I don’t know
how many years it has been since I read the Island of Dr. Moreau by H.
G. Wells, but it has been a long time. Other than the basic premise (mad
scientist creates human hybrids with a predictable bad outcome) I don’t
remember much. But I was intrigued by seeing The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
in the library. It was written by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, who wrote Mexican
Gothic which I read last year and found satisfyingly creepy.
This one, I
would say is less creepy. It is told from the point of view of two characters:
Carlotta, the doctor’s “natural” (bastard) daughter, and Montgomery, the
doctors hired mayordomo. Montgomery comes to the doctor’s ranch with demons of
his own: alcoholism, debt, and relentless bad luck. Carlotta has lived a
sheltered life. She is sweet and innocent. Montgomery is far from innocent, but
he knows right from wrong, and usually chooses right, even at his own expense.
The doctor himself is not an evil man, but he is self-centered and egotistical.
He seems to care only for his experiments, not for his experimental subjects. He
has set himself up as the god of his little domain. He asks absolute obedience.
There are
plenty of other creatures at the ranch, hybrid creature created by Moreau. Some
are horribly misshapen and have severe health problems. Two of the more
successful experiment were raised with Carlotta, and she came to see them as
her brother and sister, even though they have fur. They are smart and spirited,
and I would have liked to see even more of them in the story.
The biggest
flaw for me was the slow pace of the fist part of the book. It took a while to
get moving. But once it did it kept my interest. The villains developed slowly,
but were well-drawn: The land owner who has lost patience with Moraeu, and his
son who woos Carlotta. We don’t trust either of them for a minute. It might be
tempting to say this story is a metaphor for racism, but I don’t really think
that was what the author was going for. It
is a story about treating people with respect. The biggest flaw of Dr.
Moraeu is that he refuses to see what his daughter has known all along, that
the hybrids are people.
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