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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Norton Critical Editions)

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Since I am a contributor to this volume, I will not offer a "review" in a conventional sense, but I will offer a list of contents, which this website otherwise does not offer. As there are a number of competing paperback editions of Stevenson's novella and the text of the story is essentially the same (allowing for minor editorial variants), readers should consider the issue of what else besides the main text they will be getting for their money, and this edition is unusually rich in supplementary features, so that the original story makes up only 55 of its 222 pages.

In addition to the text of Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," with explanatory notes by the editor, this volume also contains:

A preface by the editor, a "textual appendix" about textual variants in the manuscripts, a map of 19th century London marking places mentioned in the story, a timeline of the major events in the life of author Robert Louis Stevenson, and a bibliography. Plus...

An excerpt from a biography about Stevenson by Graham Balfour about the circumstances of the story's authorship...

A brief excerpt from Stevenson's "A Chapter on Dreams," which discusses the influence of his dreams on the story...

12 letters by Stevenson that discuss aspects of the "Dr. Jekyll" story...

10 contemporary reviews and comments about "Dr. Jekyll" that show how the story was originally received...

Another horror-oriented short story by Stevenson entitled "Markheim"...

A brief non-fiction piece by Stevenson, "How I Came to be such a student of our Penny Press," together with some examples of 19th century book advertising...

Three essays about the literary context of "Dr. Jekyll": Karl Miller, "The Modern Double": Jenni Calder, "Stevenson's Scottish Devil Tales"; and Judith Halberstam, "An Introduction to Gothic Monstrosity"...

Four essays about the scientific context of Stevenson's story: Stephen Jay Gould, "Post-Darwinist Theories of the Ape Within"; Frederic W. H. Myers, "Multiple Personality"; Norman Kerr, "Abject Slaves to the Narcotic"; John Addington Symonds, "This Aberrant Inclination in Myself"...

Two essays about the socio-historical context of Stevenson's story: Judith R. Walkowitz, "London in the 1880s"; and Walter Houghton, "Hypocrisy"...

Three essays and a filmography about theatrical and film adaptations of "Dr. Jekyll": C. Alex Pinkston, Jr., "The Stage Premiere of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"; Charles King, "Themes and Variations" (about film); Scott Allen Nollen, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Paramount, 1931)"; and Katherine Linehan, "A Checklist of Major Performance Adaptations"...

And five additional critical essays: G. K. Chesterton, "The Real Stab of the Story"; Vladimir Nabokov, "The Phenomenon of Style"; Peter K. Garrett, "Instabilities of Meaning, Morality, and Narration"; Patrick Brantlinger, "An Unconscious Allegory about the Masses and Mass Literacy"; and Katherine Linehan, "Sex, Secrecy and Self-Alienation in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde".

For sheer range of commentary, I do not think that you could point to a comparable volume.

This is another first-rate critical edition from Norton. The text is cleanly printed with careful and accurate annotations. Both the critical and the backgrounds and contexts essays are well chosen. Sections on performance adaptations on stage and screen and on literary, scientific and sociohistorical contexts are particularly useful.One of the best critical essays is the editor's own. A detailed Stevenson chronology and an accurate selected bibliography conclude the volume.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Steven­son is a novella writ­ten by the Scot­tish born author. The 1886 work is con­sid­ered a clas­sic of British literature.

Pros­e­cu­tor Gabriel John Utter­son has taken cer­tain inter­est in Mr. Edward Hyde even since he tram­pled a lit­tle girl. The crowd gath­ered forced Mr. Hyde to make ret­ri­bu­tion, how­ever the check he gave the girl was signed by Dr. Henry Jekyll.

Mr. Utter­son also dis­cov­ers that Mr. Hyde is the sole ben­e­fi­ciary of all of Dr. Jekyll's wealth. Utter­son tries to dis­cuss the mat­ter of Mr. Hyde with the good doc­tor which, as one might guess, doesn't yield any results.

A year later a mem­ber of the British Par­lia­ment is mur­dered and the maid iden­ti­fies Mr. Hyde. Utter­son con­fronts Dr. Jekyll who shows the lawyer a let­ter in which Mr. Hyde states that he is will dis­ap­pear forever.

Some­time later, sus­pect­ing foul play Utter­son breaks into Dr. Jekyll's house where they dis­cover Mr. Hyde who has just com­mit­ted sui­cide by drink­ing poi­son. Through let­ters Utter­son pieces together Dr. Jekyll's dou­ble life.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Steven­son is a well known novella which deals with split per­son­al­ity.

I found it inter­est­ing that the book has only two set­tings, let­ters and lab­o­ra­tory. Not the clean, ster­ile lab­o­ra­tory we imag­ine, but a dis­gust­ing, dirty and bloody one which implores the reader to feel the Gothic hor­ror which the author wishes to con­vey. In this envi­ron­ment is where Mis­ter Hyde is cre­ated, a trou­bled fig­ure, mean and unabated.

Mis­ter Hyde is what Dr. Jekyll wants to be but sup­presses within him­self. Hyde yearns for vio­lence and sex­u­al­ity, he is full of strength, uncar­ing and out of con­trol - or is he actu­ally in full con­trol?
Mr. Hyde cel­e­brates the nature of men unhin­dered by social norms, rules or laws while Dr. Jekyll self cen­sors him­self as a proper gen­tle­man should in Vic­to­rian England.

