The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories

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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories

by Robert Louis Stevenson, Jenny Davidson (Introduction)

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 42,528 ratings · 652 reviews

Idealistic young scientist Henry Jekyll struggles to unlock the secrets of the soul. Testing chemicals in his lab, he drinks a mixture he hopes will isolate - and eliminate - human evil. Instead it unleashes the dark forces within him, transforming him into the hideous and murderous Mr. Hyde.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde dramatically brings to life a science-...more

Paperback, 252 pages

Published July 1st 2004 by Barnes & Noble Classics (first published 1886)

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Oct 15, 2010 Lady Danielle aka The Book Huntress rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Readers who enjoy mystery/suspense and a little gothic horror

Shelves: classic, classic-horror, thriller-suspense, gaslit-horror, victorian, short-story-collection, favorite-or-autobuy-author, psychological-horror, science-fiction, epistolary-narrative

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories turned out to be a relatively quick read. Here are my thoughts on these stories:

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

This was a little different than I expected. It's rather introspective, if that's an appropriate word. The emphasis is not on the action or the dirty deeds that Mr. Hyde perpetrates. Instead, the focus is on the duality of the natures of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In truth, they are not separate men. They are two di...more

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Nov 17, 2008 Trevor rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, mystery

I can’t really tell you what I was expecting when I started this story – except, of course, that I wasn’t quite expecting what I got.

This is another of those ‘classic tales’ that I’ve long assumed I’ve known, but never have really known at all. I had images in my head of foaming test tubes or beakers and of hair spouting from the backs of hands. To be honest, I also had visions of lots of sex too. Unlike Frankenstein, this story mostly lives up to what I guess could be called its image in the po...more

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Oct 17, 2010 Cindy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-books, horror, whack-a-doo

Party of my creepy Halloween reads. boo!

Just a quick note: Jeckyll & Hyde was fairly entertaining, filled with the archaic Victorian verbal effluvia. "It was a wild, cold, seasonable night of March, with a pale moon, lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her, and flying wrack of the most diaphanous and lawny texture." Oh those lawny textures! As usual with these old stories, the mechanisms of the story telling (from the POV of a 3rd party, the tale in retrospect, and telling instea...more

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Jun 30, 2011 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: horror, gothic, thriller lovers

Recommended to Jason by: It was a cheap purchase.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Somewhere in the second trimester of fetal development of first world babies, knowledge of the story of Jekyll and Hyde is passed down the umbilical cord from mother to child, and thus are we all born with a basic understanding of this tale of duality. It is nearly impossible to live in a developed country and not understand a Jekyll and Hyde reference. Since I felt I already knew the story, and that the surprise ending is forever ruined for everyone alive today, I put off reading it until I was...more Somewhere in the second trimester of fetal development of first world babies, knowledge of the story of Jekyll and Hyde is passed down the umbilical cord from mother to child, and thus are we all born with a basic understanding of this tale of duality. It is nearly impossible to live in a developed country and not understand a Jekyll and Hyde reference. Since I felt I already knew the story, and that the surprise ending is forever ruined for everyone alive today, I put off reading it until I was 32 years old, but I'm glad that I've now checked it out.

It's my understanding that of all the film adaptations of this book (of which there are well over 100), not a single one of them gets it just right. The main character isn't Jekyll/Hyde, but John Utterson, a friend of Dr. Jekyll. This poor chap isn't even in most of the movies, I don't think. Anyway, the story is told from his point of view, not J/H's. And while Utterson is missing in most film versions, you know who is missing from the book? The woman! She doesn't exist. There is no tragic romance and eventual damsel in distress in the book at all. It's not even mentioned. It's a never-was.

So, what really happens? We learn from a friend of Utterson's that a Mr. Hyde was seen trampling a little girl, and was forced to pay her family. Hyde presented a check written by Dr. Jekyll, a well respected physician and friend of Utterson's. This baffles Utterson, but Jekyll assures him it's legit, and that Hyde is Jekyll's beneficiary. Utterson can't understand it, but is told to wash his hands of the matter, and he does. Jekyll had been flying low under the radar during all this. Hyde kind of disappears for a bit, but reemerges and kills a man. He's hunted down, but escapes. In his house is found the murder weapon, a cane that Utterson himself had given to Jekyll as a gift a while back. Jekyll is confronted with this bit of intel, and he assures Utterson and the cops that he has permanently ended his association with Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll reemerges into society, and is his old bubbly social-butterfly self for a few months, then suddenly he locks himself up in his house and refuses to see people. He sends his staff on errands for various drugs so he can make his crystal meth, but nobody ever sees Dr. J; they just receive his instructions from behind a closed door. The staff is now living in terror because they believe Mr. Hyde has come back and taken Jekyll prisoner, or something like that. The butler decides enough is a enough, and tells Utterson what's going on. Utterson and the butler hit up Dr. J's lab, bust down the door and find Mr. Hyde dead on the floor wearing Dr. Jekyll's clothes, but there's no sign of Dr. J. They find a diary from Dr. Jekyll which explains everything, and he had somehow kept it hidden from Mr. Hyde.

