The Island of Dr. Moreau(1896)

H.G. Wells

Scientist Edward Prendick is shipwrecked in the Pacific and alights on an island owned by a certain Doctor Moreau. Prendick recalls the public outcry in London occasioned by Moreau’s experiments in vivisection, and soon discovers the island is populated by humans with marked bestial characteristics. He attempts to flee, but Moreau apprehends him and explains his mission is to humanize animals, not the reverse, and that his efforts were marred by an unfortunate tendency of the subjects to revert to animal form. Eventually a subject breaks free and attempts to kill the good doctor. Both are killed in the conflict and the compound is destroyed. The animals revert to nature, and Prendick escapes and returns home. His account of the story is greeted as the ravings of a lunatic. Upon his return to civilization he sees many of his fellow men reverting to an animal state and retires to a reclusive life in the country.