Original Draft of Moreau (1894)

"Wells's original draft of Moreau has been published for the first time by Robert M Philmus in his variorium edition of Moreau… Philmus shows that Wells likely finished this version by Christmas of 1894, then changed his mind and was well into the second and final version in the first two months of the new year. Philmus provided a detailed comparison of the two versions. Despite a similarity in plot, they are quite different in spirit. Study of the changes Wells made in reaching the final version provides a fascinating glimpse into the way the story developed in his imagination.

"In the first version of Moreau, Wells follows a conventional Victorian model of mildly satiric whimsy. Moreau is provided with a comfortable domesticity. Despite being built of lava blocks his house is pleasently English. Above all, he is accompanied by a Mrs. Moreau who presides over his domestic interior. Her alienation from his practice of vivisection hints at a future alliance with Prendick, who sympathizes with her evident distress at the crying the puma. Making an effort to tell Mrs. Moreau about literature published since she left England, Prendick begins an account of Stevenson's immensely popular Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It would seem that Wells wanted to highlight a Gothic predecessor of his story. The Moreaus have a son, and Montgomery is incorperated into family life as his tutor. The village of the animal people has an English country appearance.

"In the village, a drunken local offers to take Prendrick to a secret place where one can angage in comically animal activities. They are overheard and a mob of villagers threatens them with real violence, pursueing morality with an animal ferocity—in the published version, the hunt of the Leopard Man provides a grimmer statement of this theme. Here, however, the village police intervene to take the miscreants before an animal-person magistrate, where they are subjected to a parody of court procedure.

"This version ends with a confidential conversation between Prendick and Montgomery, who seems a clearer-thinking person than in the final version and shows no sign of alcoholic tendencies. In the final version Wells strips the story of domesticity, reduces the animal people to a very primitive way of life, and gives them the cult of the Law, rather than police and judicial procedure, as a means of enforcing morality on animal nature."

1. The White Yacht
I do not propose to add anything to what has already been written of the loss of the Lady Vain. As everyone knows, she collided with a derelict when ten days out from Callao, The long-boat, with seven of the crew, was picked up eighteen days after by H.M. gunboat Myrtle & the story of the terrible privations has become almost as well known as the far more horrible Medusa story. It has hitherto been supposed that the four men who were in the dingy perished, but this is incorrect. I have the best of evidence for this assertion, for I was one of those four men.

In the first place there were never four men in the dingy only three. Constans, who was “seen by the captain to jump into the gig” (Daily News March 17 1887) luckily for us & unluckily for himself did not reach us. He came down out of the tangle of ropes under the stays of the smashed bowsprit[,] some small rope caught his heel as he let go, & fell head downwards & hit a block floating in the water. We pulled towards him but he never came up.

I say luckily for us, he did not reach us for we had only a small breaker of water & some soddened ship[']s biscuits with us—so sudden had been the alarm. We thought the people on the launch would be better provisioned, though it seems they were not & tried to hail them, but they could not have heard us & the next morning when the weather cleared-which was not until past midday—we could see nothing of them. The two other men with me were a man named Helmar[,] a passenger like myself, & a seaman whose name I don't know, a man with a stammer.

We drifted, famishing, & after our water had come to an end, tormented by an intolerable thirst, for eight days altogether. After the first day we said little to one another but lay in our places in the boat & stared at the horizon, or watched the misery & weakness gaining upon our companions with eyes that grew larger & more haggard every day. The sun was pitiless. The water ended on the fourth day & we were already thinking strange things & saying them with our eyes, but it was, I think, the sixth before Helmar gave voice to the thing we had all been thinking. I remember our voices dry & thin so that we bent towards one another & spared our words. I stood out against it with all my might[,] was rather for scuttling the boat & perishing together among the sharks that followed us, but when Helmar said that if his proposal was accepted we should have something to drink, the sailor came round to him.

I would not draw lots & in the night the sailor whispered to Helmar again & again, & I sat in the bows with my clasp-knife in my hand. And in the morning I agreed to Helmar[']s proposal, & we tossed with halfpence to find the odd man. The lot fell upon the sailor but he was the strongest among us & would not abide by it, & attacked Helmar with his hands. They grappled together & almost stood up. I crawled along the boat to them, intending to help Helmar by grasping the sailor’s leg but the sailor stumbled with the swaying of the boat, & the two fell upon the gunwale & rolled overboard together. They sank like stones.

I lay across one of the thwarts staring at the water for I knew not how long & thinking that if I had the strength I would drink sea-water & madden myself to die quickly. And even as I lay there I saw, with no more interest than if it had been a picture, a sail come up towards me out of the sea. My mind must have been wandering & yet I remember all that happened quite distinctly. I remember how my head swayed with the seas & the sail danced up & down. But I also remember as distinctly that I had a persuasion that I was dead & that I thought what a jest it was that they should come so narrowly too late to catch me in my body.

For an endless period as it seemed to me I lay with my head on the thwart watching the schooner —she was schooner[-]rigged fore & aft—come up out of the sea. Her hull looked grey at first & then as she tacked—she was sailing dead into the wind—I saw she was painted white with a lot of gilt ornament as if she was a pleasure yacht. It never entered my head to attempt to attract attention & I do not remember anything distinctly after the sight of <abbr title="her tacking about">her white <abbr title="broad-side">side until I found myself in a little cabin aft. There's a dim half memory of being lifted up to the gangway & of a lot of queer brown faces staring at me over the bulwarks. I also had a disconnected impression of an odd sharp countenance close to mine, covered with freckles & surrounded with red hair, but that I thought was [a] nightmare until I met it again. I fancy I recollect some stuff being poured in between my teeth.

The cabin <abbr title="I was in">in which I found myself was small but very pretty. & the scuttle was open & the sound of water <abbr title="running away very pleasantly">under the counter pleasant & drowsy. I came to myself slowly & thought at first I was back in London. <abbr title="I’d a vague">I had been dreaming of London, & especially of the little bedroom I had occupied in Gower Street when I was a student at University College. Consequently I was scarcely sure at first whether a kind of wild-cat howl I had just heard belonged to the dream or to my waking sensations. Then another note came in a short deep cry of tremendous volume, that was evidently just above my head & then a thus & a rattle like an iron bedstead being knocked to pieces.

I tried to sit up in my bunk & failed, & then lifting my hand saw how thin <abbr title="I">it was. I saw it was thin & white & clean & that reminded me of a time when I had seen it even thinner & yellow & dirty, & with that I picked up the thread of my memory to the time when I had seen the white yacht. Clearly I was on board that vessel. Then came another howl above my head[,] more thuds & clatter, the deep barking of several large dogs, & a hoarse voice crying in an angry tone for the <abbr title="brute, whatever it was">brutes, to lie still. Immediately after[,] while I was dimly wondering if some travelling managerie might not be working over the Pacific, the door opened noiselessly & a man[']s face appeared.

It was a chocolate brown face with extremely large & sympathetic eyes. <abbr title="These met mine">They stared as if astonished to find mine open. Neither of us spoke & the head disappeared.

It seemed that almost immediately after there came a firm step outside The door swung open & a heavily built man entered the cabin. He <abbr title="had a form of">had iron grey hair & a square clean shaven face. His dark grey eyes met mine, & he smiled. “Well,” he said—with that air that marks the physician all the world over; “How goes it?”

I opened my mouth but found I could make no sound. I tried to smile & moved my hand a little.

He felt my pulse, felt my arms, pricked me—injecting something I fancy, gave me some iced scarlet stuff that tasted like blood, told me I should soon be better & left me. Almost immediately I must have dropped asleep again.

After that I fluttered once or twice into consciousness in the same transitory way, before I discovered that my head was plumper again, & that I had command of my voice. On this occasion I became aware that the man with the iron grey hair was sitting beside me & watching my face. Then I heard a heavy growling above my head.

“What on earth’s that?” I said.

“Found your voice eigh?… That’s a puma—in a cage. And an infernal temper she has too!”

I looked through the open port & saw the green seas racing by. “Where am I?”

“Latitude Ten South, Longitude One Hundred & Fifty Five West.”

“But I mean what ship is this!”

“It’s my private yacht—the Dancing Faun.”

I was beginning another question when he inter[r]upted me. “I think,” said he; “it[‘]s my place to ask questions first. Who are you?”

His manner was abrupt but I was scarcely in a position to resent it. I told him in answer to his questions that I was Andrew Prendick, that my father had been a taxidermist in Holborn, that I <abbr title="had been a student">studied Natural History at the Royal College of Science & being fond of it, & becoming possessed of independant [sic] means, I had determined to travel in search of new facts & new lights after the fashion of Russel & Darwin. But before coming to these particulars he ascertained all that he required of the fate of the Lady Vain & the full story of the boat. He watched me keenly during the latter & seemed inclined to cross examine me but my perfectly frank manner without any attempt to garnish the business evidently <abbr title="seemed to alay">allayed his suspicions.

"So you'r[e] interested in Natural History," he said. "Do you know anything of practical physiology?"

"It's the part I know least of."

"Don't like laboratory-work perhaps?"

"I don't mind that. But the bare thought of vivisection turns me sick."

"Oh!" he said abruptly & became silent. He stood up. He told me I had had some broth the day before though I did not remember it, & that presently I should have some boiled mutton. He smiled with the air of a man who had done well, & no doubt he had pulled me back from the very darkness of death in an amazing way. "Tomorrow or next day you sahll come on deck."

"And now," said I; "will you tell me—"

"I won't," said he shortly & then as if in explanation: "All in good time. You'r[e] tired as it is[.] I should have thought of that." And before I could say a word to stop him he had left me —rather astonished at his manner & still ignorant whither the yacht was sailing with me. I felt quite strong again & sat up in my bunk without the slightest difficulty.

Until the mutton came I employed myself in listening to the various sounds on deck. The puma was snarling & growling, as I judged, over a piece of meat. There was the soft patter of bare feet to & fro & now & then a rope end dropped on the <abbr title="deck or an order came">deck[,] a sail flapped or gutteral voice shouted.

Then came bare footsteps outside & a brown man dressed in white linen brought in my mutton. He had a queer little rounded head, obligue nostrils[,] a spare bristly moustache & very soft brown eyes with scarecly any whites. He smiled & helped me into a sitting position. "Better now?" he said in a soft gutteral voice. I noticed that his ear was very small <abbr title="& furry">& round.

So that’s a Kanaka boy,” I thought—jumping to conclusions—for I had never seen any of these brown South Sea Islanders before.

I put away the mutton in fine style & had some more when the brown man came for my plate. I put my feet out of the bunk stood up & found myself scarcely giddy. I went & looked out of the scuttle. We seemed to be running before the wind & crisp frothing waves toiled vainly to keep pace with me. A sudden exhilaration came over me. <abbr title="I suddenly">I determined to dress & go on deck, but I found my clothes were gone.

“Where are my clothes?” said I when the brown man came again.

“Clothes!” he said & looked round rather stupidly, & went out of the cabin. I would have followed him had I not fancied there might be ladies aboard. Instead I went back onto my bunk & presently fell asleep.

When I woke again it was night, & the sea outside was like an ocean in fairyland with the moonlight & phosphorescence. The puma overhead was restless again, & I felt much too lively for any more sleep. I wanted a smoke & I wanted some more to eat & generally I was alive <abbr title="again. The time from the">again. All that had happened since the moment when I was awakened by the shouting before the Lady Vain struck the wreck, seemed a mere bad dream.

“Cured!” said I, when the doctor came in to me in the morning. “I want some clothes.” I was ready for him—sitting on the bunk <abbr title="in a state of nature">& swinging my legs—an Adamite.

The doctor sat down on the locker & looked at me. He said something to himself that sounded like <abbr title="Frankenstein/infernal fool">“infernal nuisance.” “What’s that about <abbr title="Frankenstein/an infernal fool">an infernal nuisance?” said I.

“I must remind you that you were dead—to all intents & purposes, when I picked you up. You are now alive and vigorous—looking indeed thin but otherwise remarkably well.”

“Still—”

“One minute! The point you don’t know is that you may be very much in the way of this yacht. I’m a person blessed—or cursed—with a considerable amount of medical knowledge & you looked dead. I’m always piqued by death. That’s why I took you aboard. There was nearly some fresh drops of blood on the gunwale too & that interested me—<abbr title="But for one thing I’m going to">But now you present yourself rather … as a bother in fact.”

<abbr title="He meditated over me &">He studied my face.

“Overboard again.” I suggested facetiously.

“That would be the best.” He seemed to take it seriously.

