Остров доктора Моро

УДК 
372.8
ББК 
81.2 Англ-93
 
У 98

ISBN 978-5-9925-0855-0

Уэллс Г. Дж.
У 98 Остров доктора Моро: Книга для чтения на английском языке. — СПб.: КАРО, 2013. — 224 с. — 
(“Classical literature”).

ISBN 978-5-9925-0855-0.

Предлагаем вниманию любителей научной фантастики 
знаменитый роман Г. Дж. Уэллса «Остров доктора Моро».
Издание адресовано студентам языковых вузов, а также 
всем любителям англоязычной литературы и, в частности, фантастики.

УДК 372.8
ББК 81.2 Англ-93

© КАРО, 2013

ОБ АВТОРЕ

Английский писатель-фантаст Герберт Джордж 
Уэллс (1866–1946) родился в семье садовника и 
горничной, служивших в богатом поместье, позже они стали владеть небольшой лавочкой фарфоровых изделий. Но торговля шла плохо, и семья в основном жила на деньги, которые отец зарабатывал, играя в крикет.
Образование Уэллс получил в классической 
школе Мидхёрст и в Кингз-колледже Лондон ского 
университета. После ученичества у торговца мануфактурой и работы в аптеке побывал учителем 
в школе, преподавателем точных наук и биологии. 
В 1893 году профессионально занялся журналистикой.
В 1895 году вышел в свет первый роман Уэллса — 
«Машина времени». В нем рассказывалось о путешествии изобретателя в отдаленное будущее. 
Затем последовали «Остров доктора Моро» (1896), 
«Человек-невидимка» (1897), «Война миров» (1898), 
«Первые люди на Луне» (1901). Писатель снискал 

ОБ АВТОРЕ

славу самого значительного экспериментатора в 
жанре научной фантастики. Впоследствии в произведениях подобного рода, например в романе 
«Мир освобожденный» (1914), он сочетал научную 
достоверность с политическими прогнозами о грядущем всемирном государстве. Тезис о науке, способной создать всемирное государство, в котором 
человек сможет разумно пользоваться своими изобретениями, с воодушевлением повторяется во всех 
книгах Уэллса, однако его оптимизм, до той поры 
безграничный, сокрушила Вторая мировая война, 
после чего он дал волю отчаянию и в книге «Разум 
на краю своей натянутой узды» (1945) предсказал 
вымирание человечества.
Уэллс жил в Лондоне и на Ривьере, часто выступал с лекциями и много путешествовал, был 
дважды женат. Умер в Лондоне 13 августа 1946 года. Согласно завещанию, после кремации его сыновья Джордж Филип и Фрэнк Ричард развеяли 
прах отца над Ла-Маншем.

***
В фантастическом романе «Остров доктора 
Моро» Уэллс рассказывает об острове в Тихом 
океане, населенном полуживотными-полулюдьми, 
жертвами опытов, проведенных врачом-виви сектором.

FOREWORD
O
N February the First 1887, the Lady Vain was 
lost by collision with a derelict1 when about the 
latitude 1° S. and longitude 107° W.
On January the Fift h, 1888 — that is eleven months 
and four days aft er — my uncle, Edward Prendick, 
a private gentleman2, who certainly went aboard the 
Lady Vain at Callao, and who had been considered 
drowned, was picked up in latitude 5° 3' S. and longitude 
101° W. in a small open boat of which the name was 
illegible, but which is supposed to have belonged to the 
missing schooner Ipecacuanha. He gave such a strange 
account of himself that he was supposed demented3. 
Subsequently he alleged that his mind was a blank from 
the moment of his escape from the Lady Vain. His case 

1 by collision with a derelict — (разг.) столкнувшись 
с обломками
2 a private gentleman — (зд.) обыкновенный пассажир
3 he was supposed demented — (разг.) его сочли сумасшедшим

THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU

6

was discussed among psychologists at the time as a 
curious instance of the lapse of memory consequent 
upon physical and mental stress. The following 
narrative was found among his papers by the 
undersigned, his nephew and heir, but unaccompanied 
by any defi nite request for publication.
Th e only island known to exist in the region in 
which my uncle was picked up is Noble’s Isle, a small 
volcanic islet and uninhabited. It was visited in 1891 
by H. M. S.1 Scorpion. A party of sailors then landed, 
but found nothing living thereon except certain 
curious white moths, some hogs and rabbits, and some 
rather peculiar rats. So that this narrative is without 
confi rmation in its most essential particular. With that 
understood2, there seems no harm in putting this 
strange story before the public in accordance, as I 
believe, with my uncle’s intentions. Th ere is at least 
this much in its behalf: my uncle passed out of human 
knowledge about latitude 5° S. and longitude 105° E., 
and reappeared in the same part of the ocean aft er a 
space of3 eleven months. In some way he must have 
lived during the interval. And it seems that a schooner 
called the Ipecacuanha with a drunken captain, John 

