ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, THE

The author of 'The Time Machine' and 'War of the World' conjures up an island where a mad doctor experiments with turning animals into grotesque human-like creatures. The island is discovered by survivors of a South Pacific shipwreck. Read the prescient 1896 story as a social satire and as a foreshadow of science-to-come such as gene-splicing and bioengineering. The text of the first (American) printed version (1896), with appended footnotes recording all variants up to 1924 and annotations of whatever strictly needs such, takes up little more than a third of its pages. Seven appendices provide the only available transcription of Wells’s first draft, details of the emendations that he made before 1900 and reportedly intended to incorporatein a future edition of the book, accounts of six film versions and one stage adaptation of Moreau, critical synopses of Moreau's literary 'children', etc. Preceding all this are almost 50pp. on Wells's life and thoughts, with particular reference toMoreau.