The long and short of it is this (as if you need to be told since you gained this information during prenatal development): Jekyll had made a potion which allowed him to entertain his more immoral desires with impunity which also altered his physical appearance to the point that he didn't even resemble his real self in the slightest. At first all was fine, and he had fun with sin, but then the sins started getting a bit serious. He tried to curtail, but it was difficult. After Hyde murdered the one dude, Jekyll cut it off cold turkey, and all was well for a while. But then Hyde started coming out while Jekyll was asleep, and Jekyll, while looking like Hyde, had to take the potion to turn back into his original self. Eventually Hyde just started showing up whenever he felt like it, so Jekyll locked himself away in his lab. He sent his staff all over the city for one ingredient he needed to make the potion, and the ingredient needed to be 100% pure and unsullied. He got this ingredient from several apothecaries, but with the same disastrous results: the potion didn't work. It turns out that it was an impurity in the ingredient in the original potion that made the magic happen, oh woe is Jekyll. As Jekyll wrote this in his journal, he felt Hyde coming again, and knew he would never be Dr. Jekyll again since he was a) out of the original potion and b) not strong enough to put Hyde away anymore. It's around this point that Utterson breaks in, and that's the end of the tale. (Insert dramatic music stab here).

I understand better now why this is deemed a classic. The way it unfolds on the pages sets it apart from the movie adaptations, and makes it a much better story than I thought it would be. Reading it with a fresh and open mind was difficult since it's ingrained in my head from birth, but I can see why it was such a huge hit when it came out.

A bit of background about how this novella came to be because it's one of those amazing stories: Stevenson was not a well man. He was on bed rest, not allowed to talk or move, and doped up on the leading opiate of the day when he started screaming in his sleep one afternoon. His wife was alarmed, and woke him up. Instead of thanking her, he admonished her saying something like "What'd you do that for? I was having an awesome nightmare!" That "fine bogey tale (Stevenson's exact words)" was the basis of "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." (The "The" was left off intentionally by Stevenson, but publishers added it after he died). For the next 3 days Louis wrote like a madman (probably because he was one), and presented the first draft to his wife. She had literary aspirations of her own, and was a harsh critic. She said it was a fine horror tale, but really it sucked monkey balls. While her back was turned, Louis burned the manuscript for fear that he might be tempted to use it. Also, he was really fricking pissed off and it was his way of saying "Well fine! Take a load off, Fanny!" (Fanny was Mrs. S's name, and nobody in the Stevenson household enjoyed their afternoon tea for a while after the page burning incident). So, he wrote it again, this time taking 6 days instead of 3. He added allegorical elements (one of Fanny's suggestions), and shat out the classic that is now the frame of our concept of duality in modern society. 3 days later after Fanny had finished editing it, it was sent off. A little over two months later it was published, and sold forty thousand copies within a year. It was discussed and written about all over the English speaking world, and used in church sermons. Soon it would be made into stage plays. When radio and film entertainment got fired up, it would invade those mediums, and 125 years after its initial publication, it is still relevant.

How many stories can make that claim?(less)

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Jun 03, 2010 Colleen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lit, horror-esque

Jekyll and Hyde is one of those stories that everyone 'knows' but very few people actually have read. I was well aquainted with the general idea of the story from it's various permutations, but this is the first time I read it. One of the major differences is that in almost every version I can think of, Hyde is some hulking brute, but in the story he's actually smaller, physically. I found that interesting, and odd.

Other than that, though, I wasn't entirely enthralled with the story - mostly, I...more Jekyll and Hyde is one of those stories that everyone 'knows' but very few people actually have read. I was well aquainted with the general idea of the story from it's various permutations, but this is the first time I read it. One of the major differences is that in almost every version I can think of, Hyde is some hulking brute, but in the story he's actually smaller, physically. I found that interesting, and odd.

