The Island of Doctor Moreau.

WELLS, H.G.

Item Number: 91388

London: William Heinemann, 1896.

First edition, Currey Binding A of “the ultimate science fiction novel and the ultimate horror story” (Gene Wolfe). From the library of Lytton Strachey with his bookplate. Strachey was a founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of Eminent Victorians, he is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit. His biography Queen Victoria was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Octavo, original tan cloth, frontispiece, spine lettered in black, front panel in red and black with illustration of the island, 32 publisher’s advertisements pages, rear stamped in blind with publisher’s monogram. Anatomy of Wonder. Barron, Anatomy of Wonder, 1-100; Currey, L. W. Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors, p. 520. A wonderful association.

“Often regarded as the father of modern science fiction” (Clute & Grant, 1004), Wells wrote The Island of Dr. Moreau when only 30. “A highly significant literary experiment… [that] served to reveal the potential of science fiction to couch serious questions” (Barron, Anatomy of Wonder II-1228). Of this and Wells’ other early “scientific romances,” Jorge Luis Borges once declared, “they will be incorporated, like the fables of Theseus or Ahasuerus, into the general memory of the species and even transcend the fame of their creator.” Basis for several adaptations to film, most notably in 1977 starring Burt Lancaster, Michael York, Nigel Davenport, Barbara Carrera and Richard Basehart, directed by Don Taylor. Also the 1996 film directed by John Frankenheimer starring Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer, David Thewlis and Fairuza Balk.