Until I read this book, I didn't know that a serious novel about human like animals existed. Certainly H.G. Wells is not most well known as one of the fathers of sci-fi for this novel. It was one of his first, published in 1896, and the book lovers of the time must have really found this work disturbing and shocking. Maybe that's why The Island of Dr. Moreau has been playing catch up to The Time Machine and War of the Worlds ever since. I admit that I myself found the basic idea in this book very cruel, but I realized that the book covered other issues as well. Besides being the novel about an insane scientist who tries the hand at playing God, this book evokes thoughts of social responsibilty and freedom of all living things. Also, it shows that sometimes who we think of as being authority really have no right to be, and deals with anarchy and revolution. But it is the basic plot that has the most effect. Why does Moreau torture animals so that can make them in the image of man? Dr. Moreau beats Victor Frankenstein on who is a more of a nutcase. Frankenstein intended for something good to come out of his work. Moreau did his experiments just for curiosity. He didn't expect for his creations to have any real purpose. He didn't care for them. And yet he brainwashes his creations to fear and respect him, to treat him like a god, and follow his laws. And another thought occurs. What really seperates man from beast? What causes humans to sometime commit violent and brutal acts? What does that account for? When I read this novel, the reality of what genetic cloning may become years from now passed through my mind. If genetics had been an established science in the 1890's, Wells could of utilized it in this book, but he would probably have created a controversy beyond any proportion. But certainly the ignorance of genes back then was not his fault, and he came up with probably the best substition: vivisection. Being the substitute of what was unknown and likely more plausible, vivisection was more than enough to shock Well's audience of reading about the blasphemous idea of creating "Beast-People". I am certain that people in 1896 weren't ready for it. Neither are we. That's what I think is the main reason that The Island of Dr. Moreau isn't as popular as H.G. Wells other novels. I found, however, that this was a worthwhile read because its suspense and creepiness intrigued me, and it made me think of some social issues. If you're a person who can bear reading a grotesque story of cruelty and suffering, I highly recommend this book.

This is certainly an interesting work, though not nearly as exciting or gripping as The Time Machine or War of the Worlds. For some reason, I had the notion in mind that this short novel was a "most dangerous game" type of story where the protagonist is hunted, but this is of course not true. Dr. Moreau is a scientist--a quite mad one, actually--whose life's work involves vivisection; in essence, he takes a plethora of animals and, through surgery and mental indoctrination of some sort, attempts--with varying success---to endow them with humanity. The result is a twisted menagerie of beasts who share both human and animal traits of myriad sorts. They can understand human speech, in fact, which has allowed the doctor to indoctrinate them into a worldview wherein he is the god whose laws must be obeyed. While the story of the protagonist, Prendrick, is interesting, from his initial shipwreck to his "rescue" and eventual escape, his main purpose in the story is to describe the inhabitants of this macabre island. As one may imagine, this isolated, fragile society eventually breaks down and the beasts regress more and more into their animal instincts, to the great detriment of the "god" Moreau and his rather pitiful assistant Montgomery.

Metaphors and broad, deep-reaching themes abound in this tale. While one can certainly make out an obvious theme concerning man's desire to play God and the negative consequences of such efforts by science, there are deeper and more mysterious conclusions one can draw about Wells' view of humanity itself. While this is certainly not a racist novel, one can conceivably see it as a warning against racial mixing, particularly in terms of the notion that the lower and more "bestial" traits will eventually win out over any "higher" traits imbued into a mixed creation, a common idea at that time. However, I tend to see the strange human-animal creations of Dr. Moreau as a microcosm of mankind itself. There is evil (or bestiality) present in all men which has the danger of erupting to the surface at any time; no set of external factors can make a truly good man. Society will always have a minority who are bestial in nature and who cannot be redeemed despite the best efforts of that society's members to form a perfect world. The tale is a rather unusual one for Wells, it would seem, particularly in terms of this seemingly negative interpretation of society itself. There are no good guys in this tale; every character is a victim; the experimentation (social as well as physiological) of Dr. Moreau is an unadulterated failure. Perhaps the conclusions I have drawn from reading this story are my own alone. The Island of Dr. Moreau, however, clearly shows the depths of Wells' thinking and his deep interest in society and its ills, and it challenges the reader to think about the negative consequences of genetic and social engineering. As always, H.G. Wells shows himself to be a far-reaching thinker and a man truly before his own time.

