by
3.65 of 5 stars
في منزل لانيون، حين عدت أنا نفسي، ربما ترك فيّ ذعر صاحبي القديم أثراً لا يستهان به: لست أدري؛ لكن ذعره لا يعدو قطرةً في بحر الاشمئزاز الذي أتلفّت ب... read full description

reviews

Aug 03, 2011
Stephen rated it: 4 of 5 stars
KUDOS, KUDOS and more KUDOS to you, Mr. Stevenson!! First, for bringing me more happy than a Slip N Slide on a scorching summer day by providing Warner Bros with the inspiration for one of my favorite cartoons, Hyde and Go Tweet:
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...I mean who didn't love giant, cat-eating Tweety Hyde.

Second, and more seriously, when I tardily returned to your classic gothic novella as an adult, you once again red-lined my joy meter with the strength and eloquence of your story craft. You More...
22 comments like (62 people liked it)
Nov 08, 2011
K.D. rated it: 4 of 5 stars
The duality of man. There are both good and evil in everyone. Two-faced Janus in Roman mythology. Like Erika Kohut who passes by a sex show house on her way home from music conservatory school where she teaches in the morning in Elfiede Jelinek’s novel The Piano Teacher. This 1886 novel, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson purports the belief that even in people who the society looks up to, there are some evil, thoughts or completely their other strange side, lurkin More...
6 comments like (18 people liked it)
Oct 18, 2011
Hannah rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Rating Clarification: 3.5 Stars

After my personal literary debacle that was Frankenstein: Or The Modern Prometheus, I approached this classic with trepidation. However, it seemed like a good time of the year to try another "mankind vs. monster" kind of read, so I took the plunge.

I'm glad I did, as I really enjoyed this story of a man divided against himself. Even though Robert Louis Stevenson told the story almost entirely through a third party, and there was a More...
2 comments like (7 people liked it)
Jan 18, 2008
Nathanial rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Here's the plot, you all know it: a man, by arcane means, becomes another man. Now, here's the argument of the book: suspense comes from not knowing what questions to ask, not merely ignorance of their answers. Stevenson makes this technical argument by means of POV placement, interior monologues, and placement in time. He doesn't start the book by showing you Dr. Jekyll as he concocts his transformative substance and then becomes Mr. Hyde, as I had assumed he would. Instead, he begins with More...
2 comments like (13 people liked it)
Nov 25, 2011
Craig rated it: 5 of 5 stars
A chilling tale which details the interplay between the forces of good and evil. A physician/scientist endeavors to segregate his personality through alchemy into a "dual-self" by isolating the good into one being and of evil into another. The consequences are tragic. At once, the narrative becomes an allegory for humankind, depicting the devilish results which occur when a human soul, through choice, gives innocent, or at least thoughtless license to darkness. Stevenson sequential More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Oct 25, 2010
Jeremy rated it: 5 of 5 stars
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4 comments like (6 people liked it)
Oct 31, 2011
Evan rated it: 3 of 5 stars
This is quite different from the film versions out there. The story is minimalist by comparison, but flavored pleasingly by Stevenson's Victorian prose. Unlike the films, the book has no initial pedantry of Jekyll railing to the philistines about the timidity of the conventional scientific establishment or the dual nature of good and evil in man (this latter concern is saved for the very end of the book); there is no virtuous love interest or meddling father-in-law or whore named Ivy to bring ou More...
22 comments like (6 people liked it)
Sep 09, 2011
Benjamin rated it: 3 of 5 stars
One of the problems with reading classic books for the first time is that, through film adaptations, parodies, tributes, or pure cultural saturation, you usually know 50-90% of the plot already. In essence, the book is spoiled for you before you even start. Stripped of suspense, shock value, and the simple propulsion of not knowing what happens next, the books are forced to stand on the quality of the story and the craft with which they were written.

As I've spent most of 2011 catchin More...
0 comments like (4 people liked it)
Dec 30, 2008
Daniel rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a creative sci-fi. It was a bit short and perhaps better if it was a bit longer, but I enjoyed it a lot.

