H.G. Wells' "The Island of Doctor Moreau" (1896)

H.G. Wells' first novel was The Time Machine, published in 1895. That book was immediately followed by the more directly satirical The Wonderful Visit, in which an angel out of "art history" (that is, not from the Bible) accidentally lands in late 19th century England and is eventually driven off by skeptical townspeople who accuse the angel of promoting "socialism".

Wells' third novel (published in 1896) was The Island of Doctor Moreau, in which a shipwreck survivor named Prendick finds himself stuck on an island ruled over by a scientist who has surgically and chemically altered animals so that they somewhat look and act like humans. One part of this book originated from Wells' article in the Saturday Review (January 1895) titled "The Limits of Individual Plasticity" (https://archive.org/details/saturdayreview7918unse/page/88/mode/2up), in which he argues Doctor Moreau's point in more editorial terms.

In 1924, Wells wrote some introductory notes to the book's inclusion in a 28-volume collection of his entire bibliography:

"The Island of Doctor Moreau was written in 1895, and it was begun while The Wonderful Visit was still in hand. It is a theological grotesque, and the influence of Swift is very apparent in it. There was a scandalous trial about that time, the graceless and pitiful downfall of a man of genius, and this story was the response of an imaginative mind to the reminder that humanity is but animal rough-hewn to a reasonable shape and in perpetual internal conflict between instinct and injunction. This Story embodies this ideal, but apart from this embodiment it has no allegorical quality. It is written just to give the utmost possible vividness to that conception of men as hewn and confused and tormented beasts. When the reader comes to read the writings upon history in this collection, he will find the same idea of man as a reshaped animal no longer in flaming caricature, but as a weighed and settled conviction." (The Works of H.G. Wells, 1924)

Synopsis

• Introduction: The narrator’s nephew attests that his uncle did indeed go missing at sea for 11 months, but a subsequent investigation of Noble’s Isle found no traces of habitation.

1. IN THE DINGEY OF THE “LADY VAIN.”: When the ship the Lady Vain collides with a derelict, three men escape in a dingy. Two of them fall overboard while fighting. The last man, Edward Prendick, is finally picked up by a mysterious schooner (the Ipecacuanha).
2. THE MAN WHO WAS GOING NOWHERE.: Prendick hears growling noises outside his cabin. A hard-drinking man named Montgomery tells him that the ship is heading for an unnamed island (his home), after which it will make for Hawaii.
3. THE STRANGE FACE.: On the upper deck (strewn with animal cages), Prendick sees a brutish, black-faced man, who is abused by the Ipecacuanha’s captain and crew. Montgomery warns the captain to stop abusing his friend and a fight almost breaks out.
4. AT THE SCHOONER’S RAIL.: Prendick learns that Montgomery had once studied medicine in London, but due to some kind of unfortunate indiscretion 11 years ago had ruined his chances at pursuing such a life.
5. THE MAN WHO HAD NOWHERE TO GO.: When the Ipecacuanha reaches Montgomery’s island, he, his strange attendant (later named as M’ling) and their animal cargo are unloaded. The captain also wants Prendick off his ship, but Prendick is not permitted on the island by the white-haired man (Doctor Moreau) who has come to pick up the cargo. The captain abandons Prendick to float aimlessly on his half-flooded dingy in the open sea.
6. THE EVIL-LOOKING BOATMEN.: Eventually a decision is made on the part of the islanders to allow Prendick to stay on the island and he is towed back to shore with them. On the way, Prendick notices that some of the men from the island are swathed in white cloth from head to toe, and move about in a strange, inhuman gait. Others wear a blue uniform. Moreau is intrigued to learn that Prendick has a background in biology.
7. THE LOCKED DOOR.: Prendick is given a small room but warned not to leave it. He then hears someone name his benefactor “Moreau”, and recalls an incident from 11 years ago: a scientist named Moreau had been engaged in vivisection-based research, and when his exploits had been discovered and exposed by the press, he had been forced into exile.
   
