The Island of Dr. Moreau

The protagonist, Edward Prendick, finds himself shipwrecked in the ocean. After being rescued by a ship, he is told they are bound for an unnamed island where Prendick learns of Dr. Moreau, a cold and precise man who conducts research on the island. When the novel was written in the late 19th century (1896), European society was absorbed with concerns about degeneration, and Britain's scientific community was engulfed by debates on animal vivisection. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_of_Dr._Moreau You may find these other books by H. G. Wells of interest (published by Cricket House Books): The War of the Worlds, ISBN 1452818983; The Time Machine, ISBN 1452818282; and The Invisible Man, ISBN 1451599749.

A shipwreck in the South Seas, a palm-tree paradise where a mad doctor conducts vile experiments, animals that become human and then "beastly" in ways they never were before--it's the stuff of high adventure. It's also a parable about Darwinian theory, a social satire in the vein of Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels), and a bloody tale of horror. Or, as H. G. Wells himself wrote about this story, "The Island of Dr. Moreau is an exercise in youthful blasphemy. Now and then, though I rarely admit it, the universe projects itself towards me in a hideous grimace. It grimaced that time, and I did my best to express my vision of the aimless torture in creation." This colorful tale by the author of The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds lit a firestorm of controversy at the time of its publication in 1896.