Monday, February 09, 2009

The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells


The Island of Dr. Moreau is a quick but enjoyable read. I wonder what it must have been like to read the book without knowing what Dr. Moreau was actually doing. Alberto Manguel mentions this kind of thing in his book A Reading Diary, I can barely recall what it was like not to know that Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde were on and the same person .... Nowadays, it is impossible to grow up without knowing that Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde are one, or that Dr. Moreau was physically anthropomorphizing beasts on his island. It is a shame that a book's influence on our culture can ruin the first reading of that book by the inheritors of the culture it influenced.


3.5/5

1 comment:

Shelley said...

So true! I often wish I could read as if reading when a classic first came out.