“It depends upon your tact. You will find some things about this yacht… odd; & I’m going nowhere[—]nowhere I can put you on your way to civilization. We might put in to Apia but that’s scarcely convenient for me. I’m going to an island that’s out of the way, very much out of the way to anywhere. And there this schooner will lie to—for a year perhaps or more unless some rare ship should drive out of her course to us. You see <abbr title="we’re">you’r[e] sailing away into a cul-de[-]sac.”

“My time is my own,” said I; “And unknown ground is the ground for me. No doubt there’s minerals there—possibly new insects, certainly fish & shore life. And I’ve a prejudice against open boats. Where is this island? What does it offer in that way?”

“That’s where the tact comes in. I don[‘]t want you to ask. The island you’ll find… odd in one or two ways. The ethnology, for instance. And I don[‘]t want you to come worrying me with questions or go pestering the inhabitants. Perhaps when I know you…”

“I can’t help wondering, you know.”

“Wonder if you will.”

I thought. “May I ask your name?”

I saw him hesitate & showed my tact. “Agreed,” said I & held out my right hand which he clasped. “And now may I have breakfast—& some seemly clothing?”

<abbr title="In/He left me & half an hour afterwards I was">Presently with my curiosity whetted by this conversation I clambered up the compassion & surveyed the quarter deck of the <abbr title="Laughing">Dancing  Faun.

My friend the puma was cramped in a small iron cage near the starboard bulwarks and <abbr title="half a dozen">four large grey dogs were tied by short chains to the main mast & lay apparently asleep. Beside these I noticed nothing very unusual about the schooner. I must confess I felt disappointed. There were <abbr title="two or three">four small but modern looking guns on the main deck but that was not such a very remarkable thing & I had noticed—a purely personal interest—that the dingy of the unfortunate Lady Vain had been taken aboard & was being repainted. The owner of the yacht was not visible. A short red[-]haired man, with thin & & very hairy arms <abbr title="was steering">was at the wheel but his face was down cast & I did not notice anything remarkable about it. Two or three brown sailors, sturdy fellows in loose white clothes lay about the forecastle & appeared to be yarning. I could hear the murmer [sic] of their voices. Besides these there was no one to be seen. I went past the man at the wheel to the taffrail & stared at the wake. It was a delightful day, a clean sweet breeze driving us onward, the sky a brilliant blue, the sun still <abbr title="low. The sails of the yacht were new & white.">low.

I turned to take in the length of the ship. Suddenly the man at the wheel glanced swiftly—furtively—over his shoulder at me & then away again. I was so startled I almost shouted out. It was such a queer face to flash on one suddenly; very small & abundantly freckled coming in the oddest way to a peak at the end of the nose, a small retreating chin, small sharp hazel reddish eyes & the whole surrounded by a mass of carroty hair.

My disgust was only momentary. I fancied the man must have seen my first impression of him & after a minute perhaps, I went up beside him <abbr title="& wished him pleasantly">& told him it was pleasant weather. He looked at me in the same abrupt startling way & answered in a weak voice that it was & said no more. I thought to ingratiate myself with him by offering him some pigtail—I don’t chew myself but I carry it about with me on board ship for social purposes. With something like a snarl he disavowed alcohol & tobacco. There was something so unfriendly in his tone that I discontinued my advances.

The puma was even more unfriendly & growled when I came near her. I was looking at the repainted dingy when the owner of the yacht—the Doctor I may call him to avoid periphrase—came on deck. He smiled at me & went on to relieve the red haired man at the wheel.

Then came an odd thing. As soon as this latter was relieved instead of walking down the middle of the deck he went to the side of the ship. Forthwith as he approached them, first one the grey staghounds sprang to its feet & then another & began growling at him. Then one barked and sprang forwards to the length of its chain & then another until they were all in full <abbr title="cry & their chains rattling">cry & leaping up as if they would strangle themselves. I have never seen such vigorous animosity on the part of dogs for a man before. The puma was excited by their cries & began snarling[,] lashing its tail <abbr title="& shaking its cage">& making its cage rattle with its quick movements. It was an appal[l]ing row all of a sudden. The three sailors forward sprang to their feet. The red haired man went cringing by the dogs a yard out of reach & they barked & jumped at him until he had disappeared down the hatchway. I stared at his red head until it disappeared & then caught the Doctor’s eye watching me. I went back & congratulated him on the weather to show I suffered from no overpowering curiosity.

At first he was reserved but presently I spoke of the causes of the phosphorescence of the sea & on that question he was amazingly well informed. From that we drifted to other scientific <abbr title="questions. Later he">questions & the morning passed pleasantly enough. He was relieved by a heavy looking unhealthy man, with heavy jaws[,] loose dependent cheeks & a dull greyish skin.

We dined together. The Doctor was, to me at least & while the voyage lasted, a not unpleasant companion. He was perhaps a little overbearing in his manner, like one who rarely met an equal. At times he would lapse into profound thought, seeming to forget my presence altogether. He broached some very extraordinary & unorthodox views about metabolism, & had altogether the advantage of me in physiological discussions.

It was only <abbr title="gradually as the day ran out">gradually that I began to realize the full meaning of his statement that the schooner was “odd.” I had expected something immediately startling, something palpably grotesque, had entertained expectations of all kinds of queer but explicable things. But beyond the animals, nothing had struck me as being very much out of the way at first. The most mysterious thing was the mystery of the ship’s destination. The red haired man seemed a queer character but to begin with I scarcely connected <abbr title="him at first">him with the Doctor’s remark. But that night I caught myself speculating about the ethnology <abbr title="of the crew/brown mean. They scarcely">of brown sailors who made up the bulk of the crew. They were far away from my preconceptions of South Sea Islanders. And from them I came around to the man with the sickly grey <abbr title="face. He too was">face. I had talked to him & found him disposed to be friendly but singularly lacking in ideas. He made a singular objection to my touching the binnacle while he was at the wheel. And suddenly it was nothing definite, a general impression which at first I could not analyze, that there was something wrong <abbr title="about the crew">about them all. I could not tell whether it was some quality in their gestures, some oddness in their features or what. But assuredly they were all peculiar. And yet peculiar as these men were[,] there <abbr title="was something">was a tantalizingly familiar quality about their strangeness, a singular suggestion in the back of my mind that somewhere else, under quite other conditions, I had seen their faces before.

I observed them more closely the second day. I had no chance of talking to any of the brown men. What passing remarks I made were returned very civilly. I judge there were about a dozen of them aboard, but they were so much alike that I could not tell one from the other. They didn[‘]t squat about like ordinary [?] sailors but seemed to prefer to lie full length upon the sunlit boards. It was not only a temperance crew but both the quid & pipe were absent. And a dozen little things they did were queer; for sailors they were singularly unhandy, they were clumsy in the rigging & did everything they could from the deck. Then your average seaman cannot swim whereas incredible as it may sound in the afternoon I saw one of these fellows strip, jump overboard &—although the schooner was sailing before a fair wind[—]keep up with her for nearly ten minutes. I will admit that made me rub my eyes. I saw no more of the red haired man. I believe he had the night watch. <abbr title="The dull">The grey faced man was at the wheel in the morning & I talked to him again. He had a very peculiar deep hoarse voice. He knew Callao, Galapagos & Rio but no European port & apparently he had never been ashore even at these places. But he became surely a taciturn when he perceived I was asking him questions. He told me not to look at the compass in a low rough uncivil tone that was almost a growl & with that I walked away from him. Our course at this time, by the bye, was dead into the setting sun—west southwest <abbr title="about. The/Another odd thing was that">about.

The problem, where is this Doctor going? & what does he want with a puma & four stag hounds?[,] had <abbr title="receded/suddenly gave">given place by the second night after my recovery to the altogether <abbr title="more different">stranger puzzle: “Where on earth <abbr title="did he get this/pick up his">did he pick up this unaccountable crew?”

2. The Island
The third morning after my recovery—I do not know how many it was after I was picked up—I was awakened by the firing of one of the guns & a hoarse shouting above me. Then came a pattering of bare feet, the sounds of heavy objects being thrown about, a violent creaking & the rattling of chains. I heard the swish of the water as the ship was suddenly brought round, & <abbr title="a green mass">a yellow green foamy wave flew across the little round window & left it streaming. <abbr title="I guessed we had">I snatched at my clothes & went on deck[.]

As I came up the ladder I <abbr title="saw between the space of the mainmast as the spanker was reefed[,] out of the line of sight">saw against the flushed sky —for the sun was just rising—a vertical column of smoke that rose to a vast height & then abruptly spread into a horizontal <abbr title="layer at its summit.">layer. Then with a couple more steps the graceful <abbr title="dark/deep grey slopes of a">curves that mark a volcano all the world over came into view. The cone was steep & almost black. <abbr title="The flank">The lower slopes I saw were covered with rich greenery. & then above the bulwarks as I reached the deck rose <abbr title="a little house">a house with a thatched roof & a flagstaff standing on a <abbr title="promon[tory] & then a village jerkily clambering this.">promon[tory] [.] A broad white ensign was ascending this in a series of spasmodic jerks. The doctor came out of his cabin & told me there was breakfast there. That hastily disposed of, I went straight to the quarter deck[,] for all hands were busy on deck & there it seemed to me that I should be at least in the way, & from that point I surveyed the scene.

<abbr title="We were">The Dancing Faun lay in a circular bay almost hidden from the sea, except through a narrow opening to the north east, through which I could see the foam flashing upon a reef & further sea weltering like liquid gold under the sunrise. The house stood on a height near <abbr title="this opening of the channel. Dense">this channel. To the westward between the grey white sand of the beach & the upper slope of the volcano was a dense growth of vegetation from amidst which <abbr title="peeped above">peeped a number of thatched roofs, & what struck me as unusual, a square tower of lava oddly like the square tower of a village church in England. A small river which apparently flowed through the village came tumbling into the bay.

<abbr title="Save for two or three">A number of stalwart brown men not unlike our sailors were hauling a boat down the beach under the direction of a flaxen haired individual in a pith helmet. Save for them the beach was deserted. The deck of the schooner was however [?] busy <abbr title="enough. The hands had just descended from shortening sail; &">enough. The schooner had just dropped anchor; some of the crew were busy under the direction of the Doctor rigging up a tackle to hoist the puma overboard. Others <abbr title="were handing">were hauling up packing cases from the <abbr title="hold, others">hold, under the short gruff direction of the grey faced man, one or two were <abbr title="still in the rigging">still, aloft. The red haired man—I believe he occupied the position of mate—was helping the doctor. The doctor was bawling <abbr title="at the top of his voice">as loudly as he could, the red haired man helping to the best of his ability with his thin unpleasant voice, the sailors forward yelping & shouting, all four dogs was [sic] wildly excited at the stir, & the puma gave vent ever & again to thick vibrating howls. <abbr title="Altogether it was a sufficiently lively scene">Altogether I thought I had never heard anything quite so like an excited menagerie <abbr title="before or since.">before.

The launch was presently alongside & I was surprised at the expeditious way in which the work <abbr title="of transferring">of unshipping the packing cases[,] that were now piled upon the forecastle, proceeded. The man in the pith helmet came aboard, spoke to the Doctor for a minute or so & then turned to look at me. He hesitated & then came along to me. “My name’s Montgomery[,] Mr. Prendick,” he said holding out his hand. I’m Grand Vizier of this island, Tutor to the Heir Apparent, & general assistant in the work of government.”

I took his hand. He was a young man with a rather haggard face, pale blue eyes & a ragged fair moustache. He was dressed in white drill & barefooted. “You know,” said I, “that I’m to ask no questions about this island.”

“I know,” he said & added with a faint tinge of dislike. “But he’ll tell you all about [it] when he’s in the mood. It’s a queer place.”

He <abbr title="turned towards">turned & stared at the beach as he spoke & I turned with him. A handful of people had collected & more were emerging from amidst the shadows of the trees. “Confoundedly queer people,” he asked disregarding my remark. He was a Londoner & forthwith began a string of questions about this & that feature of London. I was surprised to find that he had <abbr title="never heard from London">never had any communication with England for six or seven or years [sic], had never seen a paper even during that time never heard of the County Council, did not know of the Shaftesbury Avenue, & was generally out-of-date with his ideas. “One gets not to care,” he said with a faint smile. “After a bit.” I answered some of his questions a little absently I am afraid for my attention was divided between him, singular as his ignorance of London was, & the gathering crowd upon the shore. For in that I saw something still more singular. Presently the Doctor called him.

