The Island of Doctor Moreau
The Island of Doctor Moreau
The Island of Doctor Moreau
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Dr. Moreau
The island of Doctor M
Stanford University Libraries
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The Island of Doctor Moreau
F
The
A Possibility
By
H. G. Wells
New York
Stone & Kimball
MDCCCXCVI
COPYRIGHT
mkdcccxcvi
1896
400987
Contents
INTRODUCTION vii
I IN THE DINGEY OF THE “ LADY
VAIN ” 9
II THE MAN WHO WAS GOING
NOWHERE 15
III THE STRANGE FACE 21
IV AT THE SCHOONER's Rail 31
V THE MAN WHO HAD NOWHERE
TO GO 37
VI The Evil-LOOKING BOATMEN 45
VII THE LOCKED Door 54
VIII THE CRYING OF THE PUMA 63
IX THE THING IN THE Forest 69
X THE CRYING OF THE MAN 86
XI THE HUNTING OF THE MAN 93
XII THE SAYERS OF THE LAW 103
XIII THE PARLEY 118
XIV DoctOR MOREAU EXPLAINS 127
XV CONCERNING THE BEAST FOLK 147
XVI How THE BEAST FOLK TASTE
BLOOD 157
XVII A CATASTROPHE 180
XVIII THE FINDING OF MOREAU 189
XIX MONTGOMERY'S BANK HOLIDAY 197
XX ALONE WITH THE BEAST FOLK 2II
XXI The REVERSION OF THE BEAST
FOLK 221
vii
1
1
1
The Island of Doctor Moreau .
I.
14
II. ·
Ifound Amyself
whichuntidy.
THEsmallcabinand inrather was
youngish
man with flaxen hair, a bristly straw-coloured
moustache, and a dropping nether lip , was sit
ting and holding my wrist. For a minute we
stared at each other without speaking. He had
watery grey eyes, oddly void of expression.
Then just overhead came a sound like an iron
bedstead being knocked about, and the low
angry growling of some large animal. At the
same time the man spoke. He repeated his
question , —
« How do you feel now ? "
I think I said I felt all right. I could not
recollect how I had got there. He must have
seen the question in my face, for my voice was
inaccessible to me.
20
III.
T the
THAand nightland wassighted after sundown,
schooner hove to. Montgomery
intimated that was his destination . It was too
far to see any details ; it seemed to me then
simply a low -lying patch of dim blue in the
uncertain blue-grey sea . An almost vertical
streak of smoke went up from it into the sky.
The captain was not on deck when it was sighted.
After he had vented his wrath on me he had
staggered below, and I understand he went to
sleep on the floor of his own cabin. The mate
practically assumed the command. He was the
gaunt, taciturn individual we had seen at the
wheel. Apparently he was in an evil temper
wi Montgomery. He took not the slightest
notice of either of us. We dined with him in
a sulky silence, after a few ineffectual efforts on
my part to talk . It struck me too that the men
regarded my companion and his animals in a
31
The Island of Doctor Moreau.
36
V.
IN ing
the early morning
after my (itwas
recovery , tand
he secondmorn
I believe the
fourth after I was picked up) , I awoke through
an avenue of tumultuous dreams, .
dreams of
guns and howling mobs, — and became sensi
-
44
VI.
46
The Evil-looking Boatmen.
only their faces, yet there was something in
their faces — I knew not what - that gave me
a queer spasm of disgust. I looked steadily at
them , and the impression did not pass, though I
failed to see what had occasioned it. They
seemed to me then to be brown men but their
limbs were oddly swathed in some thin, dirty,
white stuff down even to the fingers and feet :
I have never seen men so wrapped up before,
and women so only in the East. They wore
turbans too, and thereunder peered out their
elfin faces at me, - faces with protruding lower
-
53
VII.
A
V
The Island of Doctor Moreau .
62
VIII.
MONTGOMERYinterrupted my tangleof
mystification and suspicion about one
o'clock, and his grotesque attendant followed
him with a tray bearing bread, some herbs and
other eatables, a fask of whiskey, a jug of water,
and three glasses and knives. I glanced askance
at this strange creature, and found him watch
ing me with his queer , restless eyes. Mont
gomery said he would lunch with me, but that
Moreau was too preoccupied with some work
to come .
« Moreau ! ” said I. 16 I know that name."
“ The devil you do ! ” said he. - What an
ass I was to mention it to you ! I might have
thought. Anyhow , it will give you an inkling
of our -- mysteries. Whiskey ? ”
No, thanks ; I'm an abstainer .”
« I wish I'd been. But it's no use locking
63
The Island of Doctor Moreau .
68
IX.
1
The Thing in the Forest.