The part that interested me the most was the part where Dr. Jekyll kept turning into Mr. Hyde without any control. The bad part of him is stronger than the good part of him, I guess. Maybe Jekyll had emotional problems that were too big a burden. Or, maybe being Hyde was like smoking cigerettes; unhealthy but addicting. Eventually it got the best of More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Jan 03, 2011
Mariel rated it: 2 of 5 stars
Why didn't Jekyll just find some immoral man's man to live vicariously through?
1 comment like (3 people liked it)
Aug 28, 2011
Jared rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Okay, first, one of the problems with reading this book in this day and age is that this book is mainly a mystery that hinges on the fact that you, the reader, don't know that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are the same person. Well, of course, in 2011 we all know the basics of the story. Reading this book is almost a pointless errand because the big final reveal, the solution to the whole mystery, is in the final chapter where Stevenson finally tells you that Dr. Jekyll created a potion that turns h More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Dec 07, 2009
Faith-Anne rated it: 3 of 5 stars
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0 comments like (5 people liked it)
Aug 28, 2011
Leonardo rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Esta novela gráfica es una adaptación bastante competente de la novela de Stevenson. Aunque un especialista en la obra de Stevenson encontraría muchas divergencias respecto de la trama, esta adaptación es mucho más fiel al original que muchas de las adaptaciones que se han hecho en Hollywood. El estilo gráfico de Bowen es sumamente pulcro y tiene un sabor decididamente europeo, en sus trazos, sus colores y la distribución de los paneles. En ese sentido, es un comic bastante tradicional, pero sum More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Nov 08, 2011
Aldrin rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Halfway through the first chapter of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a character named Richard Enfield says, “I took the liberty of pointing out to my gentleman that the whole business looked apocryphal, and that a man does not, in real life, walk into a cellar door at four in the morning and come out with another man’s check for close upon a hundred pounds.” He conveys this to his lawyer cousin, Mr. Gabriel Utterson, as he recounts the odd sto More...
3 comments like (2 people liked it)
Jan 03, 2011
Jeff rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Another classic that I have never read. I was surprised at how short this book is. Not really a "novel," more like a long short story. The beauty of this story is that we get the events from the perspective of a lawyer (Mr. Utterson), even though it's in third person. Then, at the end, we get the whole story from the perspective of Dr. Jekyll, himself. Oddly, all of the representations that I have ever seen of this story (even the Bugs Bunny parody) really don't quite do it justic More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Oct 22, 2008
Kevin rated it: 4 of 5 stars
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0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Aug 07, 2008
Van rated it: 2 of 5 stars
“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is really a story about one person and one persona, Dr. Henry Jekyll and his bad faith. Stevenson's great insight in this story has nothing to do with a picture of a divided psychology at all, but the moral seduction of such a picture. Further, I would assert that unless we reject the account that Jekyll gives, Stevenson's story is apt to appear incoherent and has a major plot hole.

