Customer Reviews

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Strange Case of (Dalmatian Press Adapted Classic)

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I have seen many movie versions of this classic. So, I made the assumption that I knew the true story. Then I read this book. Was my assumption ever wrong!!!

This particular book (published by Signet Classics in Sept. 2003) of less than 150 pages has five parts:

(1) Opening Pages. They include a brief biography of Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 to 1894). (Takes up 4% of the book.)

(2) Introductory Essay. This was written by the late, famous Russian author Vladimir Nabokov. (Takes up 20%.)

(3) The Actual Story. Its original title is "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886). (Takes up 65%.)

(4) Afterword to the Story. It is written by a modern writer. (Takes up 8%.)

(5) Selected Bibliography. Outlines great works by and about R.L. Stevenson. (Takes up 3%.)

The introductory essay was an actual lecture Nabokov gave when he was associate professor at Cornell University from 1948 to 1959. It gives a thorough, detailed analysis of this "seldom read" classic.

The afterword consists of a shorter analysis of this classic by the modern writer Dan Chaon. I felt that this afterword provided valuable insight regarding the story of Jekyll and Hyde.

Chaon sums up the entire story: "The structure of ['Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'] follows a path as indirect and elusive as its multiple narrative voices. With its obliquely recorded incidents, its eyewitness accounts and sealed confessions, it resembles...a [police detective's] casebook--a collection of gathered clues, fragments, through which the clever detective may be able to...project a complete narrative. Perhaps one of the most compelling aspects of this novel [of ten chapters] is that, in fact, there's so much left here for [the reader] to fill in, so many scenes that [the reader] can only imagine. Such a structure creates fertile ground for allegory [a story with symbolic meaning] hunters, and there are indeed many convincing interpretations of this novel...The puzzle-like structure of the novel [which only has eight major male characters] creates a kind of Rorechach test, open to various interpretations." (A Rorechach test is where a person interprets inkblot designs.)

The inspiration of this short novel is said to have come from a dream (or, perhaps more accurately, a nightmare) Stevenson had. His actual writing is amazing and skillful in all chapters. The writing especially of the last two chapters, chapters nine and ten, stood out for me. Here, for example, is his actual description of what happened when somebody observed someone using Dr. Jekyll's concoction: "He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp. A cry followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth; as I looked there came, I thought, a change--he seemed to swell--his face became suddenly black and the features seemed to melt and alter--and the next moment, I had sprung to my feet and leaped back against the wall, my arm raised to shield me...[and] my mind submerged in terror."

Finally, the cover of this particular book is interesting. It shows the shadow of a man in a top hat behind a window shade. This can be taken to represent Hyde who is a shadowy character.

In conclusion, this particular book has it all: an introduction by a late, well-known author, an intriguing mystery/horror story by a late, famous nineteenth century author, and an afterword by a gifted, modern writer. Be sure to read this book to learn the true story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!!!

+++++

We all know the term "Jekyl & Hyde" but I suspect many, like me, have never actually read the story. It was a surprising pleasure and I was able to try out the dictionary function on my Kindle several times (words no longer used in modern day writing).

Published in 1886, THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE was an instant sensation and had a tremendous impact on later generations; it would not be an exaggeration to say that there have been hundreds of stage and film productions drawn either directly or indirectly from the original Robert Louis Stevenson story. Readers who come to the story from these adaptations, however, will very likely be surprised: few of them do more than borrow Stevenson's central concept.

Unlike the numerous stage and film adaptations, Dr. Jekyll is not a young or remarkably handsome man, nor the book does not contain any of the romantic subplots to which its adaptations are prone. At approximately one hundred pages, the story is very direct and extremely well suited to Stevenson's very precise style, which is very clean yet extremely evocative and very readable.

That said, modern readers are unlikely to be shocked by the book. For one thing, the story is too well known; for another, it contains very little of the graphic horror typical of current horror stories. But more than anything else, DR. JEKYLL is very distinctly a novel that draws from the Victorian era, and much of its impact was due to that society's remarkable hypocrisy; it was a world in which appearances were everything and a double life "acceptable" as long as you were not caught at it.