Ileant forward to see him better, and a
piece of lava, detached by my hand, went pat
tering down the slope. He looked up guiltily ,
and his eyes met mine. Forthwith he scram
bled to his feet, and stood wiping his clumsy
hand across his mouth and regarding me. His
legs were scarcely half the length of his body.
So, staring one another out of countenance, we
remained for perhaps the space of a minute.
Then, stopping to look back once or twice, he
slunk off among the bushes to the right of me,
and I heard the swish of the fronds grow faint
in the distance and die away. Long after he
had disappeared, I remained sitting up staring in
the direction of his retreat. My drowsy tran
quillity had gone .
I was startled by a noise behind me, and
turning suddenly saw the flapping white tail of
a rabbit vanishing up the slope. I jumped to
my feet. The apparition of this grotesque,
half -bestial creature had suddenly populated the
stillness of the afternoon for me. I looked
around me rather nervously, and regretted that
I was unarmed . Then I thought that the man
I had just seen had been clothed in bluish cloth ,
71
The Island of Doctor Moreau.
85
X.
ASSIshone
drew near the house I saw that the light
from the open door of my room ;
and then I heard coming from out of the dark
ness at the side of that orange oblong of light,
the voice of Montgomery shouting, “ Pren
dick ! ” I continued running. Presently I
heard him again . I replied by a feeble
• Hullo ! ” and in another moment had stag
gered up to him .
“ Where have you been ? ” said he, holding
me at arm's length, so that the light from the
door fell on my face. 6. We have both been
so busy that we forgot you until about half an
hour ago .” He led me into the room and set
me down in the deck chair. For awhile I was
blinded by the light. or We did not think you
would start to explore this island of ours with
out telling us," he said ; and then, “ I was
afraid But what Hullo ! ”
86
The Crying of the Man.
My last remaining strength slipped from me,
and my head fell forward on my chest. I
think he found a certain satisfaction in giving
me brandy.
“ For God's sake, ” said I, “ fasten that door. ”
" You've been meeting some of our curi
osities, eh ? ” said he.
He locked the door and turned to me again .
He asked me no questions, but gave me some
more brandy and water and pressed me to eat.
I was in a state of collapse. He said some
thing vague about his forgetting to warn me,
and asked me briefly when I left the house and
what I had seen.
I answered him as briefly , in fragmentary
sentences . 6. Tell me what it all means,
said I, in a state bordering on hysterics.
“ It's nothing so very dreadful,” said he.
“ But I think you have had about enough for
one day.” The puma suddenly gave a sharp
yell of pain . At that he swore under his
breath . “ I'm damned ,” said he, “ if this
place is not as bad as Gower Street, with its
cats. "
“ Montgomery ,” said I, “ what was that
87
The Island of Doctor Moreau.
92
XI.
“ Hullo ! ”» said I.
He came down with a twisting jump, and
stood facing me.
99
The Island of Doctor Moreau.
102
h
slot
XII.
IIO
The Sayers of the Law.
“ None escape,”" said the Beast People,, highboots
ܚܕ
looking askance at one another.
>
“ For every one the want that is bad,” said
the grey Sayer of the Law. " What you will
want we do not know ; we shall know. Some
want to follow things that move, to watch and
slink and wait and spring ; to kill and bite, bite
deep and rich , sucking the blood. It is bad.
Not to chase other Men ; that is the Law.
Are we not Men ? Not to eat Flesh or Fish ;
that is the Law. Are we not Men "ܙ ' ?ܕ
“ None escape,” said a dappled brute stand
ing in the doorway.
“ For every one the want is bad,” said the
grey Sayer of the Law . 6. Some want to go
tearing with teeth and hands into the roots of
things, snuffing into the earth . It is bad .”
“ None escape," said the men in the door.
“ Some go clawing trees ; some go scratch
ing at the graves of the dead ; some go fighting
with foreheads or feet or claws ; some bite
suddenly, none giving occasion ; some love
uncleanness ."
“ None escape," said the Ape-man, scratch
ing his calf.
III
The Island of Doctor Moreau.
117
XIII .
A PARLEY .
I TURNED again
wards the sea .
and went on down to
I found the hot stream
broadened out to a shallow , weedy sand, in
which an abundance of crabs and long-bodied,
many -legged creatures started from my footfall.
I walked to the very edge of the salt water, and
then I felt I was safe. I turned and stared,
arms akimbo, at the thick green behind me, into
A Parley
an explanatory nod over his shoulder. “ Un
dignified .”
“ Go up to the trees, then , " said I, “ as
you please.”
“ It's a damned silly ceremony ,” >
said
Montgomery.
