Kalamdan

H. G. Wells

The Island of Doctor Moreau

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Cover of The Island of Doctor Moreau

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Language
English
First published
1896
Reading time
189 minutes
Chapters
24 chapters

About this book

Edward Prendick survives a shipwreck, is picked up by a passing schooner and is then left on a remote Pacific island, where a mysterious doctor works in secret behind a locked door.

Terrible cries come from the enclosure at night, and the island's servants walk and speak in ways that are not quite human. H. G. Wells wrote this dark tale in 1896, when people were arguing about Darwin's ideas and about experiments on living animals, and it still asks hard questions about cruelty and about what makes us human. Read it for its creeping dread and its sharp ideas.

On February the First 1887, the Lady Vain was lost by collision with a derelict when about the latitude 1° S. and longitude 107° W.

Introduction

About this edition

  • Source

    Project Gutenberg (eBook #159)

    Text version

    Project Gutenberg eBook #159 (updated 28 June 2025), downloaded 7 November 2026. The frontispiece placeholder, title page, contents list, and the repeated title and subtitle ("The Story written by Edward Prendick") before chapter I were not imported. The introduction signed by the narrator's nephew (part of the novel), the 22 chapters and Wells's closing note about the Saturday Review article are unchanged.

  • License

    Public domain

    Copyright status last verified: 9 November 2026

  • Category

    Science Fiction and Fantasy

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Chapters

24 chapters
  1. Introduction2 min
  2. I. In the Dingey of the “Lady Vain.”5 min
  3. II. The Man Who Was Going Nowhere.5 min
  4. III. The Strange Face.8 min
  5. IV. At the Schooner’s Rail.5 min
  6. V. The Man Who Had Nowhere to Go.6 min
  7. VI. The Evil-Looking Boatmen.8 min
  8. VII. The Locked Door.7 min
  9. VIII. The Crying of the Puma.5 min
  10. IX. The Thing in the Forest.15 min
  11. X. The Crying of the Man.6 min
  12. XI. The Hunting of the Man.9 min
  13. XII. The Sayers of the Law.12 min
  14. XIII. A Parley.7 min
  15. XIV. Doctor Moreau Explains.17 min
  16. XV. Concerning the Beast Folk.8 min
  17. XVI. How the Beast Folk Taste Blood.18 min
  18. XVII. A Catastrophe.8 min
  19. XVIII. The Finding of Moreau.6 min
  20. XIX. Montgomery’s “Bank Holiday.”11 min
  21. XX. Alone with the Beast Folk.8 min
  22. XXI. The Reversion of the Beast Folk.18 min
  23. XXII. The Man Alone.5 min
  24. Note1 min

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