I don[’]t know <abbr title="how/if I shall be able">how I can precisely convey what I saw & felt. There was something about the people ashore that reinforced with tenfold intensity the uneasy <abbr title="persuasion I had formed">persuasion that had been forced upon me by the peculiarities of the crew, that before me & yet escaping me was something unnatural & ominous, <abbr title="something incredibly strange">something strange & fundamentally wrong. Perhaps it was a mere prophetic <abbr title"fancy perhaps I thought">fancy, prophetic by chance, or an indefinable <abbr title="instinct warning me of">instinct. At any rate <abbr title="it was something/a quality in the first appearance of these people/a thing">it was a feeling that made me shiver from head to foot.

<abbr title="The Doctor called M">I tried to analyse the effect but that eluded me. Three or four among them were certainly deformed, one was a really horrible hunchback with a hairy face—one woman was abnormal[ly?] big & stout—but the rest, at that distance, <abbr title="seemed scarcely">seemed to my reason—if not to my instincts—passable human beings. The incongruity of there being people as white as Europeans—though I knew perfectly well they were <abbr title="not human beings">not Europeans —one or two quite black men & a fair selection of intermediate tints had nothing to do with the effect, for I had been in the West Indies where no blend of colour surprises.<abbr title="The details"> They were too far off however for me to notice any oddness in their features[.] Possibly it was something in their <abbr title="gestures. Presently">gestures. But however it arose[,] there was in my mind <abbr title="the strangest">the most unmistakable sense of their unreality & strangeness. Yet the smoking volcano, the tropical vegetation, the water flashing under the rising sun, the busy schooner were real enough.

I started violently as the Doctor gripped my arm. He had approached noiselessly. “Well?” said he. “Nothing upset you?” I turned & saw the puma in its cage spinning violently from the fore spanker boom & descending jerkily into the launch. The poor brute was motionless <abbr title="& quite">& quiet.

I look into <abbr title="his/Moreau’s">the Doctor[’]s calm & faintly ironical face. “I don’t want to break any rule but—”

“One question,” he said smiling. “For your health.”

“Well:—Are these people human beings?”

“Curious!” he said. “I didn’t expect that.” He looked in sudden disturbance at the shore, on which perhaps a hundred <abbr title="people including some children">people were <abbr title="now assembled">now scattered, some assisting actively in the landing, others lounging about looking on. “What’s wrong with them?” he said.

“That’s what I want to know.”

“You can’t see anything, can you? anything definite?”

He seemed eager, stared hard at my face & then followed my glance back to the shore as if to see precisely what I saw. “You’ve several cripples,” I said.

“That’s nothing,” he said. “Beyond that?”

“I don[’]t see how I can make you understand. I scarcely understand myself.”

“But I do.” He began to turn me gently away from the shore. “It’s a kind of vague horror, is it not? A persuasion that there [is] something ghastly in this or that & you can’t make out how it comes in? It’s curious.”—He led me towards <abbr title="the companionway">the gangway. “I’ve met one such case before as a result of hæmorrhage. It’s due I think to the exhaustion of the nervous system. I must give you a sedative or something. You must help yourself too. Try not to give way to this. If you do… I really can’t answer for your reason.”

“But,” I began[—]

“Well?”

“Nothing,” I said. The man was lying—I saw it in his eyes—<abbr title="& this last">& the tail of his lies was a threat. It was no good to argue with him. For if my sensations were illusory: how was it I found nothing wrong in Montgomery or himself? I was scarcely in a position to quarrel with him however. “Thanks for your advice,” I said & then with a smile; “My luggage is all packed if you want me to go ashore.”

“You[’]ve killed my joke,” he answered relieved & cheerful. “I was going to ask you that.” It was uncommonly thin jesting but we were both, I think, anxious to appear at ease.

Such of the people on the beach as were not busy under the orders of Montgomery crowded round to look at me as we came ashore & I certainly liked them no better on a nearer inspection. In some queer way their features seemed if I may use the expression<abbr title="all ‘out of"> ‘out of drawing,’ ears oddly rounded & out of place, hair unnaturally smooth or stiff & bristly, invariably a queer expression about the eyes. One man at least had vertical pupils to his eyes, I caught him looking fixedly over the doctor[’]s shoulder at <abbr title="me. I gleaned at/looked away & back again & he still glared at me. I hate that kind of thing.">. No one spoke to me thought they all stared. “He looks thin,” said a gutteral voice in English[.] Other remarks were made that I did not catch. One pale faced grey haired man with a sloping fore[e]head & long nose almost in a line with it that is so distinctive of the lowerkind of Jew & with a small beard under his chin, came up, saluted the Doctor & made some remark to him[.] <abbr title="Some of">Most of the others <abbr title="simply saluted or stood">simply lounged about & looked at us. We went through them & up towards the house with the flagstaff.

“I’ll introduce you to some of these worthy people of mine tomorrow,” said the Doctor, “perhaps this afternoon.” “You’ll soon see there’s nothing wrong about them.” [“]By the bye if you talk to them—most of them speak English—don[’]t allude to their past at all. They’r[e] a mixed lot—from all kinds of places & some of them might not like it.[”]

None of them came with us. They made a lane for us[,] stared at us as we walked up the beach & then they found something more exciting in the puma & the yelping dogs who were following us in the launch.

We came <abbr title="into a narrow green">to a narrow pathway winding up among the bushes. A queer shrivelled-looking little fellow, about six years old I should judge stood in the way[,] watched us for a moment, & then darted into the bushes.

“Shy,” said the doctor. “Like most children.”

The house stood on a knotted hillock of greenish lava, & was built pretty solidly of lava blocks, but with a light thatched roof.<abbr title="The flagstaff was before the door"> The shadow of the flag fluttered on the wall[.] <abbr title="A lot">A little behind this building was another smaller house surrounded by a high loopholed wall so that only the ridge of the roof was visible. Before the door a black woman sprawled & dozed in the sun with much of the abandon of a well[-]fed dog. Suddenly she lifted up her head, yawning[,] & became aware of our approach. Forthwith she sprang to her feet. The transition from heedless intolerance to sudden attention was remarkable. She looked keenly at us for a moment, especially I fancied at me, <abbr title="& I heard her go">& then she went indoors.

“Nonsense!” I heard someone say as we approached the entrance. “It’ ridiculous! He could not do it on the ship.”

In another moment, a tall woman in a dress of light grey appeared. She was pale with dark & rather sunken eyes, but withal a very handsome woman. She held some brilliant silks in her hand as if she had been engaged in fancy work. She looked at me keenly.

“You have never,” she began as if in surprise & protest[.]

“But I have,” inter[r]upted the Doctor. “I’ve brought you a real visitor. A gentleman from London, which we picked up in a <abbr title="boat miles away in the">boat starving. Let the introduction be formal. Mrs—I mean, my Wife, Mr Prendick, Mr Prendick my Wife. Mr Prendick, you will find very interesting company, my dear if I may judge by my own experience.

Her expression which had been hard & rather forbidding changed swiftly. She seemed dubious for one brief instant, then smiled & held out her hand.

“I did not understand for the minute,” she said. “We <abbr title="don’t often">do not entertain visitors here[,] Mr Prendick[,] very often.”—She had my name right at once, which I thought <abbr title="clever. But we’ll/we will do everything we can to make you comfortable & persuade you to stay">clever. She said something which I scarcely caught, some vague sympathy about my perils.

<abbr title="We made">There were some other almost commonplace civilities, civilities which seemed to me to be oddly discordant with the strange world into which I had fallen, under <abbr title="this strange white">this fluttering unknown flag on an island so unaccountably strange & on the very edge of of a <abbr title="volcano. She was apparently too well bred to">volcano. Then turning to her husband she asked him eagerly & yet with a certain flinching about his health & the success of his voyage. These answered, with the quiet ease of a woman who knew her social duties she turned to me again.<abbr title="There was not one"> Not a hint of any conjugal tenderness was apparent between the two of <abbr title="them. ¶”By the bye, Mr. Prendick,” said she. “Do you mind sleeping in a hammock?” ¶Save for the hammocks the house was comfortably furnished in the European fashion.">them.

<abbr title="In a few moments/After breakfast I was/found myself in my room which looked seaward">Presently I was alone in my own room[,] a pretty little apartment, furnished in the ordinary European fashion. I <abbr title="sat in my room">sat for some time & stared out of the window at the sea trying to get my thoughts in <abbr title="order. Every now & then came a puff of steam/Here">order. I was cut off altogether from the rest of the civilized world—if the Doctor was to be believed—and bound to stay upon this island for an indefinite period, a year perhaps or <abbr title="longer. Everything I saw made ">longer. At any rate his house was, at least, not amazing—a comforting disappointment—& what seemed still better his wife was <abbr title="a European woman">an Englishwoman &, as it seemed to me then, altogether without that impalpable atmosphere that clung to people of the beach. But the black woman servant was queer enough. She had an enormous mouth & the facial part of her head projected far beyond the cranial part, her ears too were very large & placed high above the proper position. Her eyes however were singularly gentle & when she came to me & spoke to me of some necessary matter I felt none of the instinctive shrinking that had made my passage of the beach so unpleasant. That brought me round to the old problem again. What race: <abbr title="what strange">what unnatural admixture of races, were these incredible people? Above all, whence came my strange impression that I had seen them all before? My first feelings of wonder & repugnance gradually left me in that calm little bedroom, giving place to a growing curiosity.

3. The Household of Doctor Moreau
It was quite by accident that I learnt the name of Doctor Moreau. We were at lunch. <abbr title="His household">His family gathering consisted it seemed of his wife, his only son, a thoughtful & rather sickly lad, & his son’s tutor, the “Grand Vizier,” Montgomery. We were waited on by a weazened little man, quick & active in his movements and conveniently long in the arms.

I was telling <abbr title="them said I">them of the loss of the Lady Vain. “You were lucky,” said the lady carelessly, “to fall into the hands of Doctor Moreau.”

“Chut!” said the Doctor. “Moreau”? <abbr title="I said">I thought to myself. “Moreau?” What was the phrase: “The Moreau _____”? It sent my memory back ten years. Ah!—The Moreau Horrors. The phrase drifted loose in my mind for a moment, then <abbr title="I recalled">I saw it in red lettering on a little <abbr title="buff coloured">buff covered pamphlet that to read made one shiver & creep. And then I remembered distinctly all about it. I met his eyes.

“You know the name?” said he.

“The merest beginner is science does that,” I answered. Then <abbr title="I remembered that I had told">I recalled my telling him I hated vivisection. “I was on your side in that <abbr title="Battersea">West Kensington controversy,” I said. “In principle.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” But he was evidently annoyed at his name coming out nevertheless <abbr title="& the meal">& there was an uncomfortable pause. In spite of myself that long-forgotten pamphlet came back with startling vividness to my mind. I had been a mere lad then & Moreau was I suppose about thirty, a rising physiologist, well known in society. He had published some very astonishing facts in connection with the transfusion of blood & in addition <abbr title="was supposed">was known to be doing valuable work on morbid growths. A journalist obtained access to his laboratory <abbr title="as one/a laboratory">in the capacity of laboratory assistant, with the deliberate intention of making sensational exposures, & by the help [of] a shocking accident—if it was an accident—his gruesome pamphlet became notorious. On the day of its publication, a wretched dog, flayed & otherwise mutilated[,] escaped from Moreau’s house. It was in the silly season & a prominent editor, a cousin <abbr title="of the journalist">of the laboratory assistant , appealed to the conscience of the nation. The Doctor was simply howled out of the <abbr title="country & vanished. He disappeared">country. He might perhaps have purchased his social peace by abandoning his investigations, but he apparently preferred the latter as most men would who have once fallen under the overmastering spell of research. It dawned upon me <abbr title="for what purpose">to what end the puma & the dogs, which had now been brought with the luggage into the enclosure behind the house[,] were destined.

I became aware that Mrs. Moreau was speaking to me. I apologised. “I was asking ,” said she; “if they still held exhibitions in those gardens at South Kensington. I remember the Fisheries very well.”

<abbr title="There was a">She displayed the same—rather pathetic—disposition to talk about London that I had found in Montgomery. <abbr title="It struck me that she was">She was I thought in her exile from civilization upon this strange island paying rather heavily for the privilege of marrying an exceptional man. She looked indeed as though she was paying very heavily. In the afternoon over some tea she asked me what new books had excited attention. Moreau <abbr title="& his assistant">& Montgomery had left us along with the lad, who by the bye proved to be a nice quiet little fellow, with a remarkable passion for killing flies. I was telling her about Doctor Jekyll & Mr. Hyde when an angry snarling came from the house within the pallisades. I paused, startled. She winced. “<abbr title="So">But what happened then?” she said recalling me to my story.

