Introduction

The Introductin to The Island of Doctor Moreau is a fictional preface by Edward Prendick's nephew, Charles Prendick. It is ommitted in The Works of H. G. Wells (Atlantic Edition) Volume 2 published with The Sleeper Awakes, and its derived editions.

Transcript
INTRODUCTION.

On February the First, 1887, the Lady Vain was lost by collision with a derelict when about the latitude 1° S. and longitude 107° W.

On January the Fifth, 1888 that is eleven months and four days after my uncle, Edward Prendick, a private gentleman, who certainly went aboard the Lady Vain at Callao, and who had been considered drowned, was picked up in latitude 5° 3' S. and longitude 101° W. in a small open boat of which the name was illegible, but which is supposed to have belonged to the missing schooner Ipecacuanha. He gave such a strange account of himself that he was supposed demented. Subsequently he alleged that his mind was a blank from the moment of his escape from the Lady Vain. His case was discussed among psychologists at the time as a curious instance of the lapse of memory consequent upon physical and mental stress. The following narrative was found among his papers by the undersigned, his nephew and heir, but unaccompanied by any definite request for publication.

The only island known to exist in the region in which my uncle was picked up is Noble's Isle, a small volcanic islet and uninhabited. It was visited in 1891 by H. M. S. Scorpion. A party of sailors then landed, but found nothing living thereon except certain curious white moths, some hogs and rabbits, and some rather peculiar rats. So that this narrative is without confirmation in its most essential particular. With that understood, there seems no harm in putting this strange story before the public in accordance, as I believe, with my uncle's intentions. There is at least this much in its behalf: my uncle passed out of human knowledge about latitude 5° S. and longitude 105° E., and reappeared in the same part of the ocean after a space of eleven months. In some way he must have lived during the interval. And it seems that a schooner called the Ipecacuanha with a drunken captain, John Davies, did start from Arica with a puma and certain other animals aboard in January, 1887, that the vessel was well known at several ports in the South Pacific, and that it finally disappeared from those seas (with a considerable amount of copra aboard), sailing to its unknown fate from Bangka in December, 1887, a date that tallies entirely with my uncle's story.

CHARLES EDWARD PRENDICK.

Connections

 * In the Dingey of the "Lady Vain": Starts off Edward Prendick's tale with the sinking of the Lady Vain. Prendick is picked up by the Ipecacuanha, around 8 days after the collision (February 1), making it happen around February 8-10.
 * The Man who had Nowhere to go: Prendick is thrown overboard, 4 days after he was the picked up (around February 8-10), making it happen around February 11-15.
 * Concerning the Beast Folk: A footnote to Edward Prendick's description of the island says it corrosponds with Noble's Isle.
 * A Catastrophe: The catastrophe occurs about 7-8 weeks after Prendick's landing (around February 11-16) which it happen around April 1-12 making the rest of his time castaway, around 265-280 days long.
 * The Reversion of the Beast Folk: Edward Prendick finds the boat of the Ipecacuanha with dead bodies inside, one of them being of Captain John Davies.
 * The Man Alone: Edward Prendick feigns amnesia to not be labeled crazy.
 * "rather peculiar rats": Could refer to the pink Homunculi, or Moreau recreated the Rhinocerous rats.

