Living in the 19th century and facing the impact of Darwin's theory of evolution, H.G. Wells wrote this haunting masterpiece, an evolutionary fantasy. The story's title character, Dr. Moreau, is a shipwrecked naturalist who becomes involved in an experiment to "humanize" animals by surgery. Dr. Moreau has been expelled from his homeland for performing cruel vivisection experiments. On the isolated island, he finds the freedom to continue torturous transplantations and create hideous creatures with manlike intelligence. But as the cruelly-enforced order on Moreau's island dissolves, the true consequences of his meddling emerge.