This book is read in 3 hours and 45 minutes and has 21 chapters and 37,000 words.
We hope you enjoy this free audiobook of The Island of Doctor Moreau.
Here is the Foreward by the Editor:
I began this abridgment with great reluctance. I have generally stayed away from the science fiction genre, especially where animals are mutated or apes become humans. I don’t fit in here. Not that I don’t envy this crowd, but I just don’t feel comfortable in this space. I can’t hold an intelligent conversation about Star Wars, though I would still love to show up to a premier dressed as Chewbacca. I’m a nerd at heart, but something within my subconscious has prevented me from suspending my disbelief where animals acting as humans are concerned.
However, H.G. Wells intrigued me with his narrator Pendrick, who is not an animal, but the most human; relatable in his need for both adventure and solitude, yet scared and anxious of the changing world. He’s an Ishmael of Moby Dick, with a few looser screws. At his core an introvert, yet craves connection and even attempts friendship with some of the beast people, including a Dog-man and a pinkish skinned rabbit with long eyelashes and protective instincts. Though, after the adventure is over, he returns to himself: “Yet I shrink from them, from their curious glances, their inquiries and assistance, and longed to be away from them and alone. “
In this book, we are reminded that we all have an animal nature that we often revert back to. Our cravings? We succumb to. Our impulses? We act out. Our shortcomings and weakness? We often hide behind with ego and vanity (just take one look at Instagram with its vile displays of superhuman lifestyles).
Maybe there is more to gain when we stop trying to change someone, like Dr. Moreau would, and instead accept and admire each other’s unique individuality as we were naturally created.
I hope you enjoy this edition of a wonderfully worthwhile classic.
Levi F. Barber