Science Fiction and the Victorian Crisis of Faith: Secularization of Biblical Narratives in H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) and The War of the Worlds (1898)

Abstract

In this study we will analyze H.G. Wells’ science-fictional works The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) and The War of the Worlds (1898) and their secularization of Biblical narratives and tropes with the intention of disclosing the latent ideological conflicts which underly these works and their relation to the Victorian crisis of faith; testing the hypothesis that this religious crisis had a definite impact in the development of the speculative novel.