Hyde really functions as a mask for Jekyll, a “ring of Gy More...
1 comment like (4 people liked it)
Sep 24, 2008
Tara rated it: 2 of 5 stars
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2 comments like (3 people liked it)
Nov 09, 2010
David added it
This can be read as a sort of allegory, with time itself the universal drug that can make a person change utterly. Those of us with an inbuilt resistance to it are left high and dry, desperately wanting to talk to our old friend Dr Jekyll but faced only with the grim and merciless reality of Mr Hyde. The drug is a thief that robs us of our loved ones as surely as death does.
1 comment like (2 people liked it)
Jan 03, 2011
Anca added it
Inca un suport pentru ideea de personalitate dubla si conflict intre doua firi contradictorii. Si inca o batalie in care nu castiga niciuna din ele.(nu cred ca e corect sa zic "inca" din punct de vedere cronologic al cartilor ca obiecte..) Mi se pare fascinant la personajele dedublate frica de a-si recunoaste adevarata fata(partea rea a ei) lor insile si de-a si-o exprima in afara. Un fel de frica a omului de rand sa-si recunoasca unele vise ca facand parte din subconstient, din esenta More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Dec 16, 2009
Whitelady3 rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Although it's a very tiny book, it took me a long time to read it. The rhythm is somewhat slow, it doesn't have that many situations, spinning mostly around the question "who is Mr Hyde and how does he have so much power over Dr Jekyll?" This is revealed on the last chapters, the most interesting part of all and which leads us to question the dual nature of Man. The last chapter is really magnificent, showing both natures fighting each other: one part wanting to satiate all his appetit More...
1 comment like (1 person liked it)
Feb 15, 2009
Matt rated it: 5 of 5 stars
A well-written creeper! Also a brilliant critique of the human condition and the scientific quest to perfect it. Henry Jekyll is tempted to lead a double life. He concocts a potion and the hideous Hyde comes out, but instead of leaving Jekyll alone he begins to take over.
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Aug 25, 2010
Marjorie rated it: 5 of 5 stars
The only good thing about never having read this classic is savoring the joy now. From its chilling story line to its urban London setting; from its breadth of volcabulary to its incisive reflections upon human nature; from its poignant glimpse into the bounds of friendship and intoxicating power of evil, this book stands alone, in my opinion, as the height of pleasure in learning. My only negative: it is too short. Enjoy this classic if you have not, reread it if you have!
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Sep 25, 2008
Miik rated it: 4 of 5 stars
It's amazaing to me that this tale came to be such an iconic horror archetype after finally reading it.

It suffers from the idea that any actual horror needs to be at least two or three steps removed from the actual story, i.e. only hearing of criminal behavior third hand from the narrator who heard it second hand from another acquaintance. And even then just talking about the occurances in an offhand and indirect way, giving away no details.

All in all it was an excelle More...
1 comment like (2 people liked it)
Apr 27, 2009
Bea rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I listened to the audio version from Livrivox on CraftLit. I enjoyed it.
1 comment like (1 person liked it)
Nov 29, 2011
Reham rated it: 5 of 5 stars
كانت اول قصة اقراها من سلسلة الادب العالمي للناشئين التي اصدرتها

مكتبة الاسرة ...تاكدت في حينها وانا اقرؤه اني اعشق الخيال العلمي لقدر كبير

قصة جميلة جداا

بس اعتقد ان اغلب الادب الانجليزي اصبح قاصرا قراءئته على المرحلة مابين 13 عاما الى 18 عشر لان اكبر من ذلك سيتسخف الروايات هذه كثيرااا More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Aug 09, 2011
Lindsey added it
I actually read the new Signet Classic, the one with the Intorductory essay by Nabokov, which I recommend the first ten pages and last 2 paragraphs of. I also really enjoyed the Afterward by Dan Chaon. It didn't really occur to me the connection between Jekyll/Hyde and Jack the Ripper.

As for the story, I am much more impressed by it than any adaptation I've seen. The fact that Dr. Jekyll loses control of his transformations, and thus turns to Mr. Hyde not at will in the end, I think is key. More...
Aug 06, 2011
David added it
This book was different to what I expected. I didn’t expect that the reader’s discovery of the horrors of the Dr’s experimentation to take the point of view of one of the Dr’s friends. This made the story interesting, though knowing the outcome made it rather dull. Since it is the journey that is important rather than the destination, I would say that the author manages to be wonderfully descriptive and uses a distinctly different language to that of the Dr and his friends. I imagine it is diffi More...
Apr 02, 2009
Jason rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I’ve been meaning to read this book for a long time. I tried to read it when I was young, probably 9 or 10 years old, and I remember my older brother Matt telling me about a vicious beating in it, but never got very far.
Stephen King talks about the story in his nonfiction book Danse Macabre (rating 3.1), so I decided to read it. I began it yesterday, April 1st, and quit with five or six pages to go because I was too tired to go on. I finished it today in a matter of minutes.
Everyone More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Dec 28, 2008
Edward rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This book was very interesting. I think the copy I have at home is the original one.

So far, out of all the classics I have read, this is the most interesting.

Robert Louis Stevenson, the author, as you probably know, was awakened by his wife, who heard him screaming during his sleep. He said, "Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale."

The story starts out with Mr. Utterson, Jekyll's lawyer, taking a walk with his cousin, Mr. Enfield. Then More...