The snarling grew in <abbr title="volume, angry">volume, & gave place at last to hoarse loud cries of rage. It was the puma. A[t] times came the barking of dogs from the enclosure. I guessed what was happening & that it behooved me not to notice it, & I went on, with some floundering, to unravel the personality of Doctor Jekyll. I forgot altogether how the conversation went though I remember scene with extraordinary vividness: The intense sunlight sleeping on the green foliage before the window, behind this the tower & a few roofs[,] the distant curves of <abbr title="the mountain">the volcano with gusts of steam jetting from some uneasy point in the crater, & the blue horizon on the shoulder of the mountain. I looked steadily out of the French window for I did not want to see the trouble in her eyes & how she shivered & grew paler as the discord of paincrept into the growing outcry. The boy sprawled idly in [sic] the verandah & took not the slightest notice of the cries that were to us so infinitely distressing. After we had finished with Jekyll & Hyde <abbr title="& wandered, with/from that got to">& we got to loose fragmentary inconsecutive remarks about authors we liked & books we had read. But the sense of the helpless animal & its slow hopeless agony got at last unendurable.

I rose abruptly. She rose too[,] white & scared, fearful that I might remark upon his cruelty. “You will be busy,” said I, “now the Doctor is back. If I may I will prowl yonder towards the village. I take an interest in butterflies & I fancy I saw just now a flash of blue.”

“I doubt if you’ll find a butterfly,” she answered hesitating. But I fancied <abbr title="she seemed/was">she felt relieved at this end to our intolerable conversation. She stood & watched me out of the room & presently I saw her on the verandah as I went down the crumbling lava slope towards the bushes.

Suddenly I heard her calling after me. I turned & she came out of the shadow into the sun. I hastened back towards her.

“I thought I would tell you,” she said. “Perhaps Doctor Moreau has done so already. He has an extraordinary objection to anyone approaching his laboratory.” It was on the tip of my tongue to hell her I had no mind to do that. I said I would observe that prohibition. She turned as if to leave me & then, speaking hurriedly: “If you are going far from the house:—there are one or tow queer characters in the village. It’s unlikely you’ll meet them. Still. This.” She held out a revolver which I accepted mechanically & in another moment she was flitting back to the house.

As I turned dropping the revolver into my pocket there suddenly arose such a cry of pain, <abbr title="such an exquisite touch/embodiment">such an intense expression of maddening suffering in sound, that—but for her—I would have thrust my fingers into my ears, & run headlong from that accursed house. But knowing that this woman had to suffer as much or more than I suffered, & furthermore had the shame of her husband’s cruelty upon her, I made as thought I did not hear, <abbr title="&">but whistling idly & trying to keep my hearing intent upon my tune, strolled slowly away from the house.

And all the while that hellish agony was ringing in my ears. It was as if all the pain in the world had found a voice. Yet had I known such pain was in the next room & had it been dumb, I believe—I have thought since—I could have stood it well enough. It is when suffering finds a voice & sets our nerves quivering that this pity comes troubling us.

But in spite of the brilliant sunlight & the <abbr title="green branches of vegetation">green fan of the trees waving in the soothing sea breeze, the world was a confusion, blurred with drifting black & red phantasms until I was out of earshot of the <abbr title="house of pallisades">house in the pallisade fence.

4. The Village
I followed a narrow path through the forest that presently broadened & grew insensibly into a kind of bridle-path. The trees crowded less thickly & the yellow sunlight smote in thin shafts through the attenuated canopy of leaves & twisted creepers. I startled two other elfin children <abbr title="similar to the odd creature I">similar to the furry little fellow we had passed on our way to the house. Then in a clear space <abbr title="I found">I came upon a well on the European pattern, & a woman with her back towards me was uncoiling a bucket[—]she was bare footed & wore short skirts like those of a Drury Lane fisher girl. <abbr title="Past">Beyond her through the thinly scattered trees, were houses, four or five, & beyond among an abundance of bushes & indistinct in a kind of bluish haze were dim suggestions of others. This was evidently, I thought, the village I had seen from the bay.

Then I saw emerging from behind the corner of a house & <abbr title="coming gravely">coming towards me along the path a man with a wizened brown negroid face, surrounded by greyish whiskers. He wore large spectacles & drab linen clothing & carried a little book in his lank hairy hand. He started when he saw me & became if anything graver in his carriage. As I drew near him he took off his hat with something of a flourish, & smiling & displaying therewith amazing canines, he wished me good day.

“A stranger?” said he, in thick but passable English <abbr title="with a little accident/accent that I cannot/it will not">with a certain accent that it will be kinder not to attempt to suggest to you by any orthographic malformations.

“Yes,” said I[.]

He scrutinized my face closely. “From up there?” asked he nodding in the direction of the house with the flagstaff. I said, “yes.” “You haven’t been down here before?” I told him, “no.” “Just come in fact?” and I said that was so[.] “But then,” said he in a confidential undertone & bringing his face near mine; “your scars are healed?”

I stared at him. “What do you mean by scars?” I asked.

<abbr title="”I beg your">He begged my pardon for mentioning such an indelicate subject. “But I don’t understand,” I began. He waved his hand & said he had forgotten himself. “We never mention—that kind of thing. It <abbr title="was the accident of">was my surprise .”

I was mystified. “What name have you?” he asked. I told him. “Mine,” he said with a touch of complacency, “is <abbr title="Stermius?">Sturmins .” It rang new in my ears. Another individual approached us & at his footfall I turned my eyes to him. He was close upon us, for he went softly. I started with a sudden qualm of disgust for he was the same individual I had seen on the beach with the steadfast eyes and yellow pupils.

“A stranger from the house, my lord—already,” <abbr title="said the creature">said Sturmins.

<abbr title="He">The newcomer looked at me, loftily, stared into my eyes for a moment & then with a quick movement looked at <abbr title="Sturmius?">Sturmins. He spoke slowly with the same thick accent; “I saw him on the beach yesterday. He came with the ship. His name is <abbr title="Pendrick">Prendick .” Then to me in a tone of unendurable superiority: “Are you coming to <abbr title="live in the village">live among us, <abbr title="Pendrick">Prendick ?”

I looked squarely into his face & he suddenly flinched & looked away. Then I turned to <abbr title="Sturmius?">Sturmins & saw an expression of astonishment on his face. “<abbr title="You haven’t introduced me to this man,” said I">Who’s this individual,” said I. “Anybody much?”

It routed the creature. With a ridiculous air of dignity he walked away. But Sturmins having given me one eloquent look of horror,<abbr title="suddenly left"> left me to pursue & as I imagine, to propitiate <abbr title="the creature">the individual with the vertical pupils, & so I found myself alone <abbr title="again. Meditating">again. I watched their retreating figures[,] the one stiff & foreboding the other eloquent with propitiatory gestures, & then turned & began walking slowly towards the houses.

They were of one storey built of lava & thatched—in no sense barbaric, but indeed with a certain agreeable appearance of finish, strange in the tropics. I advance towards them, with a certain queer & extremely agreeable feeling, half curiosity, I fancy, half fear. I passed an individual working in a garden but he was too preoccupied to notice <abbr title="me. Then close before my eyes">me & found myself in a little street of scattered houses, the road running straight in one direction towards the shining water of the bay & in the other towards a crowded accumulation of roofs that had almost the appearance of a town. From out this cluster rose the square tower I have already mentioned. The general appearance of the place was an odd blending of an English <abbr title="country village &">country town with altogether tropical scenery & materials[.] Two or three people were walking down the street, near me & <abbr title="beyond there were more">beyond towards the tower the street seemed busy. I was startled by the approach of a hooded figure suggestive of an Inquisitor. It was a woman & her face was carefully covered with a veil in which round apertures were cut[.] She wore a short kirtle reaching scarcely to the knees & her legs & feet were bare. I found afterwards this was the customary dress of the better class <abbr title="of the people">of women.

I thought I would ask her if yonder was the market place but when I stopped to address her she took to her heels & fled precipitately.

I was astonished at this at the time, though afterwards I found it was the etiquette of the <abbr title="place. Just then">place. As I stood gaping after her a door opened behind me & an unsteady step approached. I turned & saw the most piggish looking man I have ever beheld, small eyes, fat heavy cheeks, flat nose & tusky underjaw exactly <abbr title="like a swine">like a hog. He walked unsteadily.

“Stranger!” he said as he saw my face. “New ‘rival. Find me… Drunk. Don’t [‘]pologise I[’]m sure. How are you?” And then he added with the air of a desperate man; “How’s your scars?”

He <abbr title="laughed with the air of a desperado">laughed. “I don’t care! He staggered towards me & caught my arm. He was in the maudlin stage of drunken[n]ess. “You should have run after her,” said he. They all run away. It’s <abbr title="their idea of decency">their way. Lord! I know them.”

I tried to shake <abbr title="his arm off mine & turned to walk">his hand off my arm, & walk away from him but he had taken a fancy to me. He came staggering along my side & so we <abbr title="went past several people">went towards the market place; passers by regarded us askanse [sic]. He made me angry by claiming kinship with me for I have a peculiar loathing of drunken[n]ess.

“You’r[e] the right sort I can see,” said he. A brother[.] None of your infernal logicians. Can’t stand ‘em. Higher humanity—all the rest of it… hogwash. You come on the spree with me. I’ll show you life. I know a thing or two.

He hesitated. He hiccuped & then bringing his greasy face close to mine whispered; “I know a place—where they let you drink out of saucers!”

He seemed disappointed at my calmness. “Where you can go on all fours,” he said still mysteriously.

“<abbr title="Well I[‘]m">I[‘]m hanged,” said I aloud & angrily with the idea of being rid of him, “if I see anything attractive in that. It seems to m that you will have to go on all fours in a minute here.”

“Sssh!” he said. “Not so loud!”

“You are talking very freely, my friend,” said a voice over my shoulder in the thick tones of suppressed indignation. I turned & found a stalwart copper complexioned individual with a broad heavy face & in bright yellow garments, grasping my collar. I shook myself free & put my hand in my pocket. “Not at all,” said I. “I merely remarked he would be going on all fours presently.” Another woman passing by, fled with a <abbr title="shocked shriek">modest shriek at my words.

“By heaven!” said the coppery faced man; “you have a fine <abbr title="courage! I must arrest">courage! Just help me[,] Beuve!” I found another yellow clad individual had secured my hog-faced acquaintance. Passers by stopped, others came hurrying up & in a minute we four were the centre of a little crowd of people.

“I don’t understand!” said I. I’m a stranger. Keep your hands off me!”

I looked at the faces about me & suddenly that horror of <abbr title="these creatures">these people that had affected me on the beach came back again with redoubled force. They were all <abbr title="men and women">men, with an elvish bright eyed child or so; & yet there was that odd indefinable touch in their faces. What was it? Even then I did not perceive, though one looked at me with the dull stare <abbr title="of a grazing cow">of bovine anger, & the glance of another was sidelong & furtive & hateful. At the back was another with a calm leonine face[,] tawny hair & vertical pupils.

“You’d better not show fight!” said the <abbr title="yellow dressed">yellow robed man.

I saw it was useless. It is well for me that I kept my head clear & my revolver in my pocket. “I tell you,” said I, in as firm & clear a tone as possible; “that I don[’]t see what I’ve done wrong.”

“Good Heavens!” said someone in the crowd[.]

“This individual”—I pointed to the drunkard—”asked me to come to a place where one could lap up…”

I did not finish my sentence. A yell of execration went up from the crowd—with just a touch of cruel derision—& I will confess that moment as [the] most fearful in my life. “Beast, Beast!” they cried. I was struck on the back of the head & again in the side. “Kill them,” said a voice. I never saw a crowd so possessed by animal rage before. Two other ruddy brown men in yellow pushed their way through the crowd. I was gripped & hustled, my arm was pinned to my side[.] I saw the hoggish man struck down & I knew I was bit in the arm for I have the mark of the teeth to this day—exactly like a dog[’]s they are. Then I was collared on either side by the men in yellow, & amidst chance <abbr title="blows, growling">blows, & clutching hands that tore at me, I was hustled along towards the market place. I <abbr title="dream now & [then]">dream even now of those faces, lit by a strange lust of cruelty, surging & grimacing about me, of the threatening hands, some with stumpy unwieldy fingers & some with the lank talons; & their eyes blazing with a strange light behind them.

