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

I had read this book before--when I was 13 years old. I remember because that summer my mom was enrolled in summer school at Texas Tech, and, thus, was able to check out books for me. I spent the summer reading H.G. Wells and Jules Verne as fast as I could, because I only had six weeks before my supply would be cut off. (Lockney, Texas, was sorely lacking in its library offerings.) I loved this book then, and I loved it almost as much this time. Of course, I'm sure I missed some of the philosophical implications back then, but Wells tells a great story, enjoyable for people of any age.

The narrator of the novel, Edward Pendrick, is shipwrecked and alone in a small life-boat, when he is picked up by a freighter. Strange circumstances lead to his being left on a small island with an ex-medical student, who is prone to drunkenness, and Dr. Moreau, a disgraced scientists. Also on the island are various strange-looking "natives," who are almost animal-like in appearance.

It soon becomes apparent that Dr. Moreau has been performing bizarre experiments, transforming animals into a semblance of humanity, with the ability to walk upright and to speak. Unfortunately, they tend to revert to bestiality.

And what happens next? That suspense is the strength of this story. That and the very literate writing.

What did I miss the first time? I missed Well's suggestion that man is not so far from beast as he would like to think. The narrator says, "A strange persuasion came upon me that, save for the grossness of the line, the grotesqueness of the forms, I had before me the whole balance of human life in miniature, the whole interplay of instinct, reason, and fate, in its simplest form."

I really liked this comment on the difference between man and beast: "An animal may be ferocious and cunning enough, but it takes a real man to tell a lie."

Jules Verne tended to be scientific, often predicting inventions yet to come (the submarine of 20,00 Leagues Under the Sea, for example). I can see now that Well's science was not even plausible, but, at 13, that mattered little to me, if I even realized it. It still doesn't matter.