Other than that, though, I wasn't entirely enthralled with the story - mostly, I think, because I already knew the 'twist'. I did enjoy the writing, though, and found it interesting. I would give it 3 stars.

But there were other stories in this book, all of which connected on the general theme of human nature and our propensities and choices to do good or evil.

'The Bodysnatcher' was a good story - dark and sinister, and I enjoyed the ending. It explores the way that people who generally consider themselves good people can be lead along the path of doing wrong by not speaking up, by looking the other way, and then being - or at least feeling - trapped on the path of their silence. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing," as the saying goes. I give it 4 stars.

Next was a very short short story called 'Markheim', in which a man murders a shop owner. He says it is justice, but we never really learn the reason. The beginning of the story is very good, following the murders thoughts - fear of discovery, disgust and yet triumph at the act, thoughts regarding the state and nature of death, his growing paranoia, and insistence at being just. It is delicious reading. But then it sort of devolves into cliche when another man shows up, and argues with him that he is not the good person he thinks he is. The ending, while admirable, is also predictable. Then again, it might not have been a hundred or so years ago. I give this 3 1/2

Last it 'The Imp Bottle' - a tale of an imp granting wishes, but with the cost of the immortal soul, if the person can not sell the bottle. It goes through several vagueries, and is told more like a folk tale than with the same literary styles of the other stories. All in all this was my least favorite of the lot. I'd give it 2 1/2.(less)

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Nov 07, 2009 Jaclyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Confession - I joined a new book club. I felt like I was cheating on my California book club. I promise I was thinking about them while we discussed the duality of man - the carnal and the supernal. This concept is one those universal battles that all people face- though many do not acknowledge the battle between being their best self and indulging in life's pleasures. Dr. Jekyll is a good man with a good idea about separating our dueling selves, but of course, it does not work out the way he pl...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, fiction, classics, 2013-reads, short-story

An enjoyable read of Stevenson's horror stories. A fun read for me simply because classic horror seems tame compared to contemporary horror novels. One has to wonder how horrified the damsels and gentlemen of the 19th century were to read about Stevenson's grave robbers, a Christmas day murder, a hell-bound imp in a bottle or Jekyll & Hyde.

Never having read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde previously, the story was a revelation of sorts. However, my favorite story was The Bottle Imp because its not o...more

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Jul 15, 2011 D. Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Classic story of a good man exploring his dark side. Terrific classic horror tale. Smart and well-written, and the age of the language use gives it perfect (authentic) flavor. Dr. Jekyll, as everyone knows, wishes to explore the nature of Man, and through a potion he concocts he is able to transform himself from a man who is knowledgeable and conscientious, able to consciously steer himself away from evil, into a man who personifies all the dark and deviant things that man holds locked away in h...more

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Aug 05, 2011 Smita rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What an exceptional read! I've read this classic in the past but truly appreciated it this time around when I read it in one sitting...just couldn't put it down.

Reminiscent of Mark Twain's quote, "Every man is a moon and has a dark side that he shows to no one," Stevenson poignantly explores the theme of man's duality, perhaps a "fragmentation of personality" that is brought upon by the modern world.

After completion of this book, I am hoping to see a theatrical production of Stevenson's novell...more What an exceptional read! I've read this classic in the past but truly appreciated it this time around when I read it in one sitting...just couldn't put it down.

Reminiscent of Mark Twain's quote, "Every man is a moon and has a dark side that he shows to no one," Stevenson poignantly explores the theme of man's duality, perhaps a "fragmentation of personality" that is brought upon by the modern world.

After completion of this book, I am hoping to see a theatrical production of Stevenson's novella. In researching about Richard Mansfield, the actor who portrayed both Jekyll and Hyde on stage, I gather watching him must have been a thrill for audiences in the 1880s. One gentleman, while dining with the actor, commented on how unbelievable it was that Mansfield could shift gears and even change his appearance on the spot by merely slouching and altering his gait. To display his skill, "then and there only four feet away, under the green light,...he did it--changed to Hyde before my very eyes--and I remember that I, startled to pieces, jumped up and cried." In fact, Mansfield was so talented at exhibiting the utterly evil nature of Hyde that people suspected he may actually be Jack the Ripper who was targeting prostitutes in England during the time.