Comparison to other versions

 * Movies
 * The Island of the Lost (1921 film): Jane Crawford is kidnapped by McClelland's chinese henchman and brought to his island so he can use her heart in creating his new cat creature. She sends a message in a bottle to sea which is published in a Berlin newspaper. Her ex-fiance Robert Marston reads it and with Dr. Ted Fowlin, resolves to rescue her so she doesn't come to Berlin to meet his new fiance, Evelyn Wilkinson. He had given Evelyn Wilkinson the newspaper with the message torn out. She buys an untorn copy and figures out where he's going. Later she arrives on the island and helps rescue Jane and Robert from McClelland which results in his compound burning down. Evelyn falls in love with Ted Fowlin and the movie ends in an unresolved love square.
 * Island of Lost Souls (1932 film): Edward Parker is picked up by the Covena from his Dingey from the Lady Vain. A bulletin is put outside the Apia adminstration building reading "Following is the complete list of missing pasengers on the S.S. LADY VAIN which sank last Tuesday: ALBERT BLOCK; EDWARD PARKER; FRANK JOHNSON…" A telegram is sent to his wife in Apia reading: "SAS 100 17 RADIO=SS COVENEA=; MISS RUTH THOMAS=; CONTINENTAL HOTEL=APIA=; RESCUED BY SS COVENA; WILL ARRIVE APIA THE SIXTH; LOVE=; EDWARD." Captain Davies of the Covena forces Parker to land at the Island of Doctor Moreau and returns to a dissapointed Ruth Thomas. She goes to the Consul who threatens to have Davies's license revoked and gives Ruth a hand from Captain Donahue. They go to the island to rescue Parker where they resolve to stay the night with Moreau until Ouran attempts to rape Ruth. Donahue scouts ahead toward the shore but is killed by Ouran. Ruth, Edward and Montgomery eventually escape leaving the Island burning behind them.
 * Terror Is a Man (1959 film): William Fitzgerald washes up on shore. Later the Panther man escapes the island in their only boat. Fitzgerald, Frances and Tiago would have to wait for the next ship to arrive in order to escape.
 * The Twilight People (1972 film): While diving, Matt Farrell is kidnapped by Neva Gordon and Steinman and taken to the island. In the end, Darmo the Bat Man kills Dr. Gordon's men while Gordon himself is killed by his transformed wife. Matt Farrel and Neva Gordon find his body while the Bat Man flies into the sunset.
 * The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977 film): Andrew Braddock, Charlie and an unnamed man drift on a dingey from the Lady Vain. The unnamed man dies and is dropped overboard. Braddock and Charlie make it to the island but Charlie is killed. Over the course of the movie, Braddock tests and fixes the dingey. By the end of the movie, Braddock returns to sea in the repaired Dingey with Maria. They have one oar since one was destroyed from killing a beast man. Braddock regresses back into a human and Maria has started to regress back into a cat by the time they're picked up by a ship.
 * The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996 film): This movie starts with a flahy opening credits and Douglas narrates his own story starting from "Our plane crashed in the endless Southern Pacific and we drifted fro days between life and death. On the sixth or seventh day, the two men who had survived with me began to fight over the last canteen of water. They fought like beasts, not men. I fought for my life just as savagely as they did." At the end of the movie while he leaves on the makeshift raft, his narration returns to say: "This is a true record of what I saw. I set it down leaving out only the longitude and latitude of the island as a warning to all who would follow in Moreau's footsteps. Most times I keep the memory far in the back in my mind, a distant cloud. But there are times when the little cloud spreads until it obscures the sky. At those times I look about me at my fellow men and I'm reminded of some likeness to the beast people and I feel as though the animal is surging up in them and they're neither wholly animal nor wholly man but an unstable combination of both, as unstable as anything Moreau created. And I go in fear."
 * Dr. Moreau's House of Pain (2004 film): An alternate ending or sequel to the original story. Moreau survived the island and resumes his experiments.
 * Video Games
 * Vivisector: Beast Within: Liam Quaid goes to Soreo Island on a mission to the zone of "political armed conflict". A team led by Malica Catwalk, who was trying to tell her ex-boyfriend and subserviant soldier, Kurt Robinson, that she was pregnant, goes to the island to investigate. She gets knocked unconscious and taken by Dr. Morhead. Kurt Robinson, thinking she's dead fights his way through the island. Morhead allows Kurt to leave his Malica on the condition that he's a good father. Kurt and Malica escape in an aquatic vehicle, while much, if not all, of Morhead's facilities are flooded.