Familiar tale exploring the underside or suppressed energies amidst upright Victorian London. The prose is sometimes dense and wordy (some passages need a reread), but the excitement and the ominous tone still get through. That atmosphere has plenty of Gothic stylings, with wild and dramatic language used to carry the story: “…there was borne in upon his mind a crushing anticipation of calamity”, “.. the thin trees were lashing themselves along the railing.” That dramatic storytelling has a more striking effect than the core theme itself: the duality of mankind. It’s a clever conceit, but there’s not that much reflection on the part of the various narrators to make convincing the appeal of the “lower” pleasures that Hyde pursues. Surprisingly short. ( )

‘I can’t describe him. And it’s not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment.’ (p.10)

Robert Mighall, editor of this edition of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, writes that the statement of Dr Jekyll (last chapter of the book) is the best known part of the story written by Robert Louis Stevenson. Mighall advises to read the book completely: “They would find there something different from what they imagined: a more complex, rewarding and disturbing story than the version that has been handed down in popular culture form.’ (p.ix)

As Mighall writes in the introduction, following the path of Gothic novelist Stevenson changes the set of his stories: abandoned ruined castles and woods, Stevenson set the horror in the mind of individuals. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe is the past, the good and the evil are inside the mind.

‘I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both; … I had learned to dwell with pleasure, … on the thought of the separation of these elements. If each … could but be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the injust might go his way … and the just could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path.’ (p.56)
This edition contains a brief dissertation of Robert Mighall: Diagnosing Jekyll: the Scientific Context to Dr Jekyll’s Experiment and Mr Hyde’s Embodiment; although very useful, I prefer a different point of view ‘diagnosing’ Stevenson and his book.
Cesare Lombroso’ s idea about the connection between head’s shape and criminality (drawn from physiognomy): ugly means crime, handsome means honest person; is only an easy and popular connection. In my opinion, on the other hand, Stevenson writes about the dichotomy between good and evil. Good or just has always tried to keep a distance from evil or unjust, but Stevenson wants to find another solution: both just and unjust living in the same person. But morality liked, from biblical times, dichotomy; so Stevenson doesn’t solve the problem with Dr Jekyll: his friend ‘can’t describe him’ (p.10)

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was first published in 1885; the next year, 1886, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche wrote Beyond Good and Evil (Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future). Nietzsche ‘screaming’ his ‘Affirmative Philosophy’ or ‘Philosophy of Yes’ preludes how to build a bridge towards / beyond just and unjust.
Stevenson and Nietzsche: same times, same ideas, different solutions.
/////////////////////// ////////////////////////////////

OLALLA

Olalla was first published in 1887 and is set in Spain during a war. The narrator is an English soldier recovering from his wounds in an hospital. After a while the soldier takes residence with a local family. The family consists of a mother, a son, Felipe, and a daughter, Olalla; they are an old Spanish family living in a residencia.

‘It was a rich house, on which Time had breathed his tarnish and dust had scattered disillusion.’ (p. 112)

The soldier cuts his wrist and asks Olalla’s mother for help. Seeing the blood the woman starts screaming and bites the soldier’s arm.

In Olalla Stevenson retrieves from the Gothic genre the themes of old and decayed families, vampires, buildings resembling castles, and, of course, the atmosphere of angst. Although the soldier’s infatuation with Olalla takes most of the story and Stevenson keeps the Gothic themes in the background, Olalla suggests an idea of passage between the Gothic genre tout court and its themes transferred inside the individuals (for instance Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde).



( )

I finally read the other tales in here, including his chapter on dreams. Mighall's essay and introduction are both interesting. ( )

Well I'd read "Treasure Island" many times and loved Stevenson's essays about the Pleasures of travelling Slowly...and Travels with a Donkey. In fact, I was given an extract from travels with a Donkey in an English Exam and I was so impressed by the extract that I followed up, found and read the essay in entirety. Suffice to say, that I was already a fan of RLS but had never read the classic "Dr Jekell and Mr Hyde"....though as the Editor notes in his critical introduction ....the phrase "A Jekell and Hyde" has entered the language..though most people have never read the book. Certainly, I knew the outline of the story but one has to give great credit to RLS's pacing of the story and the suspense which is not released until the end of Dr Lanyon's narrative. RLS has a wonderful way with building characters and character descriptions and the same richness of description follows in the other stories in the book: "The body snatchers" and "Olalla"...and the same rising levels of suspense. There are similarities there with Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and the work of Henry James. I guess it was an era of "thrillers ....though, as pointed out in the introduction by Robert Mighall, the book was produced for the Christmas trade. Strange that at Christmas time people should be drawn to books on the supernatural and horror. But that seems to be the case.
It was a quick read. I easily finished the entire book in a day ...which is a welcome relief from some of the books I've been struggling through recently. Beautifully written and certainly "got me in". Happy to give it four stars. ( )

Digital audiobook performed by Scott Brick

Classic horror from a master of Victorian gothic fiction.