Both turned and faced the six or seven gro
tesque creatures, who stood there in the sunlight,
solid, casting shadows, moving, and yet so in
credibly unreal. Montgomery cracked his whip
at them , and forthwith they all turned and fled
helter-skelter into the trees ; and when Mont
gomery and Moreau were at a distance I judged
sufficient, I waded ashore, and picked up and
examined the revolvers. To satisfy myself
against the subtlest trickery, II discharged one at
a round lump of lava , and had the satisfaction of
seeing the stone pulverised and the beach splashed
with lead. Still I hesitated for a moment .
“ I'll take the risk , ” said I, at last ; and with
a revolver in each hand I walked up the beach
towards them .
“ That's better," said Moreau, without
“ As it is, you have wasted the
affectation .
best part of my day with your confounded
125
The Island of Doctor Moreau .
126
XIV .
“ ANNDDoctor
now, Prendick, I will explain ,”
Moreau, so soon as we had
said
is there ? ”
As he spoke he drew aа little penknife from
his pocket, opened the smaller blade, and moved
his chair so that I could see his thigh. Then ,
choosing the place deliberately, he drove the
blade into his leg and withdrew it.
“ No doubt,” he said , “ you have seen that
before. It does not hurt a pin - prick. But what
does it show ? The capacity for pain is not
needed in the muscle, and it is not placed there,
is but little needed in the skin, and only here
and there over the thigh is a spot capable of
feeling pain. Pain is simply our intrinsic med
ical adviser to warn us and stimulate us. Not
all living flesh is painful ; nor is all nerve, not
even all sensory nerve . There's no tint of pain ,
real pain, in the sensations of the optic nerve.
If you wound the optic nerve, you merely
see flashes of light, — just as disease of the
auditory nerve merely means a humming in
our ears . Plants do not feel pain, nor the
lower animals ; it's possible that such animals
135
The Island of Doctor Moreau .
as an interesting stowaway .
“ They were horribly afraid of him at first,
somehow , -· which offended me rather, for I
was conceited about him ; but his
way seem
ed
so mild, and he was so abject, that aftser a time
a
they received him and took his education in
hand. He was quick to learn , very imitative
and adaptive, and built himself a hovel rather
better, it seemed to me , than their own shanties.
There was
one among the boys a bit of
a missionary , and he taught the thing to read ,
or at least to pick out letters, and gave him
some rudimentary ideas of morality ; but it
seems the beast's habits were not all that is
desirable .
so I rested from work for some days after this,
and was in a mind to write an account of the
whole affair to wake up English physiology.
Then I came upon the creature squatting up in
a tree and gibbering at two of the Kanakas who
had been teasing him . I threatened him, told
140
Doctor Moreau explains.
him the inhumanity of such a proceeding,
aroused his sense of shame, and came home
resolved to do better before I took my work
back to England. I have been doing better.
But somehow the things drift back again :: the
stubborn beast - flesh grows day by day back again .
But I mean to do better things still. I mean to
conquer that. This puma
“ But that's the story. All the Kanaka boys
are dead now ; one fell overboard of the launch ,
and one died of a wounded heel that he poisoned
in some way with plant- juice. Three went
away in the yacht, and I suppose and hope
were drowned . The other one was killed .
Well, I have replaced them . Montgomery
went on much as you are disposed to do at first,
and then -
things.”
He became silent. I sat in silence watching
his face.
“ So for twenty years altogether — counting-
I
and there is still something in everything I do
that defeats me, makes me dissatisfied , challenges
me to further effort. Sometimes I rise above
my level, sometimes Ifall below it ; but always
I fall short of the things I dream . · The human
shape I can get now, almost with ease, so that it
is lithe and graceful, or thick and strong ; but
often there is trouble with the hands and the
claws, — painful things, that I dare not shape
too freely. But it is in the subtle grafting and
reshaping one must needs do to the brain that
my trouble lies. The intelligence is often
oddly low, with unaccountable blank ends, un
expected gaps. And least satisfactory of all is
something that I cannot touch, somewhere I
cannot determine where - in the seat of the
emotions. Cravings, instincts, desires that harm
humanity , a strange hidden reservoir to burst
forth suddenly and inundate the whole being of
the creature with anger, hate, or fear. These
creatures of mine seemed strange and uncanny to
you so soon as you began to observe them ; but
to me, just after I make them, they seem to be
indisputably human beings. It's afterwards, as
I observe them , that the persuasion fades. First
143
The Island of Doctor Moreau.
146
XV.
156
XVI.
►
How the Beast Folk taste Blood.
179
XVII.
A CATASTROPHE .
dead ? "
The Monkey -man looked guiltily at the
hairy - grey Thing. “ He is dead," said this
monster . “ They saw .”
There was nothing threatening about this
detachment, at any rate. They seemed awe
stricken and puzzled .
“ Where is he ? ” said Montgomery.
“ Beyond," and the grey creature pointed .
“ Is there aa Law now ? ” asked the Monkey
191
The Island of Doctor Moreau.
192
The Finding of Moreau .
