The Island of Doctor Moreau.
“The crying sounded even louder out of doors. It was as if all the pain in the world had found a voice”: First Edition of H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau
The Island of Doctor Moreau.
WELLS, H.G.
$4,000.00
Item Number: 145003
London: William Heinemann, 1896.
First edition, first issue of “the ultimate science fiction novel and the ultimate horror story” (Gene Wolfe). Octavo, original publisher’s pictorial tan cloth stamped in red and black, tissue-guarded frontispiece. First issue with 33pp. publisher’s advertisements at rear and in Currey’s (B) binding lacking monogram on rear board. Hammond B3; Currey p. 520; Wells 8. In very good condition. Housed in a custom half morocco slipcase. A very sharp example.
“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.
