Creepy Reads – A New Halloween Tradition

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

This is a weird and creepy book that most people have probably heard of, but probably not read. The story is straightforward enough (spoilers….): A man gets shipwrecked and ends up on an Island run by guy-with-a-god-complex and titled character Dr. Moreau, who conducts grotesque experiments on animals in order to turn them into humans, more or less. Less, not more, actually. Dr. M controls his custom-designed menagerie by installing himself as a kind of overlord, drawing on Christian religious metaphors to secure his position. As one might expect from such a solidly laid plan, things eventually go awry. The animal-human hybrids start to revert to their natural animal states of hunting and eating each other and, as a matter or course, catastrophe unfolds. Our shipwrecked narrator manages to escape on a raft and, after being rescued and returned to his homeland, lives the rest of his life haunted and forever changed by the events to which he was witness.

The most disturbing part of this story for me was the way in which the narrator seems less troubled by the cries of a tortured puma since a puma is a “dumb” animal than he is when he realized the creature is partly human.

Yet had I known such pain was in the next room, and had it been dumb, I believe – I have thought since – I could have stood it well enough. It is when suffering finds a voice and sets our nerves quivering that this pity comes troubling us.

Of course, the book was written in 1896 and so this is a sign of the times, but such a startling lack of empathy towards the suffering of animals is still galling to me. Annnnd now you know why I’m not a hunter, and why, on my walk this morning, I rescued a Woolly Bear caterpillar by moving him off the walking path and onto the grass.

The second disturbing aspect of the book was the easy-go-lucky way the actual humans were about killing, and in fact luring creatures into behaviours that would then justify execution.

And that their sins may grow, I said, let them live in their folly until their time is ripe. Let them not know that I am the Master.

WTF??? I really want to like this book, because it’s H.G. Wells, after all. It is absolutely far ahead of its time in terms of providing commentary on eugenics, religion, and animal experimentation. I expect it will provide for some interesting discussion at book club. And an excellent pick for this year’s creepy Halloween theme.

Rating: Buy it, and keep it with your H.G.Wells collection. But be warned there are definitely some difficult bits.

PS I can’t believe there is a movie …