Wells Novel

The Island of Doctor Moreau is an 1896 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells, addressing ideas of society and community, human nature and identity, playing God and Darwinism. The mythic figure of the chimera, a human/animal hybrid, is brought into the scientific age. When the novel was written in the late 19th century, Britain's scientific community was engulfed by debates on animal vivisection. Interest groups were even formed to tackle the issue: the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection was formed two years after the publication of the novel.