And it is with these words that the main character in Hg wells masterpiece, "the island of Dr moreau",expresses the feeling of being back in civilization. This is not a book just about being trapped on an island with a madman, but is a book about finding ourselves here in this existence and confronting and doing battle with the dual nature of animal and human in each of us. It is the struggle between social responsibilty and personal freedom, between the primal, organic impulses and the spiritual and intellectual. The conflict is eternal and inherent in what it is to be human. To negate and deny the other aspect is to live a life lacking of the full breadth of what it is to be human and to be at conflict with oneself. To live with both aspects is to live, paradoxically, with the same struggle. So here is man, as he is, doing what he can in this chaotic, crazy world,as the main character does,looking to the stars for "hope".

I've been catching up on Wells' work lately, and up to this point, I've been fairly impressed. His best work, written at the turn of the century, holds up fairly well: it's entertaining and thought-provoking (The Time Machine, War of the Worlds).

I wasn't very impressed with this book, however. It doesn't read like his other works. The story probably could have been told in 20 or so pages, definitely a short-story candidate. I was amazed that Wells stretched this out to its present length, as the middle 40-odd pages were quite dull and really didn't go anywhere.

The science behind the story (while iffy, of course), is fascinating. Griffin is a great character, but more could have been done with him, besides his spending so much time having to convince people that he IS, in fact, invisible ("I am invisible. I really am an invisible man", etc, etc). It gets mind-numbing after a while. I guess the biggest let-down of the book is the fact that the title gives everything away. Once you've seen the cover, you pretty much have it; no real surprises. Yep, he's invisible, and there ya go.

What a great idea to assemble scifi icons from Star Trek to perform various H.G. Wells's classics! Of the works they've performed are: The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, The First Men in the Moon, and Journey to the Center of the Earth.

This audio recording of The Invisible Man was easy listening, and fun too. It's definitely worth a listen. I'm going to have to check out the others!

One side note, obviously the original work was abridged and adapted for audio drama. You'll still want to read the classic.

Okay, so Wells didn't load the book with the violence seen in the recent movie Hollow Man. Consider when the book was written, and what was comparable at the time. I, for one, was engrossed in the book and read it in about three sittings.

Wells excellently portrayed Griffin (Invisible Man) as a man crossing back and forth from sanity to madness. You may catch yourself considering how you would overcome his difficulties, or how you might abuse his power.

What really stood out for me was the tongue-in-cheek undertones Wells incorporated into the story, such as the cockney dialect and rustic behavior of the people of Iping. Also, consider Wells' narration during intense moments, such as the fight between Griffin and the people of Iping...
"...[Huxter's] shin was caught in some mysterious fashion, and he was no longer running, but flying with inconceivable rapidity through the air. He saw the ground suddenly close to his face. The world seemed to splash into a million whirling specks of light, and subsequent proceedings interested him no more."
Later elaboration of the events included the terrifying realization that Griffin was "smiting and overthrowing, for the mere satisfaction of hurting."

If you find the book difficult to follow, try the version adapted by Malvina Vogel, complete with illustrations by Pablo Marcos. It's not as powerful, but easier to understand.

John McTavish and Harold Wells have performed a great service in collecting some of the most exciting "small print" exgetical passages from Karl Barth's "Church Dogmatics" into this compact, paperback volume. Barth's insights into Scripture are still fresh and clear, illuminating the thread running throughout the Bible -- Jesus Christ, God's Word incarnate -- in stunning ways. Unfortunately, the volume suffers from a lack of any indices (such as the topical and biblical indices found in the "Domgatics" themselves). The volume's title is also misleading; preachers expecting to find a series of passages keyed to the Revised Common Lectionary will be disappointed. The book is only very loosely arranged according to the seasons of the ecclesiastical calendar. Barth's work is strong, but the editors' oversights limits the practical usefulness of this volume.

