The Friendsville Library is moving into temporary quarters at the Friendsville Senior Center, and during October services and hours may be impacted. We apologize for the inconvenience!
Page Turners Book Club - October
Join us for our book club geared towards readers of fantasy, sci-fi, and adventure!
Our discussion this month will be on The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells on Monday, October 21, 2024 at the Oakland Library from 6:00pm to 7:00pm. Please register at the Oakland Library or contact Andrew Miller at andrew@relib.net for more information.
Ranked among the classic novels of the English language and the inspiration for several unforgettable movies, this early work of H. G. Wells was greeted in 1896 by howls of protest from reviewers, who found it horrifying and blasphemous. They wanted to know more about the wondrous possibilities of science shown in his first book, The Time Machine, not its potential for misuse and terror. In The Island of Dr. Moreau, a shipwrecked gentleman named Edward Prendick, stranded on a Pacific island lorded over by the notorious Dr. Moreau, confronts dark secrets, strange creatures, and a reason to run for his life.
While this riveting tale was intended to be a commentary on evolution, divine creation, and the tension between human nature and culture, modern readers familiar with genetic engineering will marvel at Wells’s prediction of the ethical issues raised by producing “smarter” human beings or bringing back extinct species. These levels of interpretation add a richness to Prendick’s adventures on Dr. Moreau’s island of lost souls without distracting from what is still a rip-roaring good read.
