/lit/ - Literature

I've never set down and read HG Wells until I found a cheap copy of The Island Of Doctor Moreau, the short novel from 1896. Here, a young scientist is marooned on a small island for a year, where a vivisectionist is trying to transform animals into human beings. After being transformed, the hybrid man-beasts are discarded from the lab to the rest of the island.

It's written in a first person narrative which reads like a restrained and more lucid HP Lovecraft. HG Wells isn't verbose, but he is ponderous, particularly in the first half of the book. However, the second half (as the beasts revert and there is catastrophe) is more fast paced and eventful, with a strong finish.