“ And the other Thing ? ” I demanded .
« The Thing that bled, and ran screaming
and sobbing, - that is dead too,” said the grey
-
« Well ? ” said I.
« Said he was dead .”
But Montgomery was still sober enough to
understand my motive in denying Moreau's
death . “ He is not dead ,” he said slowly,
« not dead at all. No more dead than I
am ."
“ Some,” said I, “ have broken the Law :
they will die . Some have died. Show us
now where his old body lies, — the body he
cast away because he had no more need of it. ”
“ It is this way , Man who walked in the
Sea," said the grey Thing.
And with these six creatures guiding us, we
went through the tumult of ferns and creepers
and tree-stems towards the northwest. Then
came a yelling, a crashing among the branches,
and a little pink homunculus rushed by us
13 193
The Island of Doctor Moreau .
shrieking. Immediately after appeared a feral
monster in headlong pursuit, blood -bedabbled,
who was amongst us almost before he could
stop his career. The grey Thing leapt aside.
M’ling, with a snarl, flew at it, and was struck
aside. Montgomery fired and missed, bowed
his head, threw up his arm , and turned to run .
I fired, and the Thing still came on ; fired
again , point-blank, into its ugly face. I saw its
features vanish in a flash : its face was driven in.
Yet it passed me, gripped Montgomery, and
1
holding him , fell headlong beside him and pulled
him sprawling upon itself in its death -agony. 1
196
5
XIX.
a baby ? ”
It was hard to deal with such ravings .
• The thing we have to think of now ," said I,
“ is how to get away from this island.”
“What's the good of getting away ? I'm
an outcast. Where am I to join on It's all
very well for you, Prendick . Poor old Moreau !
We can't leave him here to have his bones
picked. As it is - And besides, what will
.
210
XX.
220
XXI.
N this
IN Peoplewayin Ithebecame one among the Beast
Island of Doctor Moreau.
Bran
1
The Island of Doctor Moreau.
فيف
ففيية
they fell to pieces when I tilted the boat on its
side and dragged them out. One had a shock
of red hair, like the captain of the “ Ipecacu
anha,” and a dirty white cap lay in the bottom
of the boat.
As I stood beside the boat, three of the
Beasts came slinking out of the bushes and
sniffing towards me. One of my spasms of
disgust came upon me. I thrust the little boat
down the beach and clambered on board her.
Two of the brutes were Wolf -beasts, and came
forward with quivering nostrils and glittering
eyes ; the third was the horrible nondescript of
bear and bull. When I saw them approaching
those wretched remains, heard them snarling at
one another and caught the gleam of their teeth ,
a frantic horror succeeded my repulsion. I
turned my back upon them , struck the lug and
began paddling out to sea. I could not bring
myself to look behind me.
I lay, however, between the reef and the
island that night, and the next morning went
round to the stream and filled the empty keg
aboard with water. Then, with such patience
16 241
The Island of Doctor Moreau .
242
XXII.
I
IN before
the evening Istarted, and drove out to sea
a gentle wind from the southwest,
slowly, steadily ; and the island grew smaller
and smaller, and the lank spire of smoke dwin
dled to a finer and finer line against the hot sun
set. The ocean rose up around me, hiding that
low, dark patch from my eyes. The daylight,
the trailing glory of the sun, went streaming out
of the sky, was drawn aside like some luminous
curtain , and at last I looked into the blue gulf of
immensity which the sunshine hides, and saw
the floating hosts of the stars. The sea was
silent, the sky was silent. I was alone with the
night and silence .
So I drifted for three days, eating and drink
ing sparingly, and meditating upon all that had
happened to me,, — not desiring very greatly
then to see men again. One unclean rag was
about me, my hair a black tangle :: no doubt
my discoverers thought mea -madman.
243
The Island of Doctor Moreau,
space of a year.
I had to act with the utmost circumspection
ito save myself from the suspicion of insanity.
My memory of the Law , of the two dead
sailors, of the ambuscades of the darkness, of
the body in the canebrake, haunted me ; and,
unnatural as it seems, with my return to man
kind came, instead of that confidence and sym
pathy I had expected, a strange enhancement of
the uncertainty and dread I had experienced
during my stay upon the island. No one
would believe me ; I was almost as queer to
men as I had been to the Beast People. I may
244
The Man Alone .
248
NOTE.
249
PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON AT
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS IN CAMBRIDGE
DURING MAY M DCCC XCVI. FOR
1
40 키
IMALO
4 1941
22 192
1945
MAY 21 ' 7 :
2. i
MAR 14 1984
JUN 1985
SPRING 1982
VON 1999
AUG 1978 APR 7.1997
Stanford University Library
Stanford , California
OCT 2 0 1986
GPRS :
The Island of Dr: Moreau
by
H.G.Wells
SK