The same concept arises in two other novels from the same era, Bram Stoker's DRACULA and Oscar Wilde's THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, albeit in distinctly different forms. But whereas the Stoker and Wilde novels transcend their era, Stevenson's tale does not, and with the passing of Victorian attitudes the work has lost a great deal of its power to shock. Even so, Stevenson does touch a nerve with his chemically-induced transformation; then as now, drug abuse was a scourge, and in addition to this the work is somewhat similar to Mary Shelly's FRANKENSTEIN in the sense that it anticipates a host of ethical concerns that have become more and more pressing with the passage of time.

Although it has not held up as well as the other titles named, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE is nonetheless unavoidable for any one who has an interest in gothic or horror literature because it had--and continues to have--such a tremendous influence on later works. Stevenson's prose is elegant, it is "an easy read," and I think most contemporary readers will enjoy it if they make the effort to see it within the context of its era.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Stevenson created Utterson to narrate the story. But large sections of it are composed of Lanyon's letter to Utterson and Henry Jekyll's diary. The advantage of this is that it allows Stevenson to prolong the readers' suspense. In a way, Utterson, Enfield, and, for a time, Lanyon, are in the same position as the readers: observers trying to understand the mystery surrounding Henry Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Stevenson allies readers with Utterson and Enfield. Then, after we learn Lanyon knows Jekyll's secret, we, like Utterson, read his letter eagerly. Lanyon's narrative reveals the secret that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person. But, because Lanyon is also an observer, his narrative cannot tell us anything about Jekyll's motive. We need Jekyll's own account for that.

Thus, the narrative method Stevenson chooses prolongs our suspense. Gradually revealing information about Jekyll just heightens our desire to know the full story. By the time we get to Jekyll's story, we are at a fever pitch. I doubt Stevenson could have kept the pace of suspense had he used third-person point of view, and he certainly wouldn't have been able to do it using Jekyll as a first-person narrator. The drive of Utterson's limited point of view matches our own.

Stevenson's reliance on a limited first-person point of view also contributes to the story's theme. Perhaps Stevenson uses Utterson, Enfield, and our own ignorance of Jekyll's actions as a metaphor for human ignorance generally. In his narrative, Jekyll repeatedly refers to his life as the result of one choice among many choices he could have made. He creates Hyde to experience life and the other aspects of his personality denied by that choice. Jekyll argues that the choice he has made in selecting one life over another is discriminatory and limiting. It excludes other forms of knowledge and experience.

Maybe Stevenson hoped to gain reader sympathy for Dr. Jekyll by associating our ignorance and desire to understand the Jekyll/Hyde mystery with Jekyll's desire to know more of the life he sacrificed to play the role of a respected doctor.

Jekyll and Hyde is a chilling psychological thriller by Robert Louis Stevenson that immediatly pulls you in and keeps you intrigued. It's almost like a love story between a man's good side and his evil side. Jekyll is a mild mannered physician with a good heart and good intentions, whereas Hyde is an evil monster with a heart of stone and intentions of committing cruel, savage, animal like murders. Dr. Henry Jekyll first turned into Hyde when he consumed a drink he made himself in his laboratory, and changes back to Jekyll with another. It all seems to be working for him...until one day when he takes an overdose of his Hyde potion and can't change back to his normal form. This book taught me that there is an untamed animal hiding inside each and every one of us just waiting to break out, like when we get angry or just go crazy. This book was terrific, and I'm sure that I will read many other Robert Louis Stevenson books.

Undoubtedly a great story this was. Stevenson couldn't have done a better job in telling the story of these two individuals trapped in the body of one. The concept is of an awesome nature, and so is the story.

Now, many people that have never read this think it to be a horror tale. This is indeed true - some of this story is horror. But more than a horror tale, this is a psychological mystery. The way it begins, the way many of the mysteries unfold throughout the story have all the nature, the characteristics, the makings of a mystery. Thus, upon reading this book, you must pay careful attention to all that's going on. If you don't pay attention to a certain detail, you may get very mixed up and lost. It is easy to understand why many different versions have been written for kids.

The last part of the book is just wonderful. The book, though it may not be the funnest thing to read, is all worth reading for the ending. The ending is one that will stand high in literature.

