Those who have read the novel will recall that after Moreau and his assistant Montgomery are killed, as are a number of the altered creatures, Prendick eventually escapes from the island and returns to London. Literature professor Roger Luckhurst notes, “In the 21st century, with genetic splicing making animal–human hybrids an actual possibility, Wells’ queasy exploration of the limits of the human in this provocative satire keeps the book incredibly relevant today.” Moreau’s efforts to control the behaviors of his menagerie of engineered creations through “The Law,” a list of prohibitions recited to the island’s “Beast Folk” to keep them from reverting to their animalistic selves, are also troubling. Moreau’s horrific surgical procedures triggered ethical questions and concerns about cruelty, morals, and human–animal relationships that still resonate with contemporary readers. Hyde, and the notion of humans creating chimeras, an idea articulated earlier in Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein. In The Island of Doctor Moreau, Wells intertwines several societal themes from the latter part of the 19th century, including the growing antivivisection movement, implications of Charles Darwin’s research on evolution, the nature of humankind as explored in Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novel The Strange Case of Dr. Here the doctor works without restraints, accountability, or moral guidance, performing gruesome, cruel experiments designed to transform animals into humans.

Doctor Moreau, a mad scientist, has fled to the island from England after his experiments in vivisection were exposed. Stranded on a remote, uncharted island, Prendick is nursed back to health after his ordeal at sea only to discover he has washed up on an isle of horrors. Originally published in 1896, Wells’ novel chronicles the story of the shipwrecked Englishman Edward Prendick.

This month’s cover art, created by contemporary English printmaker and illustrator Kate Gibb―known for her colorful, detailed screen-printed artwork developed for musicians and fashion designers―was first featured on another cover, the 2005 reissue of a classic work of early horror and science-fiction, The Island of Doctor Moreau by English writer H.G. Digital image used with permission of the artist. Silkscreen by hand on paper, 19.7 in × 27.6 in/50 cm × 70 cm.

Kate Gibb (1972–), The Island of Doctor Moreau, 2006.

The island of doctor moreau