As time goes on, this novella could be read in sev­eral ways. There is the most known one, that of split per­son­al­ity, but also could be a patho­log­i­cal angle of inves­ti­gat­ing the nature of men­tal ill­ness. In these days, where sci­ence, tech­nol­ogy and med­i­cine is much more advanced, the story could also be read as a warn­ing on the extreme use of mind alter­ing chem­i­cals, drugs or alco­hol and the self destruc­tive prop­er­ties of such actions.

But Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde could also be read as a phi­los­o­phy book which deals with the knowl­edge that we are all on death's door. Death, in this case, is rep­re­sented as a man of flesh and blood. A psy­cho­an­a­lyst could also, some­what jus­ti­fi­ably, could read the story as the psy­chotic and nar­cis­sist fan­tasy of Dr. Jekyll.

I found the book's sub­ject dis­turb­ing, not because of the mur­der or Goth involved, but more on a psy­cho­log­i­cal level. The pos­si­bil­ity of every indi­vid­ual lead­ing a dou­ble life is a scary thought, espe­cially when it comes to loved ones. How often, when a grotesque mur­der occurs, we hear the almost laugh­able lines "he was such a nice guy" or "she was a won­der­ful mother"?

Another side of the story, and I say that as a fan of Mr. Stevenson's work since an early age, I can cer­tainly see a pat­tern of com­men­tary on Vic­to­rian Eng­land where, as is today, a person's wealth and social stand­ing relieves them of any moral oblig­a­tions towards their fel­low men or women.

This is a really nice edition of this book. The indexes in the back provide a lot of insight into the author and the times.

Here this book goes deep in the realm of psychology and Science fiction. Very short. But not for the short attention span. You mustn't get lost in the extremely intense personification and imagery for this will make the book monotonous.

I am a new but HUGE fan or R.L. Stevenson but this is not his best work of his stories I would suggest getting a complete tales of R.L. Stevenson collection because this would include his best work in my opinion the suicide club and rajah's diamond.

Enjoy but I suggest getting a different print of this story one that includes his greatest short stories.

Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde was a very good book filled of suspence. For example when the laywer goes to talk to Dr.Jekyll the Doctor gives him an a letter he got from Mr.Hyde but was not thinking and burned the envolope but did say there was no return adress. After the lawyer left the room and asked the door man if there has been any letters droped off and he said no. Then he asked if anyone personly droped off a letter and the door man said no.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
By: Robert Louis Stevenson
Reviewed by: E. ...
Period:6

This book is about a man that has somehow brought out an evil side of him. He is a scientist and he makes a concoction that has brought out the evil part. At first the man is able to be somewhat aware of what the other person does, but it gets worse and he looses control. He has few conscious moments and often wakes up not knowing what has happened. His friend learns about the evil side, but has no idea that both of the men are the same. As the friend learns more, he becomes closer and closer to the horrible truth. Then the evil side kills a man and he hides by becoming the good man and hiding in his house. The friend thinks the evil man has killed the good one, but he soon finds out something is very strange about the whole situation. Then the friend receives a letter from the man and he gets the supplies asked in the letter. A man meets the friend and makes a concoction. Then he drinks it and all of a sudden the man turns into his friend that seems to have been revived from the evil side. The whole story is a mystery as the friend finds more clues.

The thing I liked was how the story was set up and how the whole thing was a mystery so that it kept you interested in finding out the answer. It got confusing at times and I had to re-read parts to find out the clues and truly understand it. "pale and shaken, and half fainting, and groping before him with his hands, like a man restored from death-there stood Henry Jekyll! " The good man had only a little power left and he needed the concoction to make himself regular again. The person that his friend saw was a mixture of evil and good with the good barely holding out. After that, the friend was told everything and he listened in shock. This part didn't come until near the end so that it was a twist in the story that is unexpected.

The book may have been good for its story line, but parts of the story got to be repetitive and it got to the point where it was boring and it was hard to keep going. The end really disappointed me, because the story was pretty decent and then the end came and it was bad. The end was supposed to be a letter written from the last words of the good man that was losing his power to stay in control. The letter was at least twenty pages and was filled with confusing sentences and the same information being repeated over and over. It got tiring and boring very quickly, so that I struggled to keep reading. I finally made it through and the end of the letter said that the good man was saying he was going to end his miserable life. "Here, then, as I lay down the pen, and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end. That ending would have been good if it wasn't after the most boring part in the book.

My favorite part of the book was when the friend and the butler of the good man break into the study to get the materials wanted by the man. It was my favorite part because lots of clues start to come out and it's the point right before finding out the truth of the evil and good man. My least favorite part is the end when the same information is repeated and the words are so confusing that it is very boring. Overall the book has a good way of keeping the reader suspenseful, but it also does the opposite with the repeated parts and the story may seem a little over stretched.

This is one of the hardest and boring books in life! It deals with strict men of Science, for instance, Dr. Hastie Lanyon. This book, like the Invisible Man, is a novel that has WAY too many details and should be strictly enforced not to be read. Who wants to read a book about science-fiction and not to mention the cuss words on every page? Who likes minor details around every corner. But, I must admit, there are fabulous descriptions of the characters and them themselves are quite interesting! But, this book is not good.