1 H. M. S. — сокр. от Her Majesty Ship, корабль Ее Величества
2 With that understood — (разг.) Принимая все это во 
внимание
3 aft er a space of — (уст.) по прошествии

FOREWORD

Davies, did start from Africa with a puma and certain 
other animals aboard in January, 1887, that the vessel 
was well known at several ports in the South Pacifi c, 
and that it fi nally disappeared from those seas (with a 
considerable amount of copra aboard), sailing to its 
unknown fate from Bayna in December, 1887, a date 
that tallies entirely with my uncle’s story.

Charles Edward Prendick

I. IN THE DINGEY 
OF THE LADY VAIN
I 
do not propose to add anything to what has already 
been written concerning the loss of the Lady Vain. 
As everyone knows, she collided with a derelict when 
ten days out from Callao. Th e longboat, with seven 
of the crew, was picked up eighteen days aft er by 
H. M. gunboat Myrtle, and the story of their terrible 
privations has become quite as well known as the far 
more horrible Medusa case. But I have to add to the 
published story of the Lady Vain another, possibly as 
horrible and far stranger. It has hitherto been supposed 
that the four men who were in the dingey perished, 
but this is incorrect. I have the best of evidence for this 
assertion: I was one of the four men.
But in the fi rst place I must state that there never 
were four men in the dingey, — the number was three. 
Constans, who was “seen by the captain to jump into 
the gig,”1 luckily for us and unluckily for himself did 

1 Daily News, March 17, 1887.

(Th e Story written by Edward Prendick.)

I. IN THE DINGEY OF THE LADY VAIN

not reach us. He came down out of the tangle of ropes 
under the stays of the smashed bowsprit1, some small 
rope caught his heel as he let go, and he hung for a 
moment head downward, and then fell and struck a 
block or spar fl oating in the water. We pulled towards 
him, but he never came up.
I say luckily for us he did not reach us, and I might 
almost say luckily for himself; for we had only a small 
breaker2 of water and some soddened ship’s biscuits 
with us, so sudden had been the alarm, so unprepared 
the ship for any disaster. We thought the people on 
the launch would be better provisioned (though it 
seems they were not), and we tried to hail them. Th ey 
could not have heard us, and the next morning when 
the drizzle cleared, — which was not until past 
midday, — we could see nothing of them. We could 
not stand up to look about us, because of the pitching 
of the boat. Th e two other men who had escaped so 
far with me were a man named Helmar, a passenger 
like myself, and a seaman whose name I don’t know, — 
a short sturdy man, with a stammer.
We drift ed famishing, and, aft er our water had 
come to an end, tormented by an intolerable thirst, 
for eight days altogether. Aft er the second day the 

1 under the stays of the smashed bowsprit — (мор.) под 
обломками бушприта
2 a small breaker — (разг.) маленький бочонок

THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU

10

sea subsided slowly1 to a glassy calm. It is quite 
impossible for the ordinary reader to imagine those 
eight days. He has not, luckily for himself, anything 
in his memory to imagine with. Aft er the fi rst day we 
said little to one another, and lay in our places in the 
boat and stared at the horizon, or watched, with eyes 
that grew larger and more haggard every day, the 
misery and weakness gaining upon our companions. 
Th e sun became pitiless. Th e water ended on the 
fourth day, and we were already thinking strange 
things and saying them with our eyes; but it was, I 
think, the sixth before Helmar gave voice to the thing 
we had all been thinking. I remember our voices were 
dry and thin, so that we bent towards one another 
and spared our words. I stood out against it with all 
my might, was rather for scuttling the boat and 
perishing together among the sharks that followed 
us; but when Helmar said that if his proposal was 
accepted we should have drink, the sailor came round 
to him.
I would not draw lots2 however, and in the night 
the sailor whispered to Helmar again and again, and 
I sat in the bows with my clasp-knife in my hand, 

1 the sea subsided slowly — (разг.) море постепенно 
успокаивалось
2 I would not draw lots — (разг.) Я не хотел тянуть 
жребий