The Island of Doctor Moreau: A Norton Critical Edition

This volume is an addition to the robust Norton Critical Editions series. The text is split into three major sections: Wells’s novel, originally published in 1896; a “Backgrounds and Contexts” section that provides extracts from several prominent essays discussing topics relating to the novel’s themes (such as evolution, society, language, and ethics); and a “Reception and Interpretation” section that presents early reviews of Wells’s work (all from 1896) followed by extracts of modern, academic criticism dating between 1998 and 2019. Lastly, the work provides a succinct timeline of Wells’s life.As Benston notes in the editor’s introduction, “returning to Wells today can stir us with the shock of recognizing a voice we’re sure we’ve heard before, but no longer know quite when or where” (xii). And this theme of eerie recognition is present both in Wells’s novel itself and in the accompanying essays. Within the work’s “Backgrounds and Contexts” section, several pieces focus on the complex and still debated line of separation between “man” and “beast.” Prominent voices of the Victorian era (Charles Darwin and T. H. Huxley among them) discuss the notion of humanity through topics such as language and evolution. This section also discusses other social and ethical concerns, such as the development of medicine, the question of vivisection, and race. These pieces contribute to editor Bentson’s stated goal of providing a perspective on the novel that most closely aligns with “Wells’ engagement with key scientific, intellectual, political, social and literary concerns/of late-Victorian culture” (xv). Working within these parameters, the overall collection is, I believe, a success.Wells’s novel, first published in 1896, is narrated by the shipwrecked Edward Prendick, who finds himself upon the island of the titular mad scientist Dr. Moreau. During his time on the island, Prendick witnesses the grotesque results of Moreau’s experiments: the creation of surgically modified animals, whom Moreau desires to elevate into personhood. As would become a common trope in science fiction, Moreau is eventually killed by one of his experiments, a woman-puma hybrid, leaving Prendick with the remaining beast-people, watching them revert to their original animal mindsets until he is able to escape the island and return to London, forever changed by the experience.The novel itself is an engaging read, with particular attention paid to themes of pain, societal acceptance, and the process and perils of vivisection. Among other things, Wells effectively conveys the horrific pain caused by vivisection, with Prendick disturbed by the sounds of agony the animals make as Moreau operates. The accompanying extracts in the “Background and Contexts” section, grouped by theme, highlight the significance of Wells’s work and will be of particular interest for scholars who focus on Wells himself, on representations of medicine and medical practice, and on the ethics of research on animal and human subjects. A particularly potent illustration of the last of these themes comes from an extract of Darwin’s The Descent of Man in which the famed naturalist notes, “any animal, whatever, endowed with well-marked social instincts would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience” (178). Bentson ends the section with an extract from Wells’s own essay “Human Evolution, an Artificial Process” to further highlight the author’s familiarity and engagement with these scientific treatises. These contemporary texts help to situate readers within the landscape of late Victorian scientific discourse and effectively demonstrate its impact on Wells’s fiction.The volume’s third and final section shifts to a focus on the literary reception of The Island of Doctor Moreau and its place within academic criticism. This section, “Reception and Interpretation,” includes reviews of the novel at the time of its publication and extracts from more modern academic discussion of Wells’s work. The contemporary reviews provide readers with an opportunity to study the Victorian-era reception of Wells’s work; those with interests in this period will find them valuable. Importantly, these reviews offer a snapshot of what were (at the time) taboo subjects. Indeed, reviewer Basil Williams commented in 1896, “The horrors described by Mr. Wells in his latest book very pertinently raise the question of how far it is legitimate to create feelings of disgust in a work of art” (266). Such questions still permeate the art world and creative expression to this day. At this point the book has provided Wells’s original novel, crafted a strong breakdown of the Victorian era’s scientific thought, and presented a collection of literary reviews discussing the work; however, the focus has remained very much in the late nineteenth century. The academic discussion section offers readers various responses to Wells’s novel from roughly a century after its initial release, with the earliest from 1998 and the latest from 2019. Topics here include Gothic and Victorian literature, evolution and Darwinian “entanglement,” the concept of enlightenment, and animals and animality. Of particular interest to this reviewer is the contribution by scholar Sherryl Vint, who makes clear that much of the opposition to vivisection came from women and the feminist movement of the late Victorian era, noting that many involved in the movement observed links between the fate of animals in science and the possible fate of women (339). This is an excellent example of how the themes tackled within Wells’s work remain relevant.The Island of Doctor Moreau: A Norton Critical Edition will likely appeal not only to academics but also to the general public. Bentson’s careful contextualization of the novel and its reception affords readers a thorough understanding of its cultural significance. From there, readers are primed to explore more academic approaches to the work and see the ways in which the text remains culturally significant.