I and the hog-faced man were thrust by the men in yellow up the steps <abbr title="into a house beside">of a a [sic] house that stood in the shadows of the tower. Other <abbr title="yellow faced">yellow clad men emerged to assist them & the mob was left to howl outside & gibber at the windows. I stood, bruised, panting, muddy & torn, & not a little dismayed at my reception by these people. The drunkard had been handled far worse & lay in a heap in the corner. The men in yellow were breathless, & one sat down & nursed his shin.

There suddenly entered the man with vertical pupils whom I had <abbr title="first seen at">first noticed on the beach, & with him the person called Sturmins. I could not but appreciate the complacency of the expression on the former’s face. “What is this?” he said to the nearest man in yellow. “And who is this stranger?”

“A case of grossly indecent <abbr title="language, Sir">language, my lord .”

He looked grave, went & glared for a moment out of the window, & I noticed the populace shrunk back [sic], & then seated himself at a small table in the centre of the room. We two malefactors stood up before him, the hoggish man unsteady humbly at the end of the table, & prepared to <abbr title="write. The man with">write. Then I noticed that the great man’s hand, which lay carelessly on the table, was deformed by the loss of a thumb.

He looked at us darkly for a moment. “This,” said he, pointing to my companion; “is a familiar face. Last time—let me see—it was grubbing up roots & eating them raw. A most disgusting thing.”

“Pardon m’lord,” said the criminal; “last time it was drinking wrong. <abbr title="Roots">Rooting, time before.”

“Doesn’t matter,” said his lordship testily. “The thing is you’r[e] an obstinate beast. Nothing seems enough, no punishment, no warning, to eradicate these animal traits in you. It almost makes me despair. You & the like of you with your swinish desires & gratifications make this place a pandemonium.”

He stopped & whispered Sturmins. Sturmins looked over his spectacles at the prisoner & consulted a book.

<abbr title="Six weeks/Then the yellow me">Then the two men in yellow gave their evidence in that stiff concise manner that distinguishes the police officer all the world over. The man with the vertical pupils turned to me, glanced at my face for a moment & then stared at his knuckles.

“Your name?” he said.

“You knew it just now,” I answered. Sturmins was audibly shocked. <abbr title="“Pendrick”">“Prendick,” said I, repenting quickly. “Seaton House near Taunton in England.”

“There is no such place as England as everyone knows,” said his lordship & Sturmins repeated; “no such place—a mere poetical expression.”

I took this quite calmly. I was convinced now that the village was inhabited by a collection of dangerous lunatics & my sole object was to avoid offending them needlessly, until an opportunity for escape presented itself. “<abbr title="Pendrick">Prendick, my name is,” said I.

“My lord,” corrected Sturmins, & looked over his spectacles at me in a half friendly half reproachful way.

“<abbr title="Pendrick">Prendick, my lord.” said I. One may as well go all the way when one begins to humour a madman.

“You cam today—out of the ship?” he asked in a slightly less distant tone. I told him yes. “And what were you when you came aboard the ship?” “A taxidermist[,] my lord.” The word was evidently new & they looked gravely at each other, nodded their heads, & then with a fine affectation of intelligence regarded me again.

“You came down into the village,” said his lordship changing the line of this examination, “& fell in with the other defendant.”

I said I had & in answer to further questions testified to those singular remarks about the scars, drinking & going on all fours. My evidence was received with considerable emotion. Sturmins held his hands up & repeated “Wretched Man!—Wretch-ed man!” several times. His lordship fidgetted uneasily, & the men in yellow regarded my <abbr title="companion askanse [sic] with ill concealed">companion with something between envious amazement & virtuous disgust.

“Have you anything to say to this?” <abbr title="said that lunatic">said his lordship in a stern voice.

“I was drunk, my lord; I was drunk!” said the defendant with a piggish squeal & forthwith began to weep bitterly. At that sound the crowd outside howled derision.

“We must stamp out this kind of thing,” said his lordship gloomily. “I will purify this place if I have to send every other citizen to prison. And you,” said he addressing me: “surely you knew the bestial wickedness of his conversation? Yet you continued that conversation!”

“I am sorry, my lord,” said I: “you must remember I am a newcomer. My moral standards are imperfect I fear. Doctor Moreau—”

<abbr title="“Never heard of him”">“Who’s Doctor Moreau?” asked Sturmins.

“No one,” said I for I knew that to mention the doctor invariably unhinges a maniac; “a mere silly word of mine. What I mean is, that I have not been properly taught, have never had a proper intense sense of <abbr title="the wickedness">the vileness of going on all fours or lapping one’s drink—such as you evidently possess. It’s true they seem silly unnatural things to do.”

“They are,” groaned his lordship, “most unnatural, most unnatural. But temptation is often very sore. Don[’]t speak of them so lightly.”

“And so the case stands with me[,] my lord,” said I with the air of having defended myself completely. “And I crave your lordship[’]s pardon. I should be glad if you <abbr title="lordship wishes">lordship permits it, to receive from Mr Sturmins here a few <abbr title="hints on… code here">hints of your moral code. My education has been sorely neglected. I am sure, my lord, I am willing to learn, & anxious to lead a pure & spiritual life. And I can assure you[,] my lord—on my oath if need be—that I have never gone on all fours nor lapped my <abbr title="drink in my life">drink, never in my whole lifetime [,] my lord. I am in a very painful position.”

[“]But don’t taxidermists?[”] began his lordship in some surprise turning his green glare upon Sturmins[.]

“No[,] my lord,” said Sturmins. “They live in trees.”

His lordship then proceeded to pardon me. His sentence on the drunkard was as mad as the rest of these fantastic occurrences & I had the hardest task to believe I was awake. Solitary confinement it was, until he had <abbr title="got the whole">got one play by Shakespeare & one book of the Bible by heart. “We mean to humanize you somehow,” said his lordship, “& for that give me Shakespear & the Bible,” & thereupon the poor wretch was led away whimpering. The case disposed of[,] his lordship rose, made some colourless remarks on my narrow escape, advised me to make Sturmins my mentor & went & glared out of the window. I left the court by a back way through a <abbr title="very beautiful">very pleasant garden. My head was whirling. I was half persuaded I was already mad. I could hear <abbr title="the voices &">the noises of the crowd that still railed in the front of the police court, as I imagined the place to be. Sturmins accompanied me & for a time walked by my side in silence.

We directed our steps toward the mountain. Presently I saw far off along a pathway the flagstaff & the white banner a golden spot in the light of the setting sun & fluttering above the trees. I determined as unostentatiously as possible to work our way <abbr title="round to this house of">round towards what was at least a place of refuge from these fantastic maniacs. <abbr title="Presently">Then Sturmins coughed behind his hand.

“These things,” said he, “are difficult to explain.”

I was recalled to his madness. “Yes?” said I.

“We stand,” said he, “in this little island of light & reach upward to the stars… But, vice, my friend, is very prevalent. We have a hard battle with it. I suppose I must tell you some of the things, or your innocence will <abbr title="be corrupted">be a stumbling block to you. But have you never—tell me frankly, as one man to another—have you never felt a strange desire, to—I had best say it plainly—run about on all fours & eat raw—raw things? Trust me my friend,[’]

I said I had not—I forgot that I was accustomed to raw fruit. He said with a tinge of incredulity that I was to be envied, & became thoughtful again.

“Then here again!” said he & pointed to a tree trunk the bark of which was splintered & rent off as if by powerful claws from the fifth to seventh foot in its height. While I still marveled at this, he proceeded with his discourse. “For my own part I yield little to these temptations. It may be so with you. But there is”—his voice sank to a whisper—“climbing trees! Do you never want to climb trees—badly? To swing from branch to branch by your arm? To fling headlong from the top of one tree to the top of another soaring through the air? Swish!” He whispered guiltily & looked at me with his wizened face twisted up into the oddest expression. <abbr title="”Well, well”">“Heaven knows,” he said; “we all have our temptations.

It struck me this was the maddest of them all, this elderly & greatly wrinkled gentleman who owned to a hankering for climbing trees & felt it was wrong to do so.

“Our moral state,” said he after an interval “seems to me to be worse than it ever was. Those homes behind us are—honeycombed with vice. Yet we have vigilance committees, a fine police, a body of severe magistrates. In the daytime there is a show of decency of course, men go to & fro about their business erect & facing heaven & the women are seemly & modest, but when the night-time comes, especially of moonlight nights… they prowl to & fro, on all fours, they scent their way, they howl about the village, a kind of animal madness comes upon them.” He shuddered. “You would scarcely <abbr title="believe what one half sees">believe the dim things one sees among the shadows.”

He became silent & I saw he eyed the trees on either side of the way with a curious expression, half desire it was & half dread.

So we went up <abbr title="through the trees towards the">through the forest some way up the flank of the volcano, & as we <abbr title="went by I tried">went I did my best to edge my companion round towards Moreau’s house. The trees were of several different sorts, the commonest a kind of palm with loose branching fronds quite new to me, & the ground between the stems, save for an occasional dense clump of reeds[,] was open. Everywhere grey lava with rusty discolorations came to the surface & crumbled into a muddy soil. Now & then we came upon a house surrounded by <abbr title="vines, men tilling">vines, patches of cultivated soil, or a quarry in the once molten rock. The sun <abbr title="set, for the sky">set as we walked with but intermittent speech & the brief afterglow deepened towards starlight. We would pass impish looking children or some odd looking adult apparently returning from some daily task, who would glance at us sullenly & the distant reef white with surf pale in the fading light. <abbr title="At one time">Once a singular shiver passed through the ground which I was unable to account for at the time[.]

There were long intervals of silence between myself & Sturmins. I was beginning to see the circumstances of this island in a clearer & calmer light. I don[’]t quite know at what moment I saw the beginning of the truth, it shaped it so[.] But I was <abbr title="now in a way able to determine the reason of">now able to define the peculiar strangeness in the appearance of these islanders, the nature of their gestures that <abbr title="hadn[’]t">had so roused my instinctive aversion at the beginning & that had then been so indefinable. I understand too now why their faces had seemed so familiar to me. And this was the essence of it: Everyone among them, in spite of their common human stature & features had <abbr title="also in addition in">also in some peculiar way, the<abbr title="distinctive caste"> caste of countenance distinctive of some or other wild animal. A human wasp, a perfectly human form, human clothing blended in some unaccountable way with an animal woof, human form with animal character[.] Some had the furtive animation of a fox, some the easy steadfastness of a feline, some the clumsy strength of an ox, some a swinish heaviness[.] I went over every circumstance I could recall since I had been taken aboard & was amazed at my slowness of apprehension; the sailors of the yacht had the touch of the seal just as much as the human form permitted, they grey-faced man was tainted with the bloodhound & the mate had the complexion, the motions[,] almost the voice of a fox. And the queer creature who shambled sadly by my side, with his lank hairy arms & anthropoid visage & who wourned the demoralization of the island in some outbreaks of speech which I scarcely heeded; was he an ape-man or a man ape?

Then I came round to the puzzle of the relationship of Moreau to these incredible inhabitants, & simultaneously there came with a shock of horror the memory of his historical researches upon the transfusion of blood & <abbr title="the fact of an">the pricking of my arm as I lay helpless in the cabin of the Dancing Faun. Then through the darkling into the confusion of my mind came the cry of the tortured puma & I knew we were approaching the house.

My companion halted at that. “We must not go this way,” said he with a sudden shake in his voice. I felt the time had come to get rid of him. “It’s just the way I mean to go,” I said. <abbr title="He looked closer at">He peered into my face. “<abbr title="Hasn[’]t">You’r[e] very strange,” he said. “That place makes me shiver.”

I looked at him & saw the ape half hidden. I looked down through the blackness under the trees <abbr title="to where the village lay">towards the village from which ever & again came a fitful cry. To me at least anything seemed better than to return to those half animal people. I went three paces towards the voice of <abbr title="the house of the crying puma">the puma.

He hesitated & then came after me & gripped my arm. “Don[’]t you remember? It is the House of Pain!” Then suddenly he left me & fled into the darkness amidst the forest. He ran into the dimness for some way[,] then with a whoop sprang up as I judge to grip a creeper[,] <abbr title="& swinging">swung himself by his arms to another & so, a black leaping object among the black foliage[,] vanished out of my sight.

