The Island of Doctor Moreau
by H.G. Wells
read: 2014
Guardian 1000 Novels
I saw the Val Kilmer / Marlon Brando movie when it came out in 1996. The premise - that a reclusive scientist makes a race of beast men on a remote island - makes more sense in modern times with all the advances we've made in genetic engineering than it did 100 years prior when Wells wrote the novel. Wells' Moreau employs not genetic engineering but vivisection techniques: cutting up animals, grafting on parts, and physically transforming animals into man via surgery. This is a lot less realistic than genetic engineering, but it is a lot more horrifying.
