PINOUtN f l E A O i n S

T h e I s l a n d of Dr M o r e a u
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 The Island of Doctor Moreau

H.G.WELLS
Level 3

Retold by Fiona Beddall

Series Editors: Andy Hopkins andjocelyn Potter

S'
 Pearson Education Limited Contents
Edinburgh Gate, Harlow,
Essex C M 2 0 2 J E , England
and Associated C o m p a n i e s throughout the world. ipage
ISBN: 978-1-4058-8190-6
Introduction V

First published 2 0 0 7
T h i s edition published 2 0 0 8 ('liapter 1 Lost and Found 1

("liapter 2 The Ipecacuanha 3

Text copyright Pearson Education Ltd 2 0 0 8
O r i g i n a l text: T h e Literary Executors o f the Estate o f H . G , W e l l s
Illustrations by David Kearney
(chapter 3 Montgomery's island 6

('liapter 4 D r Moreau 10
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

(chapter 5 An Evening Walk 13

Set in l l / 1 4 p t B e m b o
Printed in C h i n a (chapter 6 Moreau's Laboratory 16
SWTC/01

( !li,ipter 7 Meeting the Animal-men 18

All rights reserved; no part of this pubhcation may be reproduced, stored
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electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or othenvise, without the
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Published by Pearson Education Limited in association with ( liapter 10 T h e Taste o f Blood 28

Penguin B o o k s Ltd, both companies being subsidiaries o f Pearson P L C
1 liapter 11 T h e Puma Escapes 33

( 'liapter 12 T h e Search for Moreau 36

( liapter 13 Montgomery's Party 39

< liapter 14 Alone with the Animal-men 43

Ai livities 48

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 Introduction

M k'
'I'liiii is Just a little things, Prendick. While you worry about pain, yomare
no better than an animal.'

I ill ward Prendick is travelling in the South Pacific when his ship
^oes down. He is saved after many days at sea by another ship;
.1 passenger, Montgomery, nurses him back to health. Prendick
lu-comes interested in the mystery of Montgomery's life. Why
does he live on an unknown Pacific island? W h o is his ugly
assistant, with eyes that shine red in the dark? And why does he
li.ivo a puma and other animals on board?
When the captain throws Prendick off the ship near
Montgomery's island, he meets Montgomery's master. Doctor
Morcau, a famous scientist with dark secrets. And he meets others
on the island too strange animal-like people who live in fear o f
Moreau, his laws and his House o f Pain.

I lerbert George Wells was born near London in 1866. His father
was a shopkeeper and a professional sportsman. But his sporting
V I ill' ended suddenly when he broke his leg. Soon his business
1,1 i let! too, and his family became very poor. At the age o f thirteen,
yoiing Herbert had to get a job.
I'or two years he was a shop assistant. He worked thirteen-hour
days and slept with the other assistants in a room above the shop.
I le was very unhappy. Finally he found a better job, as an assistant
Icarher near his mother's new home in Sussex. He was able to
ilmly in the evenings. After excellent results in some science
i'\.iininations, he won a free place at the famous Normal School
111 Sc icnce in London.
At first he studied hard. He was taught by T. H. Huxley, an
important biologist and a close friend o f Charles Darwin. Wells
never forgot Huxley's lessons, but he had few good memories
o f his other teachers. He found laboratory work slow and
boring, and he soon lost interest in his studies. He spent most
of his time reading history and literature. He also started a student
magazine. He failed his fmal science examinations.
While he worked as a school science teacher, he returned
to his own studies. At the age of twenty-four he finally passed
his university examinations in biology and became a university
teacher. He also became a writer around this time. He wrote
both serious pieces and funny short stories for newspapers and
magazines. His first book was for students o f biology.
In 1893, he became very ill. He had to give up his j o b at the
university. Luckily, he was starting to make enough money from
his work as a writer.
His first fiction book was The Time Machine (1895). It was an
immediate success and other books soon followed: The Island of
Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The IL&r of the Worlds
(1898). (These four books are all Penguin Readers.) Wells's work
was a new form of literature, mixing adventure stories with more
serious messages about the future of Man and Man's position in the
world. By 1900, Wells was even more popular than Jules Verne, a
writer of similar science fiction stories in French.
But Wells wanted to be famous for more than adventure stories.
He wrote many works o f real-world fiction. These were very
successful at the time but are not often read now. He also wrote
serious books asking for a fairer Britain and better lives for the
poor and for women. He was an internationally famous thinker,
and his voice was often heard on the radio. In 1920 he met Lenin
in Russia, and in 1934 he visited Roosevelt in the United States
and Stalin in Russia.
In total he wrote more than 150 books, fifty of them works of
fiction. He died in 1946.
VI
In llu- early 1800s, most people in Britain believed the story o f
Adam and Eve.* They believed that God, the father o f the wodd,
made Man in his own shape. People thought that the natiiral jj,.
vvorkl was kind and good. '
Hilt, in 1856, Charles Darwin changed everything. He wrote
lhal man is a relative o f the ape. As this idea was slowly accepted,
people felt differently about the natural world. Nothing was
pLimied. Nothing was for ever. We were no different from other
.mimals in the past, but we changed. Perhaps, one day, we will
I liange again. Will we get cleverer? Or will we change back to
I 111' animals that we were? These questions are at the heart o f The
hhiiiil of Doctor Moreau.
People's ideas about God changed too. Science could explain
I he world without God. Religion seemed unnecessary. For some,
il was bad, dangerous. White-haired old Doctor Moreau in Wells's
slory is like God. But he is a bad God, an unkind God ... and his
work destroys him.
Wells was writing when Britain ruled large parts of Asia, Africa
and the Caribbean. There were already problems between the
lli ilish and the local people. These problems grew more serious,
anil Uritish rule ended in most places after the Second World
War. Wells understood these problems very clearly. At first, the
daI'k-skinned people on Moreau's island work for their Master
and follow the Law. But, as in the real world ofWeUs's future, this
unnatural rule is soon thrown out.
Wells's strange story of Moreau's island is hard to forget. And
lis main message is still important today. Science can make new
lives and it can change lives. But we must not experiment with
lilc just because we can. Without a strong reason for a scientific
experiment, the results can be truly terrible.
Ail.im .md Eve: the first man and woman in the books o f the Christian, Jewish
.111(1 Muslim religions
Vll