I stared at the impenetrable night below me; <abbr title="then I">then looked up through the tracing of palm fans to where the peaceful stars were shining. The crying of the puma waxed & waned. A thing I had felt once or twice before, & very often since that night, came upon me. A sense of perfect isolation, the persuasion that for ever & beyond hope, I was alone. The voice of pain, the strange mockery of the human animals I had seen, the dangerous obscurity of the tropical forest, my own body standing there, seemed things of no importance to me. I seemed to soar out of my own existence[,] as it were, into some incredible altitude above time & space, & the only thing that had any kindred with me was the glittering multitude of stars.

The mood passed from me as it came, & with a sigh I turned my steps towards the house of the flagstaff.<abbr title="Thence"> It suddenly came into my mind that there was, in this mad island of bestial creatures, under its mad inhuman owner & his inhuman assistant, one creature at least who shared my horror. I felt the revolver in my pocket & thought of <abbr title="the woman who">a woman in grey with a wincing troubled face & bloodless lips.

5. In the House of Pain
<abbr title="I found her">I almost ran into her as I approached the house. The room behind the balcony was brightly lit, the glass doors open, so that one could see the little table with the bright coloured fancy work upon it. But she was standing in the shadow at the corner of the verandah peering into the dark.

“Is it you?” she whispered, & I, my nerves strung by my walk through the silent forest[,] almost<abbr title="could h[ave] almost cried"> shouted aloud with the abrupt perception of her presence.

“It is you,” I cried. “Thank God—it is you!” & clasped her hand.

She drew <abbr title="me onto the balcony">me towards the house & I saw her eyes were shining. “I was afraid for you,” she whispered. We entered the room & she dropped my hand & walked some paces away from me. Her excitement fell from her. She turned with a smile though her voice was faintly tremulous. “You see I was afraid[,] Mr Prendick, that you might have <abbr title="wandered far">wandered until you lost your path —or had been—detained in some way.” “It was very good of you to be concerned about me,” said I. “I must apologise if my absence has disturbed you.” The puma[’]s cries which had ceased broke out into a gust again & died away.

“There was nothing hot for dinner today,” she said with the same easy civility. “We must have a kind of supper-dinner, for it is past nine. Doctor Moreau & Mr Montgomery, I am afraid, will not join us—they have had something in the laboratory.”

The boy had been put to <abbr title="bed by the black servant">bed. The little monkey[-]like man-servant waited upon us. We sat at opposite ends of the dining room table & conversed about London with a strange affectation of commonplace civility. I had the hardest work to keep off the topic of the day’s experience, but I remembered my promise to Moreau. My brain was indescribably tired by that unparalleled [sic] day,but I did my best to entertain her, & she, her best to seem entertained. Outside, through the French windows rose the shadowy black flank of the volcano against the unfathomable blue of the tropical sky & the intermittent crying of the puma continued & every now & then we heard the howling of dogs[.] But the cries were fainter, far <abbr title="less voluminous">less frequent & altogether less distressing; sometimes they were grateful intervals of silence for as much as ten minutes.

I am habitually a heavy sleeper & fell into a dreamless slumber after lying awake for perhaps an hour—certainly not more.

The next morning I awoke in a blessed silence. I dressed, & so much was my mind lightened by the absence of those terrible cries, & by the bright freshness of the early hour that the things of overnight affected me no more than an evil dream. My experiences had a certain air of unreality. I remarked this same feeling almost every <abbr title="morning when I awoke">morning I spent in the island until towards the close of my visit. The last day, the last few days real & actual enough in one[’]s mind overnight, seem during one’s sleep to balance themselves against the sensations of all the thousands of days of one’s previous life. The experience of yesterday took on the colour of common experience. I was in the house of <abbr title="an unpleasant">an excellent man, unpleasant in just one respect, that he was a vivisectionist & took no trouble to silence his “material.” I had also, I recalled, seen some very strange people with an oddly animal type of feature, had made friends with a wizened gentleman with grey hair, & had an odd persuasion that I had last seen him jumping from tree to tree—but that was in the dusk. The feeling of strangeness & horror only came back to these recollections at a later stage.

I found Montgomery at breakfast with Mrs Moreau & the boy. Moreau was still in the laboratory I heard. I stuck to my point of honour & asked no questions. Montgomery asked me if I found the air pleasant, & told me he might be disengaged in the afternoon & that he would then take me about the island. I told him I had explored a part of the island already & he asked for details[.]

“They won’t let me go away from the house,” said the boy. “It’s precious hard.” <abbr title="Mrs Montgomery">Mrs Moreau said <abbr title="nothing during our conversation">nothing, but she seemed nervous, fidgetted with the hot water & presently rose suddenly & left the room. I told Montgomery what had happened[,] laying as little stress as possible upon the animalism of the creatures I had seen.

The boy followed my story with eager eyes & open mouth. “When I’m a year older,” he said, “I’m to go down there. The men in yellow had better keep their hands off me.”

Montgomery said nothing but “Yes,” “Yes,” while I told the story & “I ought to have warned you not to go away from the house yesterday. It didn’t occur to me you would. The conditions of the place are so peculiar.”

When I had finished & expected some explanation of all these strange things, he suddenly pushed his plate away & got up.

“Look here!” he said with his hand on the back of his chair. “You naturally don’t understand all this. Keep your wits steady. I & Moreau are confoundedly busy with a thing that can’t be left. It’s all right—though it’s rather a rum story.”

“But,” said I[.]

“Ther[e]’ll be nothing for me to do,” said he waving his hand, “after tomorrow. Except attend to you.”

He left the room. The little fellow asked some questions I could not answer & then began to tell me about a fantastic ogre who could smell men a mile off & always buried their bones. It struck me as an odd invention & I wondered where he got the idea.

Then Mrs Moreau cam back, looking I fancied a trifle less haggard. She was [in] excessively nervous humor, & started at the slightest sound. I found she <abbr title="possessed Frankenstein">possessed the Anatomy of Melancholy, a book I had often wanted to read & never found occasion, <abbr title="& took it/sat">& with that I took a deck chair onto the verandah. The early hours of the morning passed uneventfully. And then I became aware by a sudden outcry that the wretched puma was not yet dead.

But the sounds that now began were far more unpleasant than any I had heard before, not so loud perhaps, nor so fierce nor so long sustained, but in some way, unspeakably more pitiful. It was the voice of the puma but changed in some inexplicable way. <abbr title="They">The sounds ebbed & grew in volume, died down again into dull groanings, into a scarcely audible gasping & rose again far reaching cries.

I got up, leaving Burton in the chair, & walked from the house towards the bushes. All the emotional disturbance of yesterday returned[.] I hurried away from the place blindly until the cries of <abbr title="pain had become faint, & then I found flooding back into memory all the/my terror of beast men in the village & their latent… Unutterable terror suddenly sprang upon me from every strange shadow & animal possibilities. I returned towards/to the house & resuming Burton[,] setting my teeth hard">pain were barely audible. Then the <abbr title="terror of these">terror with which the people of the village had inspired me came back into my <abbr title="mind. Instead of going on downward I turned to the right[,] purposing to make a circuit of the house.">mind. Only it had its unreasonable aspect. My nervous system was giving way <abbr title="before the long stress of these strange forms">before the incessant stresses of this grotesque & ghastly island[.] There is a terror that walks by day, a fear in the light, panic, unaccountable & far more terrible than the fear of the night. Every stirring shadow has its peculiar quality of horror, every grass blade, every swaying tree frond. I suddenly turned, & now looking back, ran hard until I was within a dozen yards [of] the verandah. Then the boy came out & stared at me & at his appearance my fear fell from me. I made some characterless remark to him, &, while <abbr title="he look[ed at] me">he still watched me, resumed my Burton. <abbr title="And then">Presently the voice of the puma began again, & I had to set my teeth hard & hold myself down by sheer force of will. And so the long-drawn agony drew towards its climax.

I & Mrs Moreau & the boy lunched together, a dismal formality for us two elders, though the child, who was I believe deaf ate freely enough. We scarcely attempted to conceal our distraction from one another. Sometimes came a pause, sometimes mere inarticulate sounds almost sobs & then, ever more human & harrowing[,] came the cries.

<abbr title="In the afternoon">After the lunch I went to my bedroom. I buried my head in the pillows, twisted the sheet round my ears, <abbr title="plugged them">plugged the meatus with soap, & still that maddening anguish cut into me. <abbr title="I think it">At last it maddened me beyond any thought of promises. In a kind of frenzy I sprang up & ran across the open space to the house of the pallisades I entered the open gateway of the fence & forth<abbr title="with the four dogs sleeping/sheltering">with a number of dogs kenneled in the enclosure began yelping furiously[.] As I laid my hand on the door of the house Moreau appeared. His hands & arms were covered with blood. An expression of diabolical rage sprang into his face at the sight of me. “You” he said hoarse & furious. “Go back!”

He caught me by the shoulder & thrust me out of the doorway. The door slammed, & I <abbr title="stood feeling that/knowing">stood outside as it seemed for an interminable time knowing that I was fainting.

After lying I know not how long I came to my senses again. I stared at the white hot sky for a moment searching my memory for the events immediately preceding my fall. Then I recalled them, recalled what I had seen in the laboratory over the Doctor’s shoulder. Those writhing <abbr title="limbs I had seen">limbs were certainly not those of a Puma[.] What they were was too horrible for thought[.] The <abbr title="shrieks, those human shrieks, were thick">shrieks, human shrieks still came in an almost continuous stream[.] Then they died down with a sudden abrupt sob into a pitiful groaning. I crept <abbr title="indoors sick/overcome with horror">indoors shivering & sat stupefied almost in my own room with my hands clu[t]ched over my ears.

6. Doctor Moreau Explains
“<abbr title="Pendrick">Prendick ,” said the Doctor; “I must talk to you.”

“For God’s sake leave me,” said I.

“Since you came into the laboratory you must know all about it now. And then… <abbr title="Pendrick">Prendick, man: it[’]s not the thing you imagine.”

I turned towards him. <abbr title="The cruelty was">His cruelty became incredible when I looked at his broad human face. There <abbr title="was an absolute silence except for his">was a dead silence now. His hands were white, his eyes calm & steady. <abbr title="Has I been just dreaming/having">Was it only a nightmare I had dreamt of in my own room?

He looked into my eyes. “I can’t let you go on like this. I must explain—wild as the explanation is.”

“Explain then,” said I hoarsely.

“You’r[e] as bad as my wife,” said he. “Before I begin any explanation you must smoke a cigar .” And he handed me his case. “No,” said I; “tell me at once. At once! This is altogether too horrible.” “I insist on the cigar,” he <abbr title="answered calmly">answered. “You must get sane again before I can talk to you.” There was something so coldly commonplace in his tone that I <abbr title="was suddenly">was shamed by my own agitation. I took the cigar, tore off its end with a certain petulance, & lit it.

A few whiffs & perhaps the healing silence calmed me immensely. “Well?” said I presently & a little irritably[,] shivering involantarily [sic] as with deft flexible fingers he <abbr title="decapitated the end of his">slit off the end of a cigar for himself.

“All in good time, Prendcik. You know a little of my physiological <abbr title="investigating">investigations ?” he asked striking a match on his shoe.

“The transfusion of blood,” said I[.]

“That was ten years ago, more than ten years ago.—By Jove you’r[e] looking white, though. Take my word for it the thing’s not so terrible after all. You must have some whiskey & lithia before I go on. The fact is I forget everything in an experiment or I ought not have left you to go about in this island & get scared. Indeed I didn’t think you would get scared. I’m sorry.”

“Look here,” said I, for his civilities tried me. “What wanton devilry have you been doing in this shed at the back?”

“I’m no good at epigrams. You must listen to an explanation, or go without. And first the lithia.”

“There was another branch of work I was doing besides transfusion,” <abbr title="said Moreau continuing">said the Doctor resuming his explanation; “investigations upon morbid growths, & just before I had to leave England I got to work upon what one might call the transfer of animal tissues—& their plasticity.”

“The transfer of animal tissues!” said I. “I don[’]t understand.”

“Some facts were well known before I began. It was a common operation when a man by any chance had lost a nose to cut a strip from his forehead & make him a new one, & some French soldiers in Algiers years ago played a curious trick of a similar kind with some rats. <abbr title="They cut">They pared off the skin of the brute[’]s snout, pulled its on to its head, cut off the tip, & bound the two freshly cut surfaces <abbr title="closely together">closely. <abbr title="The wounded surfaces">They grew together very quickly. Then the tip of the tail was cut off & so it remained transplanted to the nose as a kind of proboscis. They sold the things in Paris as a new species of rat[—]”rhinoceros rats” they were called, I fancy.

