It's hard to believe Island was written by HG Wells in 1896! The year before he published The Time Machine, and followed in 1897 with The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds in 1898. Incredible.
Unlike some other classics, this reads like it could have been written today, with scientific ideas and comments on society we are still dealing with.
I must say I have mixed feelings about Island. It was a solid adventure, completely original and must have been shocking in 1896. Usually exactly what I am looking for. I have read a lot of horror and serial killer thrillers, but found this pretty distasteful and actually hard to finish. It's filled with horrifying images.
The Lady Vain collided with a derelict ten days out of Callao, leaving three passengers adrift in a life raft. The only survivor found was Edward Prendick, who wakes up on another vessel, nursed by Mr. Montgomery. They are dumped with yearly supplies on an unmarked island, somewhere near Hawaii. Prendick becomes an unwelcome guest in the compound of Dr. Moreau and his assistant Montgomery, wondering how to return to civilization and listening nightly to strange cries coming from the locked laboratory. Moreau fled London in scandal years ago, and the three of them seem isolated on the island, although strange creatures are glimpsed in the jungle. When he sees one of Montgomery's helpers has hairy pointed ears, he learns of Moreau's cruel experiments in living vivisections. No spoiler to say Moreau has been experimenting with animal transformation - grafting different animal parts together, carven and wrought into upright human form. These haunting cries of pain from animals tied to a framework and being tortured alive made my stomach turn.
Exploring the island, Prendick follows a creature into the jungle where the mutilated experiments live, cast off by Moreau as failures as their bestial ways could not be broken. Abandoning them deformed and mad, Moreau has taught them to live in fear of a law they don't understand - obey the master with the whip. Prendick discovers the puma Moreau has been experimenting on has been driven mad, and once it escapes into the island, held together with bloody gauze bandages, the distorted beast people begin to rebel.
The adventure part of the story was very well written, but the ideas of experimental torture disturbed me. Live vivisection experiments on animals raises ethical and moral questions we still deal with today. Hearing their painful cries in the night is even worse than describing what is being done to them, the lost and wandering beasts that result are not so menacing as pathetic, you can almost see the pain in their eyes. It's a very creepy tale of science without ethics.
It has been turned into a film 5 times over the years and brings up lots of philosophical themes.
You can download a free eBook in several formats from ManyBooks.net.
Considering it was written 118 years ago, it has still such a powerful punch making it a classic alongside his other science fiction titles - but I would say if you like animals, this is a hard book to read. The themes tainted the enjoyment of this adventure story for me.
The writing is excellent, but I don't want to do it again.
1896 / Paperback / 189 pages
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