The Island of Doctor Moreau: A Critical Text of the 1896 London First Edition, with an Introduction and Appendices

by H. G. Wells

Overview

H.G. Wells (1866-1946) wrote some of the great classics of speculative fiction in English, including The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), which might be said to be about unholy genetics. The work's biological and sociopolitical ideas are still current (such were the range and depth of Wells' ideas).

Wells continued to work on Doctor Moreau for nearly thirty years after its initial publication in London (the New York first edition added a subtitle A Possibility), finally letting go of the work after the publication of the Atlantic Edition in 1924. Annotated by the premier Wellsian scholar, this is an exhaustive critical edition, examining the historical, medical, philosophical and literary contexts of the story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786468706
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	05/01/2012
Series:	The Annotated H.G. Wells , #2
Edition description:	Annotated
Pages:	301
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The late Leon Stover, professor emeritus at the Illinois Institute of Technology, was the first to bring science fiction to the college curriculum and was the author of numerous landmarks of intellectual history. He lived in Chicago.

Date of Birth:

September 21, 1866

Date of Death:

August 13, 1946

Place of Birth:

Bromley, Kent, England

Place of Death:

London, England

Education:

Normal School of Science, London, England

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface     
Introduction     

1. The Text     
2. Nature and Nurture     
3. Noble’s Isle     
4. Chance, Waste, and Pain     
5. Chronolatry     
6. The Sphinx of Sin     
7. Pig Philosophy     
8. Vivisection Morality     

The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)     
(Annotated text of the first London edition)     

Epilogue: The Coming Terror     
Appendices
I. a. “The Province of Pain” (1894)     
b. Excerpt from Text-Book of Biology (1893, Part I—Vertebrata)     
II. “The Limits of Individual Plasticity” (1895c)     
III. a. “Human Evolution, An Artificial Process” (1896c)     
b. “Mr. Wells Replies” (1897b)     
c. “The Acquired Factor” (1897a)     
IV. a. “The Influence of Islands on Variation” (1895e)     
b. “To the Editor of the Saturday Review” (1896d)     
V. “Morals and Civilisation” (1897c)     
VI. Excerpt from Wilkie Collins, Heart and Science (1883)     

Bibliography     
Index     

Editorial Reviews

Wells’s masterpieces get the red-carpet treatment here in these luxurious editions...academic collections supporting English departments should definitely invest in this volume”—Library Journal; “Stover is to be thanked for his years of Wellsian scholarship”—Public Library Quarterly; “Stover, by presenting the intellectual underpinnings of Wells’ work, has provided a powerful tool for understanding his writings, one sees them more deeply, without losing that earlier sense-of-wonder that originally opened the vistas of the young reader’s mind...a crucial guide to these classics of science fiction”—Fosfax; “two cheers for Stoverism...formidable scholarship...serious students of Wells would be foolish to ignore ‘Stoverism’”—The Wellsian; “Stover should be commended for a painstaking and meticulous editorial commentary”—Utopian Studies; “extensively annotated and analyzed by Stover...annotations are filled with insights into Wells’ writings and philosophy”—C&RL News.

From the Publisher

Stover, by presenting the intellectual underpinnings of Wells' work, has provided a powerful tool for understanding his writings, one sees them more deeply, without losing that earlier sense-of-wonder that originally opened the vistas of the young reader's mind...a crucial guide to these classics of science fiction

Fosfax

Stover is to be thanked for his years of Wellsian scholarship

Public Library Quarterly

Wells's masterpieces get the red-carpet treatment here in these luxurious editions...academic collections supporting English departments should definitely invest in this volume

Library Journal