Book Review: The Island of Dr. Moreau, by H. G. Wells

I read this one around Halloween, and am just now getting to posting my thoughts on it.  But I haven't started a new book in a week or so, in an effort to get a bit caught up.  Especially before the December break.  I think I will really reduce my posting output for that month.  I plan a holiday post or two, and probably a postmortem entitled "Summer Movies That Did Suck - 2012."  Other than that, it'll be a good time to do finals, work on all the household stuff that needs attention, take care of those in my life who are in need, and look for a part-time job for the spring.  And maybe enjoy a day or so of holiday cheer, while I'm at it.

Source: Amazon.com

The Island of Dr. Moreau, by H.G. Wells

From the book’s cover:

After a collision between two ships in rough seas, a "private gentlemen"--the wreck's sole survivor--languished for eight days under a merciless sun. With neither food to eat nor water to drink, death seemed a certainty. But miraculously, Edward Prendick survived.

Yet what he was to encounter in the days ahead was more horrible and terrifying than any death he could ever have imagined. For the island on which he landed was the home of the infamous Dr. Moreau.

Exiled from England because of his gruesome experiments in vivisection, Moreau has taken up residence in this remote paradise in order to continue his work. His goal: To create a new, superior race of beings! His legacy, however, would prove to be a nightmare beyond comprehension...


Synopsis:

This one is short, but entertaining. A gentleman (aren't they always gentlemen in these stories?) named Edward Pendrick is shipwrecked, and then picked up by a ship going to an un-named island. His benefactor vessel contains a variety of ill-treated specimen animals being send to the island for research.

When the ship gets close to the island, the captain insists that Pendrick leave with the men who are going there. So he does. When he gets ashore, he soon discovers the place belongs to a Dr. Phillipe Moreau, a renown physiologist, who was chased out of England for his work on vivisection and his weird theories.

Pendrick is stuck on this island for the foreseeable future, and so he tries to make the most of it. But he is soon to discover that there are weirdos wandering the jungle. The people he meets are of strange visage and carry themselves in an inhuman way. Some have vaguely canine features, while others are ape-like, swine-like, and a variety of other beasts figure are in the bunch too.

Now I interrupt by saying that my exposure to this book beforehand were a vignette from one of The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror" episodes where the citizens of Springfield were turned into animals by Dr. Hibbert, and a DVD cover at the video store featuring Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando, and so I expected that Moreau had made people into animals. But that doesn't seem to be the case here, if I understood correctly. The truth, though less believable (in my opinion), is more horrible. And our guy Pendrick is quite happy about the possibility of departure after Moreau is killed in the jungle and the rest of the "regular" inhabitants either commit suicide or are attacked and slain. You see, without authority, the law of civilization starts to break down, and the law of tooth and claw reasserts itself on the Island of Dr. Moreau...

The author, H. G. Wells. / Source: Wikipedia.com

What I liked about it:

It was short. And it had the proper verisimilitude. And it didn't suck. How's that for concise?

The Island of Dr. Moreau is another "playing God" story from a period of time in which such a thing was becoming ever more possible, and regular people were both entranced and appalled by the concept. I liked the story for what it was, and am glad I finally got around to reading it.

What I didn’t like about it:

The language is a bit obscure at times. Of course, that is partly a problem of it being an audiobook that I was listening to. You can go back and read a passage again in a book if it threw you, but that is harder to do in an audiobook.

My quip about "these stories always being about gentlemen" above does apply as well. Too many novels or stories from pre-twentieth century seem to revolve around people of more than modest substance and/or means. I know, it was a different time, but just once I want to read a book from back in the day where the person involved is a nobody. I suppose there are plenty out there, and I just haven't run upon them yet. I am not well versed in pre-twentieth century literature by any means. But it does seem formulaic after awhile.

Oh, and one gripe about the audiobook specifically. The "musical" cue between chapters was a jarring violin string-thingy that made my ears hurt every time I heard it. I know it was probably trying to represent the sound of the jungle, and add tension. It added tension alright. I tensed every time the narrator paused, for fear I was going to be assaulted by that noise again. It set the mood, but it also annoyed the heck out of me.

Marlon Brando from the 1996 film (I think that was the year on that one).  He is what I imagine Moreau looking like.  I don't know if it was just random mental connections or forgotten memory, but when the book stared, Brando was who I pictured.  I've never seen the film that the photo from above came from.  But Apocalypse Now Brando was who I pictured. / Source: TotalFilm.com

What I learned, if anything:

As I mentioned in the synopsis, the story is about people being made from animals, and not the other way around, as I had previously supposed. So there is that. Other than that, it was not a really "educational" book.

 On a side note, as I was Googling images to go with this review, I happened upon a review of the movie The Human Centipede and found a passage that compared that film to this book.  What that author says about The Island of Dr. Moreau is eloquent, and so I'm going to toss it on right here.  I will also include the link to the original story for the sake of citing sources (we upper-division university students do so love our source citing), and journalistic integrity, but I recommend against going there unless you have a strong stomach.  I won't be watching that film.  The Human Centipede, that is.  The screengrab photos in that review were enough to turn my stomach.  And they weren't even gruesome.  Just... disturbing. 

Moreau’s ambitions seem infinitely more perverse: to parody the evolution of man, and even of his society (the Beast Folk’s Law being a kind of burlesque of the Ten Commandments). The horror comes from how close Moreau actually comes to succeeding in certain aspects while falling short in others - the Beast Folk’s Law, for example, include recognizably human aspirations (to refrain from violence; to act properly; to believe they can be more than what they are), while still addressing the Folk’s bestial nature (to walk upright not on all fours, to drink water without bending down).

By novel’s end Wells achieves what all great science fiction writers aspire to achieve, a total inversion of the conventional point of view. The hero escapes to civilization, only to realize that he’s just as uneasy there as he ever was with the Beast Folk; Moreau’s eponymous island is less a location than an inescapable state of mind.

From author Noel Vera on bigOfeature, BigOZine2.com. 

The episode of the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror I spoke of earlier.  From left to right, Lisa as an eagle, Homer as a walrus (you know what they say about the walrus, yeah?), Marge as a puma, and Bart as a spider.  No Maggie?  I can't recall what they did with her. / Source: DailyFill.com

Recommendation:

First off, it's a good quick read. The Island of Dr. Moreau is worth a visit if you have an afternoon with time to spare. Second, the creep factor is good, and the story is both claustrophobic and somehow desolate feeling. That is - the jungle feels cramped when Wells writes about Pendrick's experiences in it, and the island also feels lonely and isolated as things go from bad to worse. Not the best book of its type that I've read, but it is good stuff, nevertheless.

Learn more about The Island of Dr. Moreau, by H. G. Wells, on Amazon.com 


The parting comment:

Source: Preshrunk.org

 Keeping with the Island of Dr. Moreau theme, here is an albino gorilla whose expression makes him look like he could have been one of Moreau's experiments.  That grin is almost human.  Like he's saying: "yeah, its good to be the only white guy around here."  Hey, what do I know?  Maybe its a female.  I know next to nothing about gorillas.  Only that they are mostly dark-colored, surly looking, and - like the proverbial Millennium Falcon co-pilot of yore - can "pull your arms out of their sockets when they lose."  I make it a habit to not mess with gorillas or wookies, thank you.