Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde : an Introduction

[Marie]

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The world’s most famous work of horror fiction: a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity

Mary Shelley's timeless gothic novel presents the epic battle between man and monster at its greatest literary pitch. In trying to create life, the young student Victor Frankenstein unleashes forces beyond his control, setting into motion a long and tragic chain of events that brings Victor to the very brink of madness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein. How he tries to destroy his creation, as it destroys everything Victor loves, is a powerful story of love, friendship, scientific hubris, and horror.

...an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises profound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos

*from the penguin classics edition

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Everyone has a dark side. Dr Jekyll has discovered the ultimate drug. A chemical that can turn him into something else. Suddenly, he can unleash his deepest cruelties in the guise of the sinister Hyde. Transforming himself at will, he roams the streets of fog-bound London as his monstrous alter-ego. It seems he is master of his fate. It seems he is in complete control. But soon he will discover that his double life comes at a hideous price ...

The young Robert Louis Stevenson suffered from repeated nightmares of living a double life, in which by day he worked as a respectable doctor and by night he roamed the back alleys of old-town Edinburgh. In three days of furious writing, he produced a story about his dream existence. His wife found it too gruesome, so he promptly burned the manuscript. In another three days, he wrote it again. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was published as a "shilling shocker" in 1886, and became an instant classic. In the first six months, 40,000 copies were sold. Queen Victoria read it. Sermons and editorials were written about it. When Stevenson and his family visited America a year later, they were mobbed by reporters at the dock in New York City. Compulsively readable from its opening pages, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is still one of the best tales ever written about the divided self.

*from the penguin classics edition

Reading Schedule for the month of April

Week of April 1 : Letter 1 - Chapter 3

Week of April 8 : Chapters 4 - 10

Week of April 15 : Chapters 11 - 17

Week of April 22 : Chapters 18 - 24

Week of April 29 : The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

[QNPoohBear]

My professor for Romantic era Lit was a noted Mary Shelley scholar. I don't have my class notes but I do have her book The Mary Shelley Reader and my copy of Frankenstein. I tried to erase my pencil underlining but the cheap paper didn't take too kindly to that so I may have my notes in the margins too. I remember a lot of emphasis on using the term creature and not monster.

I've also heard that Mary Shelley was trying to work through her issues of her mother dying in childbirth, being the child of such an infamous mother and the death of her own child. (I'm sure her husband's lack of interest in his children also had something to do with it).

I remember reading Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde in school too many years ago. I finally got to see the musical I was dying to see and it was very graphic and I didn't remember the novella being such a horror story. An ex-American Idol singer played the lead role. Rock n' roll singers don't make good Broadway stars unless they're singing rock songs. This musical features some rock and some more traditional Broadway style songs.

< ahref="http://www.victorianweb.org/previctor... Web has a Mary Shelley bio and a Robert Lewis Stevenson page