Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Weir of Hermiston (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

Robert Louis Stevenson (Author), Emma Letley (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 9, 1998

This volume includes Stevenson's famous spine-chilling thriller Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as Weir of Hermiston, a brilliant autobiographical portrayal of a father-son relationship.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Louis Stevenson is a well-known Scottish writer who wrote books, poetry and travel books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (July 9, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192834312
• ISBN-13: 978-0192834317
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #316,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Leaves the 'great' Victorians flailing., January 25, 2001

By 

darragh o'donoghue - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Weir of Hermiston (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

The first half of this novella can be counted among the most remarkable writing I have ever read. its sense of unstated terror and crisp, nightmarish atmosphere; its portentous introduction and proliferation of the double theme; its destabilising of its own narrative, where the violence of the language and the force of the metaphors makes the abstract material, and the material abstract; its evocation of London as a menacing organism, a miasma-wheezing labyrinth, with an economy that defeated Dickens, with streets and buildings embodying human flaws; its characterisation of a grim, barren, self-destructive men's world - all this take the novel away from the generic sensationalism or pseudo-scientific philosophy of the horror genre towards the metaphysical anxieties of Chesterton and Borges.

The rest is more familiar, made complex by innovative structure, ambiguous narration and a startling use of imagery. this is not a simple tale of man's good and evil side; in its admission of an ungraspable, shifting, multifarious existence, shown here in character, place and language, where metamorphosis is the only rule, we can see why Nabokov considers Stevenson a master. And yet the book also works as a lean, compelling thriller, even if, like everyone, you already know the twist. Emma Letley's introduction and notes are over a decade old, and need updating.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Weir of Hermiston, November 7, 2008

By 

Josef K (NYC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Weir of Hermiston (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

I bought this book because I wanted to read WEIR OF HERMISTON, which is hard to find these days.

WEIR OF HERMISTON is a sort of gothic romance novel, it is the book that Stevenson was working on when he died, and is considered by some to be one of "the great unfinished novels." I did enjoy reading it, but the story was just getting good when Stevenson finally succumbed to his lifelong health problems and died. WEIR OF HERMISTON is reminiscent of Thomas Hardy's work, and it is a pity that Stevenson never got to finish it.

Is it great literature? I wouldn't say so, but rough drafts rarely are. I recommend against reading Stevenson's friends descriptions of the ending he had planned. Such testaments are inevitably trite, spoiling, and cannot be trusted anyway. Authors often change their minds about plot points, endings -- pretty much everything.

I give the book five stars, because of course DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE is a brilliant literary work, and because I'm a Robert Louis Stevenson fan.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two faced man, April 5, 2003

By 

Mac (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Weir of Hermiston (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

This is a great book for all sorts of people, It is great how Robert Louis Stevenson describes Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It is great on how the author uses both sides as a twisted sence of human. Mr Hyde a high hung man, Wants to cause havok every where he goes, Brutal murders etc, Dr Jekyll, Kind of a mad sientist, Wants to create a cure for the mentally ill. This is a great book, I would recommend this to anyone.