8. THE CRYING OF THE PUMA.: In the afternoon a drunken Montgomery visits. Prendick remarks on  M’ling’s hairy, pointy ears, but Montgomery feigns disinterest. At the same time, the cries of a nearby puma being vivisected cause Prendick a great deal of stress.
9. THE THING IN THE FOREST.: Seeking relief from the puma’s cries of pain by taking a walk deeper into the inland jungle, Prendick catches a glimpse of three “hog-like” savages performing a strange ritual. He is then stalked through the forest by a mysterious leopard-man creature. He eventually knocks it unconscious with a rock and escapes back to the compound in a panic.
10. THE CRYING OF THE MAN.: Back at his room, he finds Montgomery and tells him of the creature stalking him. Montgomery dismisses it as a “bogle” (phantom). The next day Prendick hears the sounds of a human being moaning in pain. He bursts into the inner chamber and sees Moreau working over a bound and bloody figure. Moreau angrily throws him out.
11. THE HUNTING OF THE MAN.: Prendick believes that Moreau is turning human captives into “beast men” through blood transfusion and vivisection. He flees the compound and hides on the beach from a pursuing dog pack. Eventually, he meets an Ape-man (of very limited verbal ability) who takes him to a rocky hideout in a ravine.
12. THE SAYERS OF THE LAW.: Prendick is forced to participate in a bizarre chant with a small assemblage of grotesque Beast Folk. A “Law” chant (led by a silver-haired “Sayer of the Law”) forbids them to walk on all fours, attack men, and other natural animal instincts. It also declares fear and awe before Moreau. When Moreau and Montgomery enter the ravine in search of him, Prendick makes a desperate escape and eventually finds himself near a boiling hot spring.
13. A PARLEY.: When Prendick is cornered near the sea, he tries to convince the Beast Folk to turn on Moreau and Montgomery. Moreau and Montgomery offer him their guns as a peace gesture to make him calm down. Moreau claims that he is not vivisecting men into animals, but rather the other way around. Prendick cautiously follows them back to Moreau’s compound.
14. DOCTOR MOREAU EXPLAINS.: Moreau explains that he has been surgically, hypnotically and chemically altering animals so that they might have the characteristics of human beings. However, the newly-created men inevitably begin to revert back to their bestial natures, even when they at first seem very rational. These “failed” Beast Men are then released, after which they congregate in their ravine huts and live strange half-human lives. Montgomery has befriended a few of the Beast Folk and made them into servants (such as the bear-man M’ling).
15. CONCERNING THE BEAST FOLK.: Prendick notes that there are about 60 Beast Folk on the island and that in the following days he becomes used to their strange appearance. He begins to feel that he might even recognize in them the same kind of features found in the colorful citizens of London. The Beast Folk can even procreate, although their offspring amount to little more than irrational rabbit-like creatures.
16. HOW THE BEAST FOLK TASTE BLOOD.: In the forest, Montgomery and Prendick discover that one of the Beast Folk has killed and eaten a live animal, thus breaking one of the Laws under which they must exist in order to retain their “humanity”. Moreau is angry and summonses the Beast Folk to an audience with a loud horn. When Prendick indicates that it was probably the Leopard-man who had done this crime, the Leopard-man panics and flees. As Moreau and his menagerie close in on the pathetic creature, Prendick kills it, intending to spare it from more visits to Moreau’s “House of Pain”.
    
17. A CATASTROPHE.: One day the puma which Moreau had been operating on since Prendick’s arrival manages to escape into the forest, with Moreau in hasty pursuit. Prendick’s arm is broken in the scuffle. Montgomery and M’ling chase after Moreau and discover the Beast-Folk’s ravine sanctuary to be deserted. They are then attacked by two Swine-men with blood on their lips. The creatures are shot, but Montgomery is perturbed – this kind of rebellion has never happened before.
18. THE FINDING OF MOREAU.: Prendick, Montgomery and M’ling head back into the jungle and encounter some Beast Folk who report that Moreau and the puma-creature are dead. With Moreau dead, the Beast Folk begin to question the validity of the Law. Prendick quickly declares that Moreau is not dead, but only temporarily watching them from the heavens. When one of the beast men attack Montgomery, Prendick shoots it with his pistol in order to restore order. They soon find Moreau’s torn up body and bring it back to the compound. All of the Beast Folk (including M’ling) depart, leaving Montgomery and Prendick alone in the compound. They begin to destroy still living specimens in Moreau’s lab.
19. MONTGOMERY’S “BANK HOLIDAY.”: Afterwards, Montgomery becomes drunkenly hostile towards Prendick. He decides to seek out M’ling to have a drinking party with his old friend. Prendick then decides to fit out one of the boats with supplies and then sail off in the morning. When shots ring out on the beach, he runs out to see that Montgomery and M’ling have been killed by some of the hostile Beast Folk. Worse yet, Montgomery has destroyed Moreau’s boats in a bonfire. Even worse, Prendick sees that, in the chaos of rushing to Montgomery’s aid, he had accidentally tipped a lantern, thus setting fire to Moreau’s compound.
20. ALONE WITH THE BEAST FOLK.: Prendick uses his whip to reestablish control over a Dog-man and two other Beast Folk, and has them dump the dead bodies into the sea. The most hostile of the Beast-Folk, a Hyena-swine, begins to question Prendick’s authority, but is scared off with a gunshot. With no other options for survival, he then travels to the Beast Folk’s ravine huts and asks them for food. Pointed towards a hut, he enters it and barricades himself inside.
21. THE REVERSION OF THE BEAST FOLK.: After convincing the remaining Beast Folk of his continuing Mastery over them (with the aid of the faithful Dog-man), in the next few months Prendick tries (and fails) to build a raft to escape the island. The Beast Folk gradually revert back into bestiality, losing their ability to walk on twos, speak English, or live with any sense of civilization. One day, Prendick’s faithful Dog-man is slain by the Hyena-swine. Prendick kills it with a pistol shot when it then attacks him. Sometime later, a small boat holding two corpses drifts onto the beach. With the beasts becoming more and more hostile, Prendick prepares the boat for his escape.
22. THE MAN ALONE.: After three days on the open sea in his little boat, Prendick is rescued by a passing ship, although his story is not believed by his rescuers. When he returns to London, he manically sees himself surrounded by humans who seem liable to revert into beast-people. He eventually begins to develop a total aversion to any kind of human (or beast) company and decides to live a secluded life studying chemistry and astronomy, hoping to find peace in the heavens.