I appreciate the atmospheric nature of Stevenson’s writing. The reader can feel the dampness of a foggy London night, smell the freshly turned earth in the graveyard, hear the clip clop of a horse’s hooves on cobble-stoned streets, clearly see the horrific images of a mutilated body, and taste the bile that rises as a result of all the above.

The title story is an exploration of man’s baser instincts. Can a potion be created that will change a generous, kind, proper individual into a fiend? And once the gentleman has “tasted” the freedom from inhibition that results, can he go back? Will he want to? Of course, Dr Jekyll’s alter-ego changes physical appearance as well, further confounding those around him.

The other stories in the collection had similar psychological / ethical themes, though I didn’t like them all quite so much. The Bottle Imp explores greed and regret and selfless love. Stevenson shows that true events can be as frightening as fantasy in The Body Snatcher, which is based on the real practice of trafficking in bodies needed by medical students for dissection that happened in the 19th century. And the remote setting of The Merry Men make the ghost ships seem all the more real.

Scott Brick does a marvelous job of narrating the title story. But bear in mind that the audio version is limited to the Dr Jekyll short story. I had the text handy and read the remaining four short stories in that format. ( )

No lo negaré... esperaba algo mejor. ( )

I try to avoid horror as much as I can, and can count on a single hand the number of horror stories I have ever actually enjoyed. This is one of them, and probably the only one I read voluntarily. And I'm glad I did, and that Robert Louis Stevenson listened to his wife on this one. ( )

I try to avoid horror as much as I can, and can count on a single hand the number of horror stories I have ever actually enjoyed. This is one of them, and probably the only one I read voluntarily. And I'm glad I did, and that Robert Louis Stevenson listened to his wife on this one. ( )

I'm kind of on the fence with this one. It was both a bit boring and slow and yet better than other classics at the same time. I think having shorter stories helped and the language didn't drag on. The story of Jekyll and Hyde wasn't quite as exciting as I had hoped, but it was still a bit different than I expected. ( )

I've never read this before, even though it's inporssible not to know a lot about it. So while the story arc was not entirely unexpected, the detail was. I'd not reaslised quite how short this story is. It took the form of a series of narratives, some chapetrs were in the form of letters or testimonials while others were narrated by the person investigating this "case" a Laywer called Utterson. He is of his time and class and is at first intent of finding what hold Hyde holds over Jekyll. It has a variety of twists and turns that, vene knowing the outline of the story, still came as a surprise. There's a lot that's left to the imagination, with Hyde's acts left largely in the dark, there's only 2 specific instances that are described. Then there are other things that are left unsaid, what was Danvers doing in a dodgy area of town when he was accosted by Hyde in the first place? It's an intriguing piece of work, for sure.

The edition I read had an introduction which advised that as the introduciotn contained plot details, the reader who was new to the story should go and read the book first, so I did. There was also 2 more short stories, The Body Snatchers and Olalla, as well as an abridged essay form Stevenson on how he came to write Jekyll & Hyde and an essay exploring the possible origins and inputs to the story. All of which were very interesting. ( )

A duality of good and evil. A split personality that is torn between social acknowledgement and dark urges. When the dark side took control, it heralded the end of the human entity and the born of a mutant. ( )

I wish I could have read this without knowing in advance what I'm sure you know as well since it is about as secret as Clark Kent being Superman.

That said, the second half in which "all is revealed" is significantly less interesting than the first half which is suspenseful and spooky. I know endings are hard and thus forgive RLS but it still could have been shorter and less preachy and didactic. ( )

Read this for a course I took in college called "The Literature of Evil." ( )

Something film/comic versions of this had not prepared me for: Hyde is not a great big monster, he's a little guy, described as a troglodyte or throwback. Which I guess in the 1880s makes him a hairy Neanderthal, as there weren't many other models for human ancestors to pick from. ( )

I loved this book. It's shorter than I expected but it's up there with the likes of Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley as one of the best horror tales of all time. The character of Edward Hyde has been so perfectly constructed in this thriller, you'll have to remind yourself it's fiction. ( )

The three stories collected here deal with the nature of good and evil in man's soul. Stevenson's views are clearly influenced by his Christianity, and some of them seem implausible from a more modern, scientific standpoint, but there is still much of value to be gleaned from these stories.