One fascinating factors that dictates much of the characters' behaviors throughout this work is religion. This may be because Stevenson was raised a Presbyterian, "a version of Calvinism that emphasizes the natural depravity of man and the doctrine of predestination--the belief that God has foreknowledge of all event--and makes stark distinctions between sinners and those destined for salvation." But Stevenson was rebellious, a "liberal bohemian [who rejected] his parents' religious beliefs, pursuing illicit sexual liasons, and condemning the hypocrisy and cruelty he associated with [that lifestyle]." Reading the novel with this knowledge, one can argue that it is due to social constraints that Jekyll was forced to assume a new identity. It is "the system of repression that gives rise to Mr. Hyde."

Another important theme is sexuality, which is significant precisely because of its absence in the text. Hyde commits many crimes but none of these are sexual in nature. Again, Stevenson may be challenging the belief at the time and attempting to "decouple sex and sin in the face of respectable society's determination to make the two synonymous." According to critic Jenny Davidson of Columbia Univ., "hypocrisy, not sexuality, is ....to blame for the production of the monster Hyde...[it represents] the entire system of repression and respectability."

Among other lessons, his novel teaches readers the dangers of giving into temptation. Through biblical references to Adam and Eve and allusions to various other literary works, (Davidson recalls how temptation destroyed Bluebeard's wife) Stevenson offers his warning.

One can read this work in so many ways. Jekyll's change in behavior is drug induced and therefore, modern readers can consider such implications; critics argue that the struggle between Jekyll and Hyde is an Oedipal one in which a patricidal son hates his father; others may be enthralled by Stevenson's own biography and apply it to the reading. All in all, I high recommend this novella. (less)

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Apr 13, 2011 Brittany rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really liked the concept of the book. The split between good and evil in everyone, and how Jekyll devolved into basically pure evil in the end. I almost pitied him as he realized he would/could no longer exist, even though he didn't feel too remorseful about the things he did (aside from the killing of Carew). Also, the idea that Hyde may not have been purely evil, trying to change himself back to Jekyll before realizing it was useless and killing himself. I'm not sure if he was just killed hi...more

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Jan 20, 2010 Angela rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks, classics

One of the nice things about reading a lot of ebooks as of late is the sheer number of older classic works available in public domain electronic copies. Among these is the Feedbooks ebook edition of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, and I decided it was high time I read it.

We all of course know the basics of the story, but what I didn't know was that the original story is not from Jekyll's point of view at all, but rather from that of a third party. The lawy...more

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Aug 03, 2009 Shannon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jekyll and Hyde: The dual nature

This is also available at my blog, 149 Novels.

There's a popular question: if you could choose a super power, would you choose flight, or invisibility? The question is deceptive, because it's not just about entering the world of comic book heroes. It's about why you want that power. People who want to fly want to get someplace quickly, want to stop paying for transportation, and want to show off. In an episode of This American Life, one man specifically says that a...more Jekyll and Hyde: The dual nature

This is also available at my blog, 149 Novels.

There's a popular question: if you could choose a super power, would you choose flight, or invisibility? The question is deceptive, because it's not just about entering the world of comic book heroes. It's about why you want that power. People who want to fly want to get someplace quickly, want to stop paying for transportation, and want to show off. In an episode of This American Life, one man specifically says that all the girls would want to sleep with the flying guy. People who want to be invisible want to get into movies for free, spy on people, and steal clothing - assuming anything that they are wearing is also invisible. No one would use their powers to fight crime (which is reasonable, because they do not have super strength, or immortality).

I thought of this question and its moral implications while reading The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Dr. Jekyll believes that all humans are divided creatures, split between good and evil. He wishes that the human mind could be freed from the struggle to reconcile the two, and so he uses his medical knowledge of drugs and their side effects to make a compound that will divide the low from the high. He feels as if doing this will allow him to become two separate people, and even creates a name for his darker self. But he soon learns that he cannot be free from the crimes of Mr. Hyde, which were far darker than he predicted.

I liked this story a lot, and recommend it. It's good to read a well-known classic and see how it was originally presented, free from the various adaptations. I like that, while it is essentially a horror story, it has an element of science fiction, with Jekyll's reference to experimenting with drugs that have known side effects. I was delighted that it is not revealed that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person until you are well into the novel, which seems to me an especially Victorian element. It's smartly written with an effort towards timelessness - Hyde goes out at night and does evil things. We don't know what - it is left to us to imagine what he does, to adjust his crimes to our own sense of evil.

