Oldies are goodies (particularly when they're free)

Project Gutenberg has The Island of Doctor Moreau available for free. I realized I'd never actually read the original, and it's a short work, tolerable to read on-line. There's a reason some stories become classics of spec fic. Moreau was creepy, action-packed, full of wonderful turns of phrase, and laden with things to ponder about the nature of, well, human nature.

I have a desperate fondness for that stilted, Victorian-style of adventure story. Something, perhaps, about the contrast between the extraordinarily careful language and the wild goings-on in mysterious colonial outposts where different systems of perception war for supremacy. Or maybe they're just cracking good reads.

I should mention that our State Emergency Service headquarters is a hundred yards or so from the municipal dog pound, and every once in a while one dog in extremes of grief will set the whole place howling. Last night was one of those nights, and I, being in the midst of reading Moreau, found it more than usually disturbing.