This is a book way ahead of its time. It chronicles the invasion of Earth by the inhabitants of neighbouring Mars, from the point of view of the anonymous protagonist. Some of the ideas may seem somewhat inane upon reading the book presently, but bear in mind that it was written over a hundred years ago, where the concept of interaction with extra-terrestrial beings was thoroughly infantile.
The book is seemingly written as a documentary with the hard-hitting authenticity of a late-night news bulletin as opposed to a fantastical yarn spattered with conspicuously impracticable fairytale imagery. This therefore creates a tangible sense of realism that causes the reader to wonder how they might have fared were they thrust into the same situation.
Wells manages to keep the suspense mounting throughout, exploring the reaction of tense and fearful pre-WW1 humanity to the physical embodiment and culmination of their apprehensions, and the novel concludes in a way rather pleasingly unexpected, and that could almost serve to be the twisted moral of this paranoid parable.
If you are looking for a book in which you can examine character developments and interactions, then The War Of The Worlds is at best inappropriate. However, it is a valuable contrivance insofar as instigating speculation as to mankind's position in the universe, and indeed the position of those civilizations and cultures traditionally or habitually thought of as subservient to one's own.
The casual reader might have some difficulty with Wells' linguistic manner, and indeed may have only come across some of the vocabulary used through listening to MatronsApron, yet Wells still manages to explain events thoroughly and concisely.
To conclude, then, The War Of The Worlds is a literary landmark that unquestionably invented the entire science fiction genre, and should appeal to fans of action, fans of adventure, fans of science fiction, and conspiracy theorists alike. With this book, H.G. Wells has proven to be a social commentator, sublime documentarian, sci-fi pioneer, and a splendid storyteller.

One of the most famous science fiction books to date is H. G. Wells' classic War of the Worlds, which has become national paranoia in the late 30's with Orson Welles over the radio. And later in the 50's become a national hit with the movie goers. Well, neither the radio broadcast or movie rendition really took the book to its letter by letter copy, but rather improvised like most non-literal entertainers. The book begins with suspicion, suspense and wonder as a meteor passes the sky without any real notice to anyone. While the book is told in the perspective of the scientist (whose name I cant seem to recall at the moment), later, somewhere after the mid-point the gears switch and we learn what the scientists brother is doing elsewhere. For the majority of the book, once the aliens have control over the earth, which is within the first 4 chapters, things calm down and become a bit stale. Only after we come back to the scientist from the brothers story, things pick up, but mind you, they pick up slowly. I am happy I got the chance to read this book, but was a little dissapointed in how the story unfolded which is why I gave this book 4 stars. Nonetheless, certainly a required reading for science fiction fans, and even now, amongst those persuing literature.

I finally read this book for the first time at age 27, and was not disapointed!

The imagery is incredible, Wells tells the story of invasion and chaos as if he had been there himself . . .I could certainly imagine myself there.

I do think you have to be a little bit older, more well read to better appreciate this book. I noticed several school kids from VA put reviews on line calling it boring. Of course, these are probably the kids who were expecting the main character to be like Will Smith and the earthlings to travel to the Martians space station (a la Independence Day).

And that was part of the book's charm. No influence from Hollywood. Written in the late 1800's, before movies existed, the book is way ahead of its time. Independce Day obviously got its influence from this book, and is a more updated (and Americanized) version.

Hey, go read it now!

Unknown to the inhabitants of Earth, the planet Mars is aging and nearing its exhaustion. The Martians, not even perceiving humans to be anything other than animals, decide that it is time to seize this lush, young planet. Landing in several locations in southeastern England they begin their conquest of the planet. Can man, with his most advanced technology hope to stop the Martians with their much more advanced technology?

You've seen the 1953 movie, War of the Worlds, and want to read it in book form? Well, then don't look here. Herbert George Wells wrote this book in 1898, a mere one year after The Invisible Man, and two years after The Island of Doctor Moreau. The moviemakers of the 1950s made a wonderful movie, but one that, alas, bears very little resemblance to the original!

This book is one of the crowning examples of nineteenth century fantastic fiction. It is a gripping story that masterfully combines horror and suspense, keeping you at the edge of your seat until the final page.

I am lucky enough to possess the 2001, Books of Wonder edition that contains fourteen wonderful, full-color, full-page illustrations plus the two-page illustrations on the front and back, all done by the masterful Tom Kidd. It is very well made, and would make an excellent addition to any library.

Quotes from this book can go a long way:

She unabashedly called for the extirpation of "weeds .... overrunning the human garden"; for the segregation of "morons, misfits, and the maladjusted"; and for the sterilization of "genetically inferior races." Later she singled out the Chinese, writing in her autobiography about "the incessant fertility of [the Chinese] millions spread like a plague."

This book helps you to understand the person behind the person, drawing one to ponder questions like, "Is eliminating an inferior race an exercise of the right to choice?" and "Can one get a salesman to pay the price of gold for rocks?"

In concluding that I was one of those births that should have been prevented, I wondered if it was acceptable to reverse the focus, practicing the freedom to choose through elimination one's incubation processors.