According to some reading I've done on the novel's meaning, the Victorian interpretation was that good and evil exist in everyone, and attempts to repress your darker nature will cause it to erupt, and will cause great outbursts of evil. In my own reading of the novel, I perceive that Jekyll was more evil than he admits before dividing his soul. He wished that he could live without the struggle between his evil nature and Victorian morality, and his desire to free his evil side is the goal, not an effort to create a personality of pure goodness. At his transformation, he delights in the feeling of losing the reservations of morality. Only in fear for his life does he regret what he has done. The true horror of the tale is that he is a man without remorse throughout.

-----------------------------------
Next up is Dune by Frank L. Herbert. It comes highly recommended by a few fans of the novel. It is also difficult to find at the library; the library search engine is not designed to provide simple results for a simple search. When you type in "Dune", it pulls up an entire page of various novels in the Dune series, putting them in no logical order, so that you have to move on to the second page of results just to locate the first novel in the series. And of course, then you have to keep searching to find copies that are available at your local library. I think the catalog divides them between distinct editions of books, because a search for one novel may turn up several different results which are all the same novel, along with a few books about Dune, a book on dune buggies, and a children's book about deserts.
This is not meant as a complaint on my local libraries, which are excellent. I just wish some local benevolent tech genius would donate a new search engine to the library.(less)

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Jan 21, 2009 The other John rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, crime, fantasy, mystery

The introduction to this book has a great quote: "...Stevenson's story is more known about than actually known..." This was certainly true for me, and ever since enjoying The League of Extra-ordinary Gentlemen*, I had a desire to change that. I finally managed to snag a copy of the tale and read it. As you probably know, it's the tale of a Doctor Henry Jekyll, who concocts a potion that transforms him into Mr. Edward Hyde, an amoral man without restraint. Or perhaps you can say that the potion r...more

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Oct 21, 2008 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own, loved-it

As I'm going to see the play Jekyll & Hyde this weekend, I felt compelled to reread the book. The first thing I was struck by was the size of the novel. I remembered it being short, but I didn't realize just how short it is. The edition I'm reading has less than a hundred pages for Jekyll & Hyde and then takes another hundred pages to present 3 of Stevenson's short stories and a brief editorial note.

Despite its short size, the writing is dense in portions. Steeped in heavy Victorian styl...more As I'm going to see the play Jekyll & Hyde this weekend, I felt compelled to reread the book. The first thing I was struck by was the size of the novel. I remembered it being short, but I didn't realize just how short it is. The edition I'm reading has less than a hundred pages for Jekyll & Hyde and then takes another hundred pages to present 3 of Stevenson's short stories and a brief editorial note.

Despite its short size, the writing is dense in portions. Steeped in heavy Victorian style, Stevenson's writing is thick with vivid descriptions often with fifty-cent (or more) words to stir the literary mind. The writing is also very clearly a "Gothic" novel in genre. It came during the Victorian revival of the Gothic at the end of the 19th century rather than during the heyday of the late 18th century. Core gothic writing often involved aggrandized locations in creepy disrepair such as crumbling castles or manors. There was often the idea of the supernatural either in terms of ghosts and spirits or the taboo of the occult, witchcraft and even the presence of the devil himself.

Stevenson is using a lot of the themes from the Gothic tradition while also keeping things at a high enough level to allow the "terror" to exist primarily within the reader both while reading and, perhaps worse still, after reading as the reader explore his or her own mind.

In our modern day, it's hard to approach Jekyll & Hyde without some knowledge of the tale. As such, a large sense of the suspense and mystery is likely lost on modern day readers. I'll try not to put any explicit spoilers here in case a truly fresh reader is out there, but let's just say that the ending wasn't a terrific surprise to me. And yet, the novel was fulfilling in terms of what it set out to accomplish.

The pacing of the novel was slow and sometimes tedious. Rather than following closely alongside Dr. Jekyll and/or Mr. Hyde, the reader is aligned with Jekyll's lawyer, Mr. Utterson. Utterson is dismayed at some of the choices and behaviors of his friend, the good doctor, and so he plays "Mr. Seek" to try and uncover the mystery surrounding "Mr. Hyde."

The revelations as they come are well presented and have some shock value even with all the cultural weight already surrounding the book. One element I had forgotten which was especially striking when compared with versions of Jekyll/Hyde I've seen recently...is that Mr. Hyde is actually smaller than Dr. Jekyll.