The tale of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde has been quite familiar to me for as long as I can remember, but only now have I read the original short novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is unfortunate that familiarity has robbed modern readers of the suspense that almost certainly was engendered in Stevenson's contemporary audience. Nor can I attribute a strong hint of terror in these pages, partly because of the plot structure. This is not a straightforward story; we don't follow Dr. Jeckyll in his experimentation. Rather, we are introduced to Jeckyll and Hyde through Jeckyll's lawyer Mr. Utterson. Having drawn up Jeckyll's will to leave everything to Hyde should he disappear, he is most concerned for his client and friend upon learning that Mr. Hyde is a misshapen monster of a man responsible for trampling a young girl in the street. The first half of the book follows Utterson's attempts to discover this Mr. Hyde for himself. The final half of the book contains the story of Jeckyll and Hide, told first in the words of a mutual friend and doctor and ultimately in an account of events penned by the unfortunate Dr. Jeckyll.

It goes without saying that the heart of the story revolves around the duality of the human mind. Each of us has a dark side as well as a good side, and the majority of individuals attempt to disguise any bad, uncontrollable aspects of their natures from the public. Dr. Jeckyll had a predilection for thoughts and acts which he and society frowned upon (although what these acts were is never revealed); as he neared middle age, his life became defined by a continuous inner struggle to keep on the straight and narrow path. He often failed, so he came up with the idea of totally separating his evil nature from his good one. Through the use of chemistry, he developed a solution that, when ingested, transformed him into a different persona in both body and mind, one which had free reign to indulge anonymously in those worldly delights Dr. Jeckyll secretly lusted after. He thought that his original persona would then be freed of the guilt of his desires, while his Mr. Hyde persona could satiate himself in performing guilty actions without any moral restraint. As is only natural, the dark side grew stronger as time passed, and the person of Dr. Jeckyll found himself in more of a quandary than he ever dreamed of before giving birth to Mr. Hyde.

Inner conflict between the good and bad in ourselves is something every reader can easily understand, and it is this psychological aspect of Stevenson's famous short novel that accounts for the tale's continuing popularity. It is a quick and absorbing read, but the method of the tale's presentation is a slight weakness in my opinion. We can only watch the human drama from a third person perspective, and I would like to have gotten more deeply inside the mind of Jeckyll and Hyde. Still, this is a classic of literature that will retain its place in popular culture for untold years to come. As for the afterword by Jerome Charyn in the Bantam edition of the book, I must say I could have done without it. It does provide some interesting background on Stevenson, but its psychological assumptions and surmises struck me as overdramatic and groundless. The story of Jeckyll and Hyde stands strongly on its own merits and does not need to be accompanied by psychobabble.

Henry Jekyll is a renowned scientist and a respected man. But lately, his behavior has become strange, reclusive and mysterious. So his friend Utterson tries to find out what he's up to. In the meantime, terrible and strange things are happening by night in the streets of London. As the tale unfolds, we discover Jekyll's dangerous games with his own psyche. He discovers a drug that reveals his evil side, without any moral restraint, and gradually loses control of the drug. The narrative technique of Stevenson in this short masterpiece is simply perfect; its philosophical stand is frightening; its moral implications are relevant; and the construction of the story superb.

The onion-layer style serves very well its mission to reveal every event in a semi-slow but tense pace. The environment is insuperable: the dark, wet and gas-lighted streets of London, where Mr. Hyde's steps resonate frighteningly. The ending is horrifying and very well written and, overall, this is a gem of a book. It should be best read in loneliness, in the dark. It is much more than a simple horror novel, because it says something very real and very terrible: without moral restraints, our deeper self can be unbearably evil. It's true.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894) was a remarkable author from the Victorian Era. He has left us at least two masterpieces: "The Treasure Island" (1883) and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886) and some other good novels such as "The Black Arrow" (1888).

It is amazing how writers and poets are able, thru intuition, to anticipate events or discoveries. When this book was first published, Sigmund Freud was studying with Charcot and not so many years later will produce his theoretic corpus of the human psyche. At some points the present story touches Freud's conceptualizations.

Dr. Jekyll suspect evil burdens every human soul, being an obstacle in its way to goodness. So he investigates and produces a drug that "liberates" the evil spirit and doing so he intend to be relived of it.

But Evil starts to grow each time more powerful and Mr. Hyde end cornering Dr. Jekyll into impotence and fear.

