقرها ويراها وحشية، ويتساءل حتى بخصوص رجل الدين الذي يردد كلاما ذكره بكلام الرجل القرد عديم الفكر والذي يردد الكلمات التي تبدو عميقة المضمون بلا أدنى فهم أو ترتيب ويسميها الأمور العظام الرواية من الكلاسيكيات التي تستحق التخليد حتى على الرغم من الرعب الذي قد تثيره، وبقدر ما ضايقتني وأرعبتني بقدر ما أعجبتني ولم أندم على قرائتهاالرواية رشحها لي صديق بناء على معرفته بي ومعرفة أنني أهوى قصص الرعب :) ولقد ارتعبت حقا
—Yousra
El sobrino de Edward Prendick nos hace llegar el testimonio de éste tras su muerte. En su narración nos cuenta cómo naufragó y fue recogido posteriormente por un barco cargado de animales. En este barco conocerá al doctor Montgomery, con el que hará cierta amistad, y a su extraño sirviente M’link. Al llegar el barco a su destino, una apartada isla del Pacífico, el capitán decide abandonar a su suerte a Edward, pero Montgomery se apiadará de él y le invitará a permanecer en dicha isla, eso sí, con el beneplácito de cierto doctor Moreau. Pero, ¿qué sucede realmente en la isla, para qué son los animales solicitados por Moreau?‘La isla del Dr. Moreau’ (The Island of Dr. Moreau, 1896), del escritor H.G. Wells, es toda una crítica a la falta de ética de ciertos científicos y doctores ante la experimentación sin miramientos. Aunque también puede ser leída como una gran novela de aventuras.En definitiva, un clásico de ciencia ficción que hay que leer.
—Oscar
