The World Set Free

Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 - 13 August 1946) was an English writer. He was prolific in many genres, writing dozens of novels, short stories, and works of social commentary, satire, biography, and autobiography, and even including two books on recreational war games. He is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is often called a "father of science fiction", along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback.
During his own lifetime, however, he was most prominent as a forward-looking, even prophetic social critic who devoted his literary talents to the development of a progressive vision on a global scale. A futurist, he wrote a number of utopian works and foresaw the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television and something resembling the World Wide Web. His science fiction imagined time travel, alien invasion, invisibility, and biological engineering. Brian Aldiss referred to Wells as the "Shakespeare of science fiction". Wells rendered his works convincing by instilling commonplace detail alongside a single extraordinary assumption - dubbed "Wells's law" - leading Joseph Conrad to hail him in 1898 as "O Realist of the Fantastic!". His most notable science fiction works include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898) and the military science fiction The War in the Air (1907). Wells was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times.
The Island of Doctor Moreau is an 1896 science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. 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, a mad scientist who creates human-like hybrid 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. Wells described it as "an exercise in youthful blasphemy."
The Island of Doctor Moreau is a classic of early science fiction and remains one of Wells' best-known books. The novel is the earliest depiction of the science fiction motif "uplift" in which a more advanced race intervenes in the evolution of an animal species to bring the latter to a higher level of intelligence. It has been adapted to film and other media on many occasions, with Charles Laughton (1933), Burt Lancaster (1977), and Marlon Brando (1996) as the mad doctor. (wikipedia.org)

H.G. Wells, born on September 21, 1866, in Bromley, England, became one of the most influential English writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Often referred to as the "father of science fiction," his works like The War of the Worlds (1898) and The Time Machine (1895) introduced pioneering ideas about time travel, alien invasions, and humanity's future. His writings often tackled social issues, including class inequality, technology, and human progress, blending adventure with philosophical exploration.Wells studied biology at the Normal School of Science in London under Thomas Henry Huxley and worked as a teacher before turning to writing. His early novels were shaped by scientific advancements and often warned of the potential dangers of unchecked experimentation. Works like The Invisible Man (1897) and The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) explored the moral and ethical consequences of science, while his utopian writings envisioned a more ideal future.Beyond fiction, Wells was an outspoken political activist, advocating for social reforms and global peace. He critiqued capitalism and imperialism in works like The Shape of Things to Come (1933), outlining his vision for a world government. Despite some political setbacks, Wells continued to shape literature and political thought, leaving a legacy that still influences science fiction and speculative writing today.