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Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Signet Classics) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Vladimir Nabokov (Introduction), Dan Chaon (Afterword) "MR. UTTERSON the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward..." (more)
Key Phrases: laboratory door, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry Jekyll, Edward Hyde (more...)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (235 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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.

This University of Nebraska Press edition is a small, exquisitely produced paperback. The book design, based on the original first edition of 1886, includes wide margins, decorative capitals on the title page and first page of each chapter, and a clean, readable font that is 19th-century in style. Joyce Carol Oates contributes a foreword in which she calls Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a "mythopoetic figure" like Frankenstein, Dracula, and Alice in Wonderland, and compares Stevenson's creation to doubled selves in the works of Plato, Poe, Wilde, and Dickens.

This edition also features 12 full-page wood engravings by renowned illustrator Barry Moser. Moser is a skillful reader and interpreter as well as artist, and his afterword to the book, in which he explains the process by which he chose a self-portrait motif for the suite of engravings, is fascinating. For the image of Edward Hyde, he writes, "I went so far as to have my dentist fit me out with a carefully sculpted prosthetic of evil-looking teeth. But in the final moments I had to abandon the idea as being inappropriate. It was more important to stay in keeping with the text and, like Stevenson, not show Hyde's face." (Also recommended: the edition of Frankenstein illustrated by Barry Moser) --Fiona Webster --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.



From Booklist

The Whole Story series, which features unabridged texts, annotations, and many colorful pictures, appeals to young people who are urged to read the classics, but reject the small print and dull look of many editions intended for older readers. This edition of Stevenson's classic tale gives the flavor of late Victorian England through its lively ink-and-watercolor illustrations and plentiful reproductions of period photos, sketches, engravings, and paintings. Marginal notes comment on Stevenson and on aspects of the story and of Victorian culture that might be obscure to modern readers. Given the colorful look of the book and the perennial appeal of the story, this version will be a useful addition to many libraries. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Robert Louis Stevenson
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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MR. UTTERSON the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable. Read the first page
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laboratory door
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Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry Jekyll, Edward Hyde, Cavendish Square, Sir Danvers
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Customer Reviews

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3.9 out of 5 stars (235 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Do You Know the True Story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde??, July 6, 2004
+++++

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!!!

+++++
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat Faded With Time But Still Incredibly Influential, July 13, 2006
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
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Narrative Technique, May 3, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Broadview Literary Texts) (Paperback)
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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless
This is a great classic. This story brings to life the battle each one of us has within ourselves. Dr. Jekyll calls it his "dualtiy of purpose". Read more
Published 9 days ago by BookAddict

5.0 out of 5 stars You Think You Know
Most readers may be surprised at just how coy and evasive this short novel is. We get only fleeting images of the villain and his transgressions. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kevin L. Nenstiel

5.0 out of 5 stars Need Tea Reviews
Alright, so I've never read this book before (terrible I know). My Secret Santa bought me this book, along with a bunch of others, as my present and I finally had time to read it... Read more
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1.0 out of 5 stars this edition blows
This cheap Tor edition features a useless introduction by Charles Grant and an even more useless afterword by same. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Caraculiambro

5.0 out of 5 stars the best book
This book was fantastic with all of the suspense and all of the love. It was completely fabulous. And to think that all these years after Robert Louis Stevenson died that this... Read more
Published 3 months ago

3.0 out of 5 stars It's a classic, even though you probably know the story...
Most people already know the general plot, so I will skip a plot summary, If you're in school and this is manditory reading, I would say "that's fine, have fun with it" Otherwise... Read more
Published 6 months ago by M. panah

4.0 out of 5 stars A famous classic that has been a victim of its own success
I am currently engaged in a long-term and pretty in depth project that involves me reading all of the major fictional works on robots, Cyborgs, and other artificially created... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Robert Moore

4.0 out of 5 stars A famous classic that has been a victim of its own success
I am currently engaged in a long-term and pretty in depth project that involves me reading all of the major fictional works on robots, Cyborgs, and other artificially created... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Robert Moore

4.0 out of 5 stars A true classic and very different from the films
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; the words conjure up all sorts of images in my mind, mostly from the theatrical and cinematic depictions I've seen at different times in my life. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Hilarie

5.0 out of 5 stars Creepy, chilling
'Jekyll and Hyde' is a commonly used phrase, but the story behind it is quite the chilling work. "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Aj B

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