H.G. Wells "The Island of Dr. Moreau" Signed Limited Numbered Edition No. 90 of 350 + Bonus Materials [Very Fine]

Personally signed by Megan Shepherd, Adam Roberts and Benz and Chang.

THIS IS NUMBER 90 OF ONLY 350 PRODUCED

The Island of Doctor Moreau is an 1896 science fiction novel by H. G. Wells, who called it "an exercise in youthful blasphemy". The text of the novel is the narration of Edward Prendick, a shipwrecked man rescued by a passing boat who is left on the island home of Doctor Moreau, who creates human-like beings from animals via vivisection. The novel deals with a number of philosophical themes, including pain and cruelty, moral responsibility, human identity, and human interference with nature.

• Edited by Timothy Harding
• Foreword by Megan Shepherd / Afterword by Adam Roberts
• Illustrated by Benz and Chang

SIGNED NUMBERED EDITION

• 6” x 9” trim size.
• 240 Pages.
• Limited to 350 copies.
• Quarter cloth binding.
• Japanese cloth boards.
• Cover foil stamped in gold.
• Six full color illustrations by Benz and Chang.
• New exclusive foreword by Megan Shepherd.
• Afterword by Adam Roberts.
• Signed by Megan Shepherd, Adam Roberts and Benz and Chang.
• Printed letterpress on Mohawk Via.
• Endsheets are custom designed for this edition.
• Housed in a cloth covered slipcase.
• Bookmark with all pre-orders.

INCLUDES BONUS MATERIAL

Appendix A: Wells Explains: Two Essays Relating to Moreau’s Argument.
H.G. Wells, The Province of Pain (1894)
H.G. Wells, The Limits of Individual Plasticity (1895)

Appendix B: ‘The Terrible Medusa Case’: An Historical Source for Prendick’s Shipwreck.
A narrative account of the infamous shipwreck Méduse (1818).
Reproduction of Théodore Géricault’s masterpiece painting The Raft of the Medusa (c.1819).

Appendix C: Wells’s First Draft of Moreau.
A study and excerpt from H.G. Wells’s original draft of Moreau.

This year marks the 125th anniversary of the first publication of The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells; a classic work of early science fiction that remains one of the author’s most disturbing and unforgettable novels. When Edward Prendick is rescued from a shipwreck, he is left on a nearby island and soon discovers the home of the depraved Doctor Moreau, a mad scientist conducting unspeakable animal experiments with hideous, human-like results.

While gene-splicing and bioengineering are common practices today, Wells’s haunting vision raised ethical questions more than a century before our time. Originally published in 1896, Wells’s story reflects the scientific controversies disrupting the societal norm in the late 1800s, including increased opposition to animal vivisection and growing discussion of Darwinism and the degeneration of the human race.

With The Island of Doctor Moreau published just one year after his first novel, The Time Machine, H.G. Wells was creating new worlds for which he would become known as one of the founding fathers of the science fiction genre. Moreau is the earliest example of what would become a popular science fiction motif called “uplift,” in which a more advanced race interferes with the evolution of the animal species to bring the latter to a higher level of intelligence.

With its themes of cruelty, moral responsibility, and man’s interference with nature, The Island of Doctor Moreau is one of Wells’s most important and thought-provoking explorations on what makes us human.

ABOUT THE EDITIONS

The limited edition of The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells is presented in three states: Lettered, Numbered and Artist. The editions measure 6” x 9” and feature six full color illustrations by Benz and Chang as well as a new exclusive foreword by Megan Shepherd and an afterword by Adam Roberts.

THIS IS THE SIGNED NUMBERED EDITION.

About the author

Herbert George "H. G." Wells (21 September 1866 - 13 August 1946) was a prolific English writer in many genres, including the novel, history, politics, and social commentary, and textbooks and rules for war games. He is now best remembered for his science fiction novels, and Wells is called a father of science fiction. His most notable science fiction works include The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The Island of Doctor Moreau.

About the Contributors

New York Times bestselling and Carnegie Medal-nominated author Megan Shepherd grew up in her family’s independent bookstore in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She is the author of acclaimed young adult novels. Inspired by The Island of Dr. Moreau, Shepherd’s novel, The Madman’s Daughter, is the story of Dr. Moreau’s daughter Juliet, who travels to her estranged father’s island. Megan Shepherd lives and writes on a 125-year-old haunted farm outside Asheville, North Carolina, with her family and animals.

Adam Roberts is the author of twenty-one science fiction novels, most recently Purgatory Mount (Gollancz 2021). He is also Professor of Nineteenth-century Literature at Royal Holloway University of London, and has written The History of Science Fiction (2nd ed: Palgrave 2016) and a literary biography of H.G. Wells (Palgrave 2020). He is Vice-President of the H.G. Wells society. He lives a little way west of London.

Benz and Chang have been exhibited in galleries nationally and internationally. His paintings are usually dream-like, mysterious, and sometimes playful. They include tantalizing allusions to mysticism and the interplay between reality and the spirit world. Benz began having experiences with spirits and hauntings at an early age. These experiences have fueled his interest in dreams, ghosts, and clairvoyance from all angles, including the fictional, real, fraudulent, or imagined. Chang is a fictional painting partner to Benz. Chang supplies the dark.