That concept is a small nuance that points this book out as a creation not only for enjoyment of a suspenseful and creepy story...but also as a platform for exploring the duality of human nature and our propensity to feel guilty for the evil within us while at the same time being intrigued by it. My interpretation of Hyde's small size was different from that in the book in that I viewed him as a sort of cowering and ashamed person. While potentially accurate, in hindsight it's not entirely true since he is portrayed as pure evil and hence he wouldn't likely be shrunken and cowered since his own bravado and pride cause him to be built up by the evil within him. Jekyll's explanation for his size (due to repressed evil) seems more likely, but still left something to be desired.

An interesting note I thought of and that was further explored in the editor's note, is that while Hyde is portrayed as wholly evil, Jekyll is not in fact 'wholly good.' Jekyll has the propensity for evil within him. In fact, it's that desire to do evil that causes him to undergo the experiments in the first place. So this isn't entirely a 'good versus evil' debate, but rather more of a debate that 'everyone contains evil within, it's just a matter of whether we let it out or not.'

A thought provoking read with fun themes and excellent Victorian writing. If you're looking for a great horror novel or an intense thriller, you'll likely be unsatisfied. But if you look to this book for what it is and what it was in its time, you'll likely enjoy it.

****
3 1/2 stars(less)

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Aug 31, 2010 Lee Aplin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

I only really wanted to read the strange case of dr Jekyll and mr Hyde when I picked up this book, and while I really enjoyed that story, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the other short stories in this book. Most of the stories are strange tales of sinners and murderers.

All of them are entertaining in their own right, but the highlight of the book for me was The Misadventures of John Nicholson, a story about a hapless boy who is cursed with terrible luck and accused of crimes he didn't co...more

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Oct 08, 2010 Julie Davis rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am actually just listening to the main story (as read beautifully in the LibriVox version) in order to participate in the SFFaudio readalong discussion. I originally listened when Heather Ordover at CraftLit discussed the book a couple of years ago (?). Perfect listening for October and I am very much enjoying going over the story again.

A fascinating look at good and evil and a short read actually. If you have only seen a movie or know "what everyone knows" about this story, do yourself a favo...more

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Apr 04, 2013 David rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fiction, horror

SPOILER ALERT! Jekyll and Hyde are the same person! I just ruined it for you. You're welcome.

Stevenson writes a rollicking good adventure, as in Kidnapped and Treasure Island. In this novella, he also writes a fascinating psychological horror story. It was by no means action-packed, but his exploration of Jekyll and his horrible alter ego was well-done and intriguing. It was nearly allegorical in its study of morality. Jekyll is an essentially flawless good person, and he finds outlet of his hi...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Kristi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-aloud, classics

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is one of those classic horror stories that has been been retold and recreated visually over and over, and most people have at least a passing familiarity with it. Dr. Jekyll creates an elixir that transforms him into the dark and mysterious Mr. Hyde, a being who seems to exude all the darkness and evil humanity has to offer. He is ugly, rude, violent - abhorrent to all who come across him. But he is somehow inexplicably tied to the good and gracious D...more

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Nov 07, 2012 Bethany rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 01, 2012 Ileen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, scrittori-scozzesi

Fantastico. L’ho letto in un giorno. Così di rigore. Ancora una volta devo ringraziare Eleclyah che mi ha consigliato bene. Premetto che ero un po’ scettica, non perché non mi piacesse il libro, ma perché conoscevo la storia; ed ecco qui la differenza conoscere la storia non è la stessa cosa che averla letta. Già subito fin dalle prime pagine mi ha piacevolmente stupito perché il libro non era strutturato come io a lungo avevo creduto. La costruzione è fantastica, il libro è scorrevole ed è avvi...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Chazzbot rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is my third time reading Stevenson's famous story, and there is much here for those who are only familiar with it from its many references in popular culture. Stevenson's critiques of class divisions (even represented by the way certain characters enter a new geographic location) and the use of writing as a form of identity are just two of the themes developed in this engaging novella.

This particular edition contains two other long stories, both situated in and around the islands of the So...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Kasey Jane rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, horror, doesnt-pass-bechdel, mental-illness

I decided to finally read this because of Stephen King. In his introduction to a collection where Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was bound with Dracula and Frankenstein, King described the three stories as laying the foundation for all Western horror: self-made, man-made, and back-from-the-dead monsters. Wolfman, vampire, and other.

