The Book & the Movie: The Island of Dr. Moreau / H.G. Wells (1896) | Island of Lost Souls / Erle C. Kenton (1932)
“My days I devote to reading and experiments in chemistry, and I spend many of the clear nights in the study of astronomy. There is, though I do not know how there is or why there is, a sense of infinite peace and protection in the glittering hosts of heaven. There it must be, I think, in the vast and eternal laws of matter, and not in the daily cares and sins and troubles of men, that whatever is more than animal within us must find its solace and its hope.”
“Can you imagine language, once clear-cut and exact, softening and guttering,
losing shape and import, becoming mere lumps of sound again?”
losing shape and import, becoming mere lumps of sound again?”
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“But there are times when the little cloud spreads, until it obscures the sky. And those times I look around at my fellow men and I am reminded of some likeness of the beast-people, and I feel as though the animal is surging up in them. And I know they are neither wholly animal nor holy man, but an unstable combination of both.”
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“I could see nothing—or else I could see too much.”
“Sometimes I rise above my level, sometimes I fall below it, but always I fall short of the things I dream.”
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“An animal may be ferocious and cunning enough, but it takes a real man to tell a lie.”
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“The crying sounded even louder out of doors. It was as if all the pain in the world had found a voice…
It is when suffering finds a voice and sets our nerves quivering that this pity comes troubling us.”
It is when suffering finds a voice and sets our nerves quivering that this pity comes troubling us.”
“I hope, or I could not live.”
H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau, 1896
“…Μερικά απ’ αυτά έμοιαζαν με ανθρώπους, αν εξαιρέσει κανείς τις κινήσεις και τους μορφασμούς τους. Μερικά έδιναν την εντύπωση πώς ήταν ανάπηροι άνθρωποι και μερικά ήταν τόσο περίεργα παραμορφωμένα, που δε θύμιζαν τίποτα παρά μόνο τους κατοίκους των πιο άγριων φαντασιώσεών μας….Μακριά, στο βορεινό ορίζοντα διακρινόταν η θαμπή γραμμή του Ειρηνικού ωκεανού…”
“…Μου δημιουργήθηκε περίεργα η εντύπωση, ότι αν εξαιρέσει κανείς την παραδοξότητα των μορφών, είχα μπροστά μου σε μικρογραφία όλη την ανθρώπινη κοινωνία. Όλο το παιχνίδισμα του ενστίκτου, της λογικής και της μοίρας στην πιο απλή μορφή τους…
Δύστυχα αγρίμια! Άρχισα τώρα να βλέπω πιο καθαρά τη χειρότερη πλευρά της σκληρότητας του Μορώ…
Δύστυχα αγρίμια! Άρχισα τώρα να βλέπω πιο καθαρά τη χειρότερη πλευρά της σκληρότητας του Μορώ…
Πριν ήταν ζώα, με τα ένστιχτα τους εντελώς εναρμονισμένα με το περιβάλλον τους κι ευτυχισμένα, όσο ευτυχισμένα μπορούν να ‘ναι τα ζωντανά πλάσματα. Τώρα ήταν δεμένα με τις αλυσίδες της ανθρωπότητας, ζούσαν μ’ εναν ατέλειωτο τρόμο…
Η ψευτοανθρώπινη ύπαρξη τους άρχιζε μ’ αγωνία και συνεχιζόταν μ’ ένα μακρύ ατέλειωτο αγώνα κι ένα παντοτινό φόβο για το Μορώ’ κι ολ’ αυτά, γιατί;…”
H. G. Wells, Το νησί του Δόκτορος Μορώ, 1896
μτφ : Μάκης Πανώριος, Παναγιώτης Σκάγιαννης
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The Island of Dr. Moreau, an 1896 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells, who called the novel “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.
H.G. Wells, , The Island of Dr. Moreau, 1896
Kathleen Burke, The Panther Woman, Island of Lost Souls Bela Lugosi, Sayer Of The Law, in Island of Lost Souls (1932)
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Bela Lugosi made the film for a salary of just over $800, which was less than any other actor on the project. Lugosi accepted the fee
and the role because he was in the middle of bankruptcy.
and the role because he was in the middle of bankruptcy.
Island of Lost Souls (1932)
Director: Erle C. Kenton
Waldemar Young / Philip Wylie (screen play)
from a novel by H.G. Wells
Stars: Charles Laughton, Bela Lugosi, Richard Arlen
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Also:
I hope, or I could not live.
By this time I was no
longer very much terrified or very miserable. I had, as it were, passed the
limit of terror and despair. I felt now that my life was practically lost,
and that persuasion made me capable of daring anything
In spite of the brilliant sunlight and the green fans of the trees waving in the soothing sea-breeze, the world was a confusion, blurred with drifting black and red phantasms, until I was out of earshot of the house in the stone wall.
I never yet heard of a useless thing that was not ground out of
existence by evolution sooner or later. Did you? And pain gets needless.
But there are times when the little cloud spreads, until it obscures the sky. And those times I look around at my fellow men and I am reminded of some likeness of the beast-people, and I feel as though the animal is surging up in them. And I know they are neither wholly animal nor holy man, but an unstable combination of both.
Not to go on all-Fours; that is the Law. Are we not Men?
Hunger and a lack of blood-corpuscles take all the manhood from a man.
But, as I say, I was too
full of excitement and (a true saying, though those who have never
known danger may doubt it) too desperate to die.
It was some time before I could summon resolution to go down through the trees and bushes upon the flank of the headland to the beach. At last I did it at a run; and as I emerged from the thicket upon the sand, I heard some other body come crashing after me. At that I completely lost my head with fear, and began running along the sand. Forthwith there came the swift patter of soft feet in pursuit. I gave a wild cry, and redoubled my pace. Some dim, black things about three or four times the size of rabbits went running or hopping up from the beach towards the bushes as I passed.
They are mad; they are fools," said the Dog-man.
There is, though I do not know how there is or why there is, a sense of infinite peace and protection in the glittering hosts of heaven.
One of those pertinacious tempers that would warm every day to a white heat and never again cool to forgiveness.
The ocean rose up around me, hiding that low, dark patch from my eyes. The daylight, the trailing glory of the sun, went streaming out of the sky, was drawn aside like some luminous curtain, and at last I looked into the blue gulf of immensity which the sunshine hides, and saw the floating hosts of stars. The sea was silent, the sky was silent. I was alone with the night and silence.
H.G. Wells / The Island of Dr. Moreau / 1896 / exerpts
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