This story has captivated the public's imagination for more than a hundred years. Movies, comics and theater pieces had evolved from it. His tortured dual character is now a well known icon as Stoker's Dracula or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Even if you know more or less the story and its ending, reading this very short book is a powerful adventure.

A Classic you shouldn't let pass by unheeded!

Reviewed by Max Yofre.

Evil lurks inside the man, chomping at the bit for its first chance to escape, but his conscience keeps him from carrying out his cruel and undignified desires. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the reader is presented with an enthralling vision of a failed experiment in which a man attempts to separate his pure, angelic qualities and his dark, wicked inward wishes into two individual beings. A variable is horribly miscalculated, and instead of ending up with two embodiments, he only ends up with his evil side, which comes to be known as Edward Hyde, and his own self, a compound of a wholesome conscience and a hidden-away, satanic instinct which is part of all human beings. Definitely a book that can be viewed in a depressing, "can't-ignore-the-truth" type of light, this novel may set some readers in a direction that has them recognizing other parts of their own personality.
The story is set in London, England, in a 19th-century time period. I choose to view it as an example of a sci-fi horror novel. It's quite different from other chillers because of its lack of a murderer or a dangerous villain per se that everyone's hiding from. Oh, sure, Edward Hyde commits acts of horrific atrocity, but if you look beyond the hard, cold facts, you realize that these criminal acts are not the true object of the plot. The actual villain in this book is meant to be portrayed as the volatile human soul. The novel shows how dangerous some evil desires of even the kindest, most generous people can be. Take for instance Henry Jekyll, the main character of this book. He's as compassionate and gentle a person as you'll ever meet, but through Edward Hyde, he commits unforgivable acts that you would never have thought of Jekyll. It's a twisted version of the relationship between Superman and Clark Kent, his alter ego. In the form of Superman, Kent goes around the planet saving people and taking criminals to jail. In the form of Edward Hyde, Jekyll goes around trampling children and beating kindly old gentleman with canes for no apparent reason, then makes up for the crimes by taking money out of Henry Jekyll's bank account.
The characters in this book are quite a diverse crew. Instead of the predictable situation with the mad scientist, the damsel in distress, and the dashing hero, this novel features a troubled, kind scientist, his worried friends the lawyer (Mr. Utterson) and the butler (Poole), and an old acquaintance of the doctor's (Hastie Lanyon) that had a quarrel with Jekyll over some sort of scientific matter, creating a certain thickness between them. Finally, you have the scientist's alter ego, Edward Hyde, a hideous, small young man. Utterson is a lean, serious man that never smiles. "I incline to Cain's heresy; I let my brother go to the devil in his own way," says Utterson drearily. This is taken to mean that he only wants to worry about his own business, and nobody else's. Poole is not described in great lengths in this book; he is a friendly, elderly servant of Dr. Jekyll's. Later in the book, Lanyon is implored by Jekyll, trapped in the form of Hyde, possibly for life, to get him the necessary drugs to temporarily change back. Lanyon meets a sad death.
This book is excellently written, although its length is quite miniscule (70 pages). Robert Louis Stevenson integrates a sense of mystery into the plot, and although most educated persons know the basic story, you will still find yourself bristling with anticipation. Rarely does that suspense turn into boredom, as it does quite frequently in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula and many older works of horror. The reader is easily able to tell the difference between the voice tones of different characters, e.g. when Henry Jekyll tells his tragic story at the end. His sophisticated language is effortlessly distinguished from that of others who may have entries. Stevenson's dark and detailed descriptions of cold, deserted streets may give you chills as you are sucked into his vivid yet sinister worlds.
If I hadn't been forced to read this book by a certain time, I still might have picked it up off the shelf and read it eventually. That's achieving a point of loftiness with me, because I tend to be quite impatient with my books, wanting instant gratification of my needs for action and plot twists. It's very difficult to compare this book to works of other genres. Many other novels don't implement suspense because it's not needed. This book, however, is based on suspense. It's easy to hold the audience's attention here because of the shortness, but that doesn't mean that Stevenson did a cheesy job with the elements of the story. Much is packed into this dwarf of a book, and anybody who needs (or wants, for that matter) suspense in their life should pick it up