The Island Of Dr Moreau: H.G. Wells

[poliphilo]

One in a long line of stories about white men behaving badly on tropical islands. The Tempest and Gulliver's Travels are ancestors, The Lord of the Flies is a descendant, The Ebb Tide and Victory are close cousins. I suspect Wells of an intended side-swipe at the Jungle Books; for Kipling "The Law" is intrinsic, for Wells  imposed and unnatural; Kiplings talking beasts are noble, Wells's anything but. Wells doesn't like animals (no pets in his Utopia) and Darwinism rather gives him the creeps. Men are beastly- but can they be anything more? In different moods he gives different answers. Here it's quite definitely,"No".