The Island of Dr Moreau

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Auction dateClassic
06.10.2022 12:00UTC -04:00
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ID 813734
Lot 152 | The Island of Dr Moreau
The Island of Dr Moreau

H.G. Wells, 1896

WELLS, H.G. (1866-1946). The Island of Dr Moreau. London: William Heinemann, 1896.



First edition of a classic of science fiction, described by the author as an “exercise in youthful blasphemy.” A sharp copy of the first issue, with the publisher's device in blind on the lower cover. Contemporary reviewers expressed a marked distaste for Dr. Moreau, a perverted scientist who used his surgical skill to turn animals into semi-human beings. An anonymous reviewer wrote in The Times of June 17, 1896: "We feel bound to expostulate against a departure which may lead we know not whither, and to give a word of warning to the unsuspecting who would shrink from the loathsome and repulsive ... The book should be kept out of the way of young people and avoided by all who have taste, good feeling, or feeble nerves." Wells 7.



Octavo. Half-title. 32pp. of ads at end, some unopened. Frontispiece illustration by "CRA". Original pictorial cloth stamped in red and black. Provenance: Joseph Bryan (bookplate).

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