"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is about an upstanding, respectable doctor who has a darker side which he guiltily hides from society, until through his experiments he severs in himself "those provinces of good and ill which divide and compound man's dual nature." This view of man's nature, as well as the natures of good and evil, is rather mystical, even Platonic, and not particularly insightful...but Stevenson has other things to say on those subjects which are. For instance, this story also explores the theme of how giving in to minor vices corrupts one's character, leading the way to greater evils and making it ever harder to remain on the path of righteousness.

---

"The Body Snatcher" is the least interesting story of the three, about corpses for dissection by medical students being provided by increasingly foul means. It deals with some similar themes to "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", such as that acts of evil that would seem impossible to one at first may be reached by gradual steps, and that once the first step is taken it becomes increasingly more difficult to turn back until the end result becomes inevitable.

---

In some ways the most interesting of the three stories, "Olalla" is about a young man who falls in love with a woman with a terrible secret in her family. In some passages, Stevenson seems to reject the dual nature he portrayed in "Jekyll and Hyde": "the soul and the body are one, and mostly so in love. What the body chooses, the soul loves; where the body clings, the soul cleaves; body for body, soul to soul, they come together at God's signal; and the lower part (if we can call aught low) is only the footstool and foundation of the highest."

By the end, however, he explicitly rejects this view in favor of the Christian doctrine of Original Sin: "behold the face of the Man of Sorrows. We are all such as He was---the inheritors of sin; we must all bear and expiate a past which was not ours; there is in all of us---ay, even in me---a sparkle of the divine. Like Him, we must endure for a little while, until morning returns bringing peace"---and speaks of "sad and noble truths; that pleasure is not an end, but an accident; that pain is the choice of the magnanimous; that it is best to suffer all things and do well."

I don't have much sympathy for this view of life, but Stevenson's artistic presentation of it is good and I enjoyed these stories. They are well-written and thought-provoking, and pack a lot of punch for their short lengths, which is more than you can say for a lot of fiction these days. So, not my favorites (not even my favorites by Stevenson---I prefer his adventure stories, such as Treasure Island and Kidnapped), but worth reading. Michael Kitchen's narration of this audio edition is outstanding. ( )

A Victorian novel, both of its time and ground breaking - a gothic tale set in a London contemporary to the author.
It touches on a range of taboo issues, from sexuality, to the link between class and morals and by extension eugenics.
The introduction and background essay by Mighall are insightful and give the modern reader a sense of the impact this book had at the time of writing.
I did find it slightly distasteful that the updstanding Dr Jekyll is perceived as the moral opposite of the base Hyde character - described as "pure evil". ( )

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: And Other Tales of Terror
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Penguin Classics (2003), Paperback, 224 pages

‘I can’t describe him. And it’s not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment.’ (p.10)

Robert Mighall, editor of this edition of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, writes that the statement of Dr Jekyll (last chapter of the book) is the best known part of the story written by Robert Louis Stevenson. Mighall advises to read the book completely: “They would find there something different from what they imagined: a more complex, rewarding and disturbing story than the version that has been handed down in popular culture form.’ (p.ix)

As Mighall writes in the introduction, following the path of Gothic novelist Stevenson changes the set of his stories: abandoned ruined castles and woods, Stevenson set the horror in the mind of individuals. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe is the past, the good and the evil are inside the mind.