Although I was familiar with the story, I was not consciously aware that it was written by Robert Louis Stevenson until last night. I think of Stevenson as an adventure writ...more I decided to finally read this because of Stephen King. In his introduction to a collection where Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was bound with Dracula and Frankenstein, King described the three stories as laying the foundation for all Western horror: self-made, man-made, and back-from-the-dead monsters. Wolfman, vampire, and other.

Although I was familiar with the story, I was not consciously aware that it was written by Robert Louis Stevenson until last night. I think of Stevenson as an adventure writer: high seas ribaldry and all that. In the end, I still consider Stevenson an adventure writer. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde lacks the psychological depth of Frankenstein and the repulsive other-worldliness of Dracula.

However, it is easy to see where this concept of duality evolved into the self struggle of modern werewolf tales. (view spoiler)

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Jul 03, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A thoroughly worthwhile and enjoyable book. It wasn't particularly scary (modern, visual, visceral horror media is much better at scaring), it wasn't particularly surprising (as unless you live in an internetless, telivisionless cave somewhere on Charon you've undoubtedly seen or read some form of the Jekyll-Hyde story) but it was certainly good.

What makes this story particularly good as a horror novel though is that the fear doesn't come from external factors. I mean sure there's a gruesome mur...more

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Jun 03, 2012 Bev Hankins rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: victorian, gothic, classic-lit

Read only Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Challenge (among others).

Thanks to Man of La Book's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Challenge, I have now read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde three times in as many years. [Most of my previous thoughts on Jekyll & Hyde can found HERE and HERE.] I'm not complaining....I love this late Victorian Gothic morality play about the division of good and evil that lies in every person. It's just that I'm not...more Read only Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Challenge (among others).

Thanks to Man of La Book's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Challenge, I have now read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde three times in as many years. [Most of my previous thoughts on Jekyll & Hyde can found HERE and HERE.] I'm not complaining....I love this late Victorian Gothic morality play about the division of good and evil that lies in every person. It's just that I'm not sure I've got much that's fresh to say about this one on my third go round. That being the case, I may not be able to do this review without spoilers--so beware!

As I mention in a previous review (for another edition)--the story tells us all too well that if we are not very careful, then evil can overtake us. Once started down the road, lesser sins can soon lead to bigger until finally it becomes near impossible to turn back and become what we once were. It is particularly difficult for those with addictive personalities--one looks for bigger and better thrills and that is part of what leads one further down the road.

I think what strikes me most this time around is a very tiny moment in Jekyll's final days. It's a point that I didn't really take note of before. After the murder of Sir Danvers, he is determined not to let Hyde loose again. He spends a good two to three months suppressing the "child of Hell" and begins to feel very good about himself. He has used his time trying to repay good for the evil Hyde has done. He has been immersing himself in spiritual studies. He beings to compare himself to other men--"comparing [his] active good-will with the lazy cruelty of their neglect." And you know what they say about pride...it goeth before a fall. Jekyll is setting himself up for a doozy. In almost every list of the seven deadly sins pride is considered the most serious. It represents the primary fault that led to Lucifer's fall. The moment when Jekyll begins to feel prideful about how well he's done in suppressing Hyde and making reparations for his behavior is his point of no return. From that time on the potion no longer works as well--he finds himself turning into Hyde with very little effort and with no notice, right there in a public park.

The only other thoughts I have are in connection with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In the original story, Hyde is depicted as much smaller than Jekyll--a shrunken, "little" man; pale and dwarfish; "particularly small and evil-looking." And, yet, the League graphic novel (and movie, for that matter) portrays him an almost-giant, an Incedible Hulk type (less the green skin) with immense strength. If we allow that Jekyll/Hyde actually survived (rather than committing suicide as Stevenson's story relates), then, for Hyde to have become as large and strong as he is in League I see no way for him to ever appear as Jekyll. Hyde would have to have completely subdued his original persona to grow to such proportions. Stevenson mentions towards the end that Jekyll feels as though Hyde had grown--but even at that, Jekyll's clothes still hang on him, many sizes too big.