“And you—”

“Began with that & went on—had already got a long way beyond such puerilities when I left—had to leave—England.”

For a moment he meditated, “Journalism,” said he; “& the great heart of humanity—… wonderful things!”

“Then this plasticity. One of the most wonderful of arts, & altogether neglected. A little was done in shaping noses, & changing ears, but the multitude of men remain just as they grow naturally—save for the barber & the bath. Yet secretly it has always been practiced—usually upon human beings. There is your mounteback [sic] with his moulded & flexible limbs, & in the old days—possibly you have read your Victor Hugo—they made dwarfs & strange cripples. Some of them were amazing creatures although made ignorant people & covertly. Then savages have practised the art of moulding flesh—chiefly on themselves. On the west coast of <abbr title="Africa among the Mendis">Africa in the Porroh cult, they cut up great ridges of flesh, & there is skull bandaging, foot shaping, tight lacing, pulling the lip down with weights—a thousand things of that sort.”

“Then you mean, I began, that you—”

“All in good time,” said he & waved his cigar. “I have no doubt, that in the Inquisition, <abbr title="things we know not">things of which no record has been kept were attempted. No doubt most of those fanatics had a mere craving to inflict just the maximum pain that would leave life in the body, but some among them I cannot but fancy took something of a scientific interest—… A blending like that of the Siamese twins would be an easy matter… However you know now what I started with. I began, purely out of curiosity, to try how extensive such operations might be made, how far I could—”

“Good Heavens!” I cried for his tone made me sick with disgust. “How damnable! I did not understand that. The only thing that could excuse vivisection to me would be some application—”

“Precisely,” said he. “But, you see, I am differently constituted. We are on different platforms. You are a materialist.”

“I am not a materialist,” I began hotly.

“In my view. In my view. For it is just this question of pain that parts us. So long as visible or audible pain turns you sick, so long as your own pains drive you, so long as pain underlies your propositions about sin, so long, I tell you, you are an animal, thinking a little less obscurely what an animal feels. This pain—”

I gave an impatient shrug at such sophistry.

[“]<abbr title="It is a">Oh! but it is such a little thing. A man truly opened to what science has to teach must see that it is a little thing. It may be save in this little <abbr title="planet, all through the vastness save before the">planet, this speck of cosmic dust, invisible long before the nearest star could be attained; it may be I say that nowhere else does this thing called pain occur. But the laws we feel our way towards… Why even on this earth, even among living things, what pain is there?[”]

He drew a little penknife as he spoke from his pocket, opened the smaller blade deliberately he drove the <abbr title="blade deliberately into">blade into his leg & withdrew it. “No doubt you have seen that before. It does not hurt a pinprick. But what does it show? The capacity for Pain is not needed in the muscle, & it is not placed there, is but little needed in the skin, & only here & there over the thigh is spot capable of feeling pain. <abbr title="There is">Pain is simply our intrinsic medical adviser to warn us & stimulate <abbr title="us. There[’]s no pain">us. All living flesh is not painful, nor is all nerve, not even all sensory nerve. There’s no tint of pain, real pain[,] in the sensations of the optic nerve. If you wound the optic nerve you merely see flashes of light just as disease of the auditory nerve merely means a humming in our ears. Plants do not feel pain, the lower animals; it’s possible that such animals as the starfish & crayfish do not feel pain. Then with men, the more intelligent they become the more intelligently they will see after their own welfare, & the less they will need the goad to keep them out of danger. I never yet heard of a useless thing that was not ground out of existance by evolution, sooner or later. Did you? And the pain gets needless.

“Then I am a religious man, Prendick[,] as every sane man must be. It may be I fancy I have seen more of the ways of the world[’]s maker than you, for I have sought his laws, in my way, all my life while you I understand have been collecting butterflies. <abbr title="But I">And I tell you, pleasure & pain have nothing to do with heaven or hell. Pleasure & pain—Bah! What is your theologians’s ecstacy [sic] but Mohomet;s houri in the dark? This store men & women set on <abbr title="pleasure—& pain">pleasure & pain, Prendick, is the mark of the beast upon them, the mark of the beast from which <abbr title="they have come">they came. Pain! Pain & pleasure, they are for us only so long as we wriggle in the dust[.]”

He stopped <abbr title="abruptly in this incredible/astonishing and to my mind most blasphemous tirade">abruptly. “I’m wandering from the business in hand,” said he. “But have some more whiskey & another cigar.” I was feeling more at my case now; I refilled my glass and sat back in my chair to hear him further.

“I went on with this research just the way it led me. That is the only way I ever heard of research going. I asked a question, devised <abbr title="some way to get">some method of obtaining an answer & got—a fresh question. Was this possible or that possible? You cannot imagine what this means to an investigator, what an intellectual <abbr title="passion that grows">passion grows upon him. You can [not (?)] <abbr title="imagine the mere[?] beauty">imagine the strange colourless delight of these <abbr title="intellectual sensations">intellectual desires. The thing before you is no longer an animal, a fellow creature, but a problem. Sympathetic pain… all I know of it I remember as a thing I used to suffer from years ago.<abbr title="The desire that swallowed up all my other desires was this: I">I wanted—it was the one thing I wanted—to find out the extreme limit of <abbr title="plasticity of">plasticity in a living shape.

“This doctrine of evolution, Prendick, has blinded science to that side of the question. <abbr title="The shape">The form of an animal[,]<abbr title="the animal we know/that is[,] the form">the form it assumes when it is let alone, that no doubt is the result of a process of natural selection acting on variation. But what if you do not let the animal alone? Suppose you bind it here, & stimulate it there; suppose you do more, you cut, you insert, you inject, you transpose. Do you think the idle play <abbr title="of an idle French soldier">of some rascally Zouaves is the culmination of that kind of thing? I, at least, did not think so.

It is a science & an art, this cutting, & binding, & yet not killing. The whole problem is to destroy no great artery, to introduce no prolonged & destructive bleeding, above all to keep such pain <abbr title="as you cause">as you cannot avoid causing, at a low pitch to avoid any convulsive disaster.<abbr title="Do not let"> Let the thing cry, let it struggle with any muscles you are not at work upon—so the nervous <abbr title="energy shunts itself">energy leaks away again … But do you not begin to see the fascination in it, the plastic art of shaping living creatures into new forms? Cannot you understand how this thing has taken me from all rival pursuits?”

“And <abbr title="these animals">these people ,” I began[.]

“I made. Grafted part of one animal upon another, imposed living flesh upon living flesh, transferred tissue from here to there, moulded the bones, cleft the hoof, cleared the skin, crushed this, strengthened that—so the work went on. At first I began with monsters, with grotesque distortions of familiar animal types, biped rabbits, footless daschunds—those I <abbr title="killed. I see I nauseate">killed. Then I heard someone talk of a mermaid. That was the last thing <abbr title="I made">I put my hand to in England & left it incomplete. I would have published these results, but I was disgusted at the way my own colleagues deserted me. I bought this yacht & came here.

[“]<abbr title="But I was b[eginning]">But after the mermaid I began in a kind of frenzy to try to reach the human shape. I began to feel that I was no mere compiler of knowledge but an artist in a new & most wonderful material. I look back now & it seems just a little space[,] these last three thousand six hundred days or more, yet I have at least won ground, won something every day. It seemed incredible to me, a fantastically improbable attempt, a just possible attempt. And the first things I made—Pah!… <abbr title="And you saw">But you have seen the village?”

“But,” said I as my realization of his meaning slowly followed his words, “the horror of it—the wickedness? Have you not thought? Surely of all foul & unnatural crimes—[”]

“To this day I have never troubled about the ethics of the matter. The study of nature, makes a man at last, <abbr title="just like nature">as remorseless as nature. I have gone on not heeding anything but the question I was pursuing, & the material has dripped down into the village below<abbr title="…To tell the truth I do not care">… It is eleven years since we came here, <abbr title="I and… Wilkonson">I and my wife & Montgomery, two seamen named Monroe & Hooker, and a crew of six Kanakas. I remember the green stillness of the <abbr title="island[,] the vertical smoke of the volcano & the empty ocean round it">island & the empty ocean about us as though it was yesterday. The place seemed waiting for me.

[“]So the stores were landed and the house was built[.] The Kanaka’s [sic] founded the village & began cultivation. I went to work up here upon what I had brought with me. There were some disagreeable things happened. I began with a sheep & killed it after a day & a half by a slip of the scalpel; I took another sheep & made a thing—<abbr title="a fearful thing">a thing of pain & fear & left it bound up to heal. It looked quite human to me when I had finished it, but when I went to it I was discontented with it; it remembered me & was terrified beyond imagination, & it <abbr title="had only the wits">had no more than the wits of a sheep. The more I looked at it the clumsier it seemed until at last I put the monster out of its misery. Then I took an outang I had <abbr title="& from">& upon that, working with infinite care & mastering difficulty after difficulty, I made my first man. All the week night & day I moulded him. With him it was chiefly the brain that needed moulding; much had to be added, much changed. I thought him a fair specimen of the negroid type when I had done him & he lay, bandaged, bound, & motionless before me. It was only when his life was assured that I left him & returned from my workship to my own people, to find I was an outcast. My wife shrank from me—she always does so now—Montgomery, then a lad of eighteen[,] would have nothing to do with me for days. They had heard some of the pounds that have disturbed you so. So had the two sailors & the Kanakas.<abbr title="Even the"> The Kanaka’s were scared out of their wits by the sight of me. Mason [sic] & Hooker made it plain to me they wanted their wage & their dismissal & I had to take them to… the nearest inhabited island. I had the hardest job too to prevent my Kanakas deserting. I spent many days educating the brute; he was keener witted than most men, taught him <abbr title="the beginnings">the rudiments of English, gave him ideas of counting; even made the thing read a little. He began with a clean sheet, mentally, had no memories left in his mind of what had been. <abbr title="When he could">When his scars were healed & he was no longer anything but painful & stiff & able to converse a little I took him down & introduced him to the Kanaka’s [sic] as an interesting stowaway.

[“]They were horribly afraid of him at first, somehow—which offended me rather for <abbr title="I had rather">I was conceited about him"but his ways seemed so mild & he was so abject that after a time they received him & took his education in hand. He was quick to learn, very imitative & adaptive, & built himself a house rather better it seemed to me than their own shanties. There was one among the boys a bit of a missionary & he taught the thing to read & gave him some rudimentary ideas of morality, but it seems the beast’s habits were not all that is desirable. I rested from work for some days & was in mind to write an account of the whole affair<abbr title="if [only] to wake"> to wake up English physiology. Then I came upon the creature squatting up in a tree & gibbering at two of the Kanakas who had been teasing him. I threatened him, told him the inhumanity of such a proceeding, aroused his sense of shame, & came home resolved to do better before I took my work back to England.

“That’s the story. All the Kanaka boys are dead now; one fell overboard when we captured the seals & one died of a wounded heel that he poisoned in some way with plant juice. One went away in a boat & I suppose was drowned, one committed suicide. The other two… Montgomery went on much as you are disposed to do, at first, and then[—]”

“What became of the other two?,” said I sharply. “The other two Kanakas.”

“The fact is after I had made a number of creatures, <abbr title="I constructed">I made a Thing.” He hesitated.

“Yes?” said I.

“It has not been heard of for three years.”

“I don’t understand,” I said; [“]Do you mean to say—”

“It killed the Kanakas—yes. We chased it for a couple days. It only got loose by accident—I had never meant it to get away. It lurked in the woods for some days until we hunted it & then it went up a mountain <abbr title="& there">& we divided the party to <abbr title="hunt it down">close upon it. The men <abbr title="had guns & when they">had rifles & when their bodies were found, one of the barrels was curved into the shape of S & very nearly bitten through. That is the last that has ever been seen or heard of the <abbr title="Thing. Since then/it">Thing. I suppose it went into the crater. After that I <abbr title="stuck to men">stuck to the ideal of humanity .”

He became silent. I sat in silence watching his face, with <abbr title="my half burnt out & everything forgotten">my dead cigar in my fingers.