This review was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting any portion. Thanks.
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May 19, 2012 Timothy Morrow rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I went into this book knowing that it shouldn't be like any of the terrible adaptions on television, I was partly wrong. Indeed, the horrible Mr. Hyde was not the giant grotesque monster I saw on tv, nor was the story very close to anything they tried in Hollywood. The similarity between the book and televisions, Jekyll/Hyde, was that I was not amused with either. The concept and the idea of the story is amazing and beautiful, a man fighting between good and evil within himself, and the idea of...more

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Apr 17, 2012 Gary Hoggatt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, all-fiction, audiobooks, horror

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is one of those books that, like many classics, everyone "knows" but no one's ever read. It's worth reading as it has influenced a great many stories since and has several worthwhile moments of its own, but only if you can put what you think you know about the story to the side. If you can put yourself in the place of the characters, the tale is mysterious and the fact that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are one and the same is a horrible revelation. The close of t...more

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Apr 17, 2012 Andrew Breslin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

You could read this story in a few hours, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you should. You'll never get those hours back, and, unless you are actually a 19th century reader who borrowed H.G Wells' time machine to steal a peek at the miraculous "interwebs" of the 21st century, wherein any idiot in the realm can cast aspersions on the great works of your contemporaries, then you probably could find something more entertaining to read.

It can not even qualify as a novel. My copy stretches to f...more You could read this story in a few hours, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you should. You'll never get those hours back, and, unless you are actually a 19th century reader who borrowed H.G Wells' time machine to steal a peek at the miraculous "interwebs" of the 21st century, wherein any idiot in the realm can cast aspersions on the great works of your contemporaries, then you probably could find something more entertaining to read.

It can not even qualify as a novel. My copy stretches to fewer than 100 pages, which -- I'm sorry to break this to struggling aspiring novelists --is a novella, and not a novel. Novellas today are even less appealing than novels. To break it down: nobody wants to read your novel. Nobody wants to read your novella either, and you should feel extra-unappreciated and disappointed, because nobody is willing to spend even a few hours with it. The people who wrote an actual novel can at least comfort themselves with the knowledge that nobody is willing to spend a whole day or so reading their crap.

It's somewhat amazing to go back and read this a century later and realize that this thin little novella inspired so much peripheral and derivative art, when it is itself so astoundingly, stunningly mediocre, not to mention short. I read it after watching the excellent BBC presentation of Jekyll which infected me with a virulent Jekyllmania. The book itself is textbook anticlimacticality. "Really?" you will likely say out loud, after you rip through it on a lazy Sunday afternoon, "that's it?"

Still, it might be worth your time, if only because it will take such a small amount of it. But really, its only value is as an academic exercise in comparative literature, and if you do read it and want to discuss it in the context of modern literary trends and whatnot, then feel free to drop me a line. We can get all analytic and pretend to be intellectuals. It'll be fun. But, speaking to the modern readers, there are far more entertaining tales available for you to consume, starting with that BBC program.

Speaking to the 19th century readers with a time machine: Stop reading my reviews right now and go invest money in Microsoft in 1980. Unlike reading this book, I can absolutely promise that you will not regret it.

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Apr 09, 2012 Davis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil." A classic for a reason, still providing insight into humanity through its Victorian lens. Much different than I was initially expecting; the story is built around Mr. Utterson and the mystery of who Mr. Hyde is. Lots of excellent Victorian sensibilities that are deconstructing and examined honestly through Jekyll's transformation, and what that means about all people in general. The destructive sides of isolation, duality...more

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Mar 11, 2012 Rjurik Davidson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another tale rightfully seared into our collective consciousness, the experience of reading it can't be anything like that of its first, unsuspecting, readers. But a nicely plotted little tale of mystery, its final section, when Jekyll makes his confession, is chilling. For his tale resonates with anyone who has felt divided within themselves, and who would claim never to have felt such internal conflicts? At once a tale of an addict, a Jungian shadow, and the everyman of Victorian England, this...more

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Oct 17, 2011 Gemma rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I remember a day from when I was young. Somewhere between the ages of four and seven.

Mom was out for an afternoon of shopping and Dad was babysitting, which meant that we were allowed to watch whatever we wanted on TV. Well, not really. If we'd tried to watch some sex comedy or horror movie, Dad would have intervened and cut us off. But practically anything; anything that a seven-year-old would actually want to watch. Like the Cartoon Network.

We turned on Looney Tunes. I liked it; I thought it w...more

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About Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of Neo-romanticism in English literature. He was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling and Vladimir Nabokov.

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“He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn’t specify the point. He’s an extraordinary-looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way. No sir; I can make no hand of it; I can’t describe him. And it’s not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment.” — 11 people liked it

“but that in case of Dr. Jekyll's "disappearance or unexplained absence for any period exceeding three calendar months," the said Edward Hyde should step into the said Henry Jekyll's shoes without further delay and free from any burthen or obligation beyond the payment of a few small sums to the members of the doctor's household” — 1 person liked it

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