[“]So for ten years I have been going on & there is still something in everything I do that <abbr title="defeats & challenges">defeats me, makes me dissatisfied, challenges me to further effort. Sometimes I rise above my level, sometimes I fall below it, but always I fall short of the things I dream. The human shape I can get now, almost with ease, so that it is lithe & graceful or thick & strong, but often there is sometimes trouble with the hands & the claws—painful things that I dare not shape too freely. But it is in the subtle grafting <abbr title="& adding">& reshaping that one must needs do to the brain, that my trouble lies. The intelligence is often oddly low with unaccountable blank ends, unexpected gaps. And least satisfactory of all is something that I cannot touch, somewhere—I cannot determine where—in the seat of the emotions. Cravings, instincts, desires that harm humanity, a strange hidden reservoir to burst sudd[en]ly & inundated the whole being of the creature with anger, hate or fear. <abbr title="these things">These creatures of mine seemed strange & wrong to you as you began to observe them, to me it is like this; they seem to be indisputable human beings just after I make them, & thereafter each time that I observe them, <abbr title="that delusion/illusion fades away">that persuasion fades a little; first one animal trait, then another creeps to the surface & stares out at me… But I will conquer yet. Each time I dip a living creature into this bath of burning pain, I say, this time I will burn out all the animal, this time I will make a rational creature of my own. After all, what is ten years?

He thought darkly. “But I am drawing nearest the fastness. This puma of mine…”

“Then[n] you take the things you make into the village?” said I.

[“]They go. I turn them out, when I begin to feel the beast in them, & presently they wander down. They all dread this house—and me. There is a <abbr title="kind of mockery">kind of travesty of civilization down there—Montgomery knows about it for he goes down there & interferes in their affairs. But it only sickens me with a sense of failure. I take no interest in them. I fancy they follow in the lines the Kanaka’s [sic] marked out, & have a kind of mockery of rational life—poor beasts! They build themselves houses, till fields, marry with decency. But I can see through it all, see into their very souls, & see there nothing but the souls of beasts, beasts that perish. There is a kind of upward striving in them, part vanity, part waste sexual emotion, part waste curiousity. It only mocks me. They have a ridiculous veneration for books & printed things too. Montgomery is a fool, & thinks that one might persuade & educate them into having real souls. But it is only this laboratory of mine… I have some hope of that puma, I have worked hard at her head & brain…

“And now,” said he standing up after a long gap of silence, during which we had each pursued our own thoughts, “what do you think?”

I stood up too, looked into his steady eyes & then out of the window, <abbr title="to where the black volcano sent">at the black volcano sending its incessant spire of smoke into the clear sky. “I do not know. It is too wild, <abbr title="too mor[bid]">too discordant, for my mind to assimilate. I have heard all that you have said, I shall remember, your every word. But…”

“At any rate the horror is over?”

“Yes—the horror is over. I feel cold. I feel a kind of mental numbness.”

“So far well,” said he. “And now come to Mrs Moreau. Today I will resume my social position[,] take my place in my family again, & <abbr title="you may heal">your mind shall heal from its shocks & surprise <abbr title="as our Lady Puma">as my Lady Puma heals from her physical smart.” He laid his hand <abbr title="affectionately">pleasantly on my shoulder, & became suddenly a graceful friendly gentleman.

<abbr title="Book II: The Wonderful People: 1. The Village Revisted">7. Montgomery
My dinner with the Moreau’s [sic] after these <abbr title="astonishing relations was">astonishing explanations is a queer memory. I was given to understand that Mrs Moreau objected to any <abbr title="mention of the matter">mention of the doctor[’]s extraordinary industry —especially in the presence of the boy—though it girdled her in on every <abbr title="side, gave">side, & had shaped the island about, created her two facile servants—whom I now observed she treated with singular constraint & distance—and seemed to my excited mind the only reality about me. Montgomery & Moreau were both present; for the puma, now that it had undergone what they called The First Operation, had to heal for a space before their work was resumed. We talked second rate, & remotely ancient gossip about theatres & London people. That seemed to be her conception of the proper use of her gift of speech, & I sat & answered & marvelled <abbr title="& und[erstood] for">& believed for the first time that odd story of the French countess on the way to the guillotine.

The next morning after breakfast Montgomery came to my room, rolling a cigarette between his fingers. “Moreau’s told <abbr title="you?">you, ” said he sitting down on the bed; “so I suppose the embargo is removed. Your lips are no no [sic] longer sealed. <abbr title="It’s jolly">It’s a queer story, eigh? You do smoke?”

<abbr title="I made some">I expressed my astonishment at all I had seen & <abbr title="heard in some loose terms">heard. “I thought,” said he, “you might like to talk yourself a little easy about it. I’ve got a holiday today. Moreau is mixing some stuff for our next go at—her.” He jerked his head towards the laboratory within the pallisades. “The boy won’t spoil for a day. So I thought I’d come & hang on to you. It’s a new experience, to meet a real human being you know—a fresh one, that is.”

I said I was beginning to appreciate that already & thanked him for offering his day to me. ”I’m getting over the first shock of it now,” said I.

“I daresay it seems amazing to you. To me it’s lost all that long ago. You see I’ve seen it coming on. I was with Moreau—well I joined him as he was packing to leave… I was nineteen then & my people… [T]he fact is I’d rather be a young ass & they made me go abroad. It made me sick at first when I found out what he was up to, but afterwards I got interested in a kind of way. But not like he is. This research is only a sane kind of mania. It’s irresistible. He’s driven to make things, can’t help it any more than an avalanch[e] that’s got to fall can help smashing a tourist that’s walking underneath. After they’r[e] made he likes them for a little & then gets restless & starts another; sometimes he starts three or four together. He doesn’t care what becomes of them, provided they <abbr title="don’t annoy">don[’]t interfere with him. Of course he has all his own way here, but I sometimes think… The plain fact of it is, I can’t stand up to him & he does what he likes. But after all <abbr title="it[’]s horrible pain">it[’]s everlasting pain up here, & down <abbr title="there there are things">there you’ll find things little short of abominable.[”]

“But,” said I; do they do as they <abbr title="like down there?">like? [”]

“They manage their own affairs, pretty much. It’s more like the feudal castle & village than anything else in the world. There[’]s a kind of discipline among the seal-men on the yacht & some year[s] ago, on account of one or two little things, I started a sort of police—men in yellow you know. The Kanaka chaps we had at first showed them the principles of building <abbr title="& gave them a">& a few other such ideas, & in fact gave a sort of human infusion to the population. <abbr title="But all">But most of their little institutions have grown of their own accord, some funny, some dull, some—a few—damnable. I’ll show you round today.”

“No,” he said; “It is not that they are bestial—at least on the surface. You might, of course, expect to meet the rout of Comus but you will see that is not so. A lot of their customs, indeed, show <abbr title="a kind of queer">a queer dread of anything animal. They’ve got the moral idea from somewhere—heaven knows where. It’s the worst thing they have got in my opinion.”

“That <abbr title="accounts precisely for that queer">accounts for that bother about going on all fours & all the fuss about drinking!” said I[.]

“Precisely. They’r[e] very strange—mad creatures undoubtedly, but with an air of something—I don[’]t know what—‘system,’ say, in their madness. They’r[e] beasts, not a doubt of it, every now & then the brute gleams out upon you, fierce by instinct, driven by appetite,<abbr title="& cruel"> cruel as the grave. It’s lucky for you the brute who tried you, let you go again. I suppose he was fed & comfortable.”

“But you don[’]t mean?” I began[.]

“I don’t know. I have my suspicions.”

He looked at me, then <abbr title="rose & stared at the">rose & went to the window. He turned towards me presently. “I’d got so used to this world Prendick, that I’d begun to forget these things… I’ve forgot at times… that I was anything different. But you, and your horrified face brings back all I used to feel when first I began <abbr title="to grasp all">to grasp the true state of things on this damned island. It is cruel, it is abominable, Prendick, to take these wretched animals & carve them into these caricatures of God[’]s image, to torture <abbr title="their brains">their minds into the travesty of rational creatures, to set all their instincts at war. They were brutes & balanced & happy as brutes. Why could not he leave them brutes?”

He came suddenly in a couple of strides close to me, “I hate this Moreau. I fear him. He has no humanity. He’s simply the Devil. Mark my words, Prendick, Moreau’s the Devil!”

He bent down close to me & whispered quickly. “What can one do? It’s as I’ve [sic] always been. The whole place grinds together like a mill, everything, however wrong, is, as if it had to be; & I’m helpless. I know it’s wrong. I wish I didn’t. But what can one do?”

He went back to the window & began rolling a second cigarette. He laughed abruptly. “I’m not often in this pessimistic mood, Prendick. I suppose it’s the overwork of the last two days. Bah!—… Don’t take me too seriously. You’ll soon get onto the little peculiarities of the place. Except that its infernally small & infernally monotonous. Have a cigarette? By the bye, did you say they’d made a decent pile at last of the National Gallery? I’d like to see some pictures once more. The people in pictures are human beings.”

Characters

 * Humans
 * Andrew Prendick: A taxedermist who gets shipwrecked and rescued by Moreau's schooner, the Dancing Faun. He begins feeling an uncanny valley toward the crew and later the inhabitants of Moreau's island he is brought to.
 * Dr. Moreau: A vivisectionist who continues his work on a remote island after his work is revealed in the pamphlet, "The Moreau Horrors". He rescues Prendick from near death out of Frankensteinian curiousity but subsequently he's restrictive toward Prendick since he's tries to keep his name and experiments secret.
 * Montgomery: "Grand Vizier of [the] island, Tutor to [Moreau's son], & general assistant in the work of government." He reveals a disdain for Moreau only to say its from coming from the hard time he's having.
 * Mrs. Moreau: The English wife of Moreau who dresses fancy. She, like Prendick doesn't like her husband's work and tries to ignore it. When Prendick resolves to go the village, she gives him a revolver to protect himself.
 * Moreau's son: "Heir Apparent" of Moreau, a thoughtful & rather sickly lad, tutored by Montgomery, a nice quiet little fellow, with a remarkable passion for killing flies. Unlike Prendick and Mrs. Moreau, he doesn't mind the puma's cries. He asks Prendick hard questions and has fantasies of man-eating ogres with a strong sense of smell who bury their victim's bones.
 * Animals/ Beast-folk
 * The puma: An animal brought on the Dancing Faun to the Island. It's cries during a vivisection drives Prendick away from Moreau's house. Prencik discovers it becoming almost human. It's to rest for a few days to heal before the next operation/
 * Black dog-woman: A servant who greets Prendick at the door of Moreau's house.
 * Sturmins: An Ape-man with a wizened brown negroid face. He's the first beast-folk Prendick meets at the village who asks if Prendick had scars. He later reappears at Prendick's hearing and Prendick appeals to the judge to learn beast-folk morality from Sturmins. Sturmins explains that everyone is tempted with something that distracts them from reaching the stars, his own being the urge to climb trees, which he inevitably does to flee when Prendick takes him too close to the House of pallisades.
 * Hog-man: A drunkard who tries to tell Prendick of the place where beast-folk could drink from saucers and go on all fours. Prendick gets them caught by the men-in-yellow. The Hog-man had previously been caught for eating raw roots and lapping up drink. He is sentanced to solitary confinement until he can recite a play from Shakespeare and a book from the Bible.
 * Men in yellow: Policemen of village who arrest Prenidck and the Hog-man for speaking about going on all fours in public. They were instituted by Montgomery but the village evolved to use them for their own laws.
 * The Thing: Moreau's first human-like creation which learned to read and whom Moreau attempted to integrate with his Polynesian settlers under the pretense of being a stowaway. But it began sitting in trees among comitting other inhuman behaviors. It later escaped up the mountain. During its chase it killed two of Polynesian boys, bending one of the rifles into an S shape and was never seen again, presumably dead, Moreau guesses, from jumping into the volcano.

Locations

 * Apia (mentioned): Prendick's intended destination
 * London (mentioned)
 * Gower Street: University College London (mentioned) A college that Prendick went to. Also the college which the dog in the "Battersea controversy" was vivisected.
 * Kensington (mentioned): The place subject of the "West Kensington controversy". Mrs Moreau also asks if they are still garden tours there. Home of the Royal College of Science, another college Prendick went to.
 * The Island of Doctor Moreau: An island somewhere North East of Latitude 10 S, Longitude 155 W.
 * Beach
 * House of pallisades: aka the House of Pain. Or Moreau's compound.
 * The Village
 * Courthouse

Vehicles

 * Lady Vain: The ship that Prendick was taking to Apia that was wrecked.
 * H.M gunboat Myrtle (mentioned)
 * Dancing Faun: Moreau's ship that picks up Prendick, being crewed by beast-folk

Comparison to other versions

 * Terror Is a Man (1959 film): In both versions, the doctor has a family on the island and his wife sympathizes with one of the feline experiments.
 * Pinky and the Brain: Brainwashed: There's a village with ridiculous unquestionable laws, for which the breaking of, lands the main character in court.