‘I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both; … I had learned to dwell with pleasure, … on the thought of the separation of these elements. If each … could but be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the injust might go his way … and the just could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path.’ (p.56)
This edition contains a brief dissertation of Robert Mighall: Diagnosing Jekyll: the Scientific Context to Dr Jekyll’s Experiment and Mr Hyde’s Embodiment; although very useful, I prefer a different point of view ‘diagnosing’ Stevenson and his book.
Cesare Lombroso’ s idea about the connection between head’s shape and criminality (drawn from physiognomy): ugly means crime, handsome means honest person; is only an easy and popular connection. In my opinion, on the other hand, Stevenson writes about the dichotomy between good and evil. Good or just has always tried to keep a distance from evil or unjust, but Stevenson wants to find another solution: both just and unjust living in the same person. But morality liked, from biblical times, dichotomy; so Stevenson doesn’t solve the problem with Dr Jekyll: his friend ‘can’t describe him’ (p.10)

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was first published in 1885; the next year, 1886, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche wrote Beyond Good and Evil (Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future). Nietzsche ‘screaming’ his ‘Affirmative Philosophy’ or ‘Philosophy of Yes’ preludes how to build a bridge towards / beyond just and unjust.
Stevenson and Nietzsche: same times, same ideas, different solutions.

//////////////////////// /////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////

OLALLA

Olalla was first published in 1887 and is set in Spain during a war. The narrator is an English soldier recovering from his wounds in an hospital. After a while the soldier takes residence with a local family. The family consists of a mother, a son, Felipe, and a daughter, Olalla; they are an old Spanish family living in a residencia.

‘It was a rich house, on which Time had breathed his tarnish and dust had scattered disillusion.’ (p. 112)

The soldier cuts his wrist and asks Olalla’s mother for help. Seeing the blood the woman starts screaming and bites the soldier’s arm.

In Olalla Stevenson retrieves from the Gothic genre the themes of old and decayed families, vampires, buildings resembling castles, and, of course, the atmosphere of angst. Although the soldier’s infatuation with Olalla takes most of the story and Stevenson keeps the Gothic themes in the background, Olalla suggests an idea of passage between the Gothic genre tout court and its themes transferred inside the individuals (for instance Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). ( )

Like most people, I've been aware of Jekyll and Hyde most of my life, chiefly as a common descriptor for the contradictions and duality of human nature. I mean, even Eddie Murphy took up the theme in The Nutty Professor. Reading the classic short story filled in a lot of intriguing details left out of later reinterpretations. Stevenson evokes the fog-shrouded streets of London so convincingly I could almost hear the clip-clopping of horse's hooves on damp cobble-stoned streets. Not as frightening as it must have been to uninitiated 19th century readers, but still a deserving classic of the horror genre. ( )

This was a re-read, although the first time I read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was well over 20 years ago and is very fuzzy in my memory, so I thought it was going to count as a new read. But it's such a well known story, that it was more like revisiting an old friend. I had to keep on reminding myself that this was ground-breaking stuff at the time, because it's just so familiar (and obvious) now.

I won't bother summarising the plot, as we all know it all already, though most probably through the movies or other references. (Hopefully better movies than the recent "Van Helsing" or "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen".)

The most interesting parts of the story aren't the transformations (although they are the money shot for the many movie adaptations), but the battle between good and evil raging between Jekyll and Hyde, and Dr Jekyll's addiction to evil. I particularly liked how Dr Jekyll has all the appearance of good, but is really evil underneath even before Hyde is unleashed. How many other people out there have these trappings of civilisation as a mere thin veneer? (Which always makes me rather afraid for society, that the rules and structures we have in place can be so easily torn apart by evil, and if that many people are evil... *shudder* It just doesn't bear thinking about.)

And the physical difference between Jekyll & Hyde is startling, not least that Hyde is small and weak, not at all the giant monster modern movies have made him out to be. While there is a strong indication that evil is physically manifest in Hyde, this evil is not shown in Jekyll. Our first real description of Mr Hyde:

Mr Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice.

And yet it's not just an unpleasant physiognomy and attitude, but something that cannot be described (or even pinpointed) that makes Mr Hyde universally reviled. It's an interesting idea, that somehow the practice of evil makes you somehow appear evil.

And once Dr Jekyll starts unleashing Hyde, he finds it difficult to stop - psychologically in that he doesn't want to stop, and then physically as the transformations can no longer be controlled. And, maybe it's just my reading, but I felt that he never particularly wanted to stop, but was forced into it. I feel that he would have been quite happy had he been able to let Hyde loose for the occasional debauch.

This book also contained the short stories The Body Snatchers and Olalla. The first is a black spooky re-imagining of the famous Burke and O'Hare murders (they killed people to supply bodies to the anatomical schools in Edinburgh); the second is a vampiric tale set in Spain. The first tale was a good macabre piece of gothic fiction; the second was more dated and clunky, but the notes in this edition were excellent and gave me a good understanding of this style of gothic fiction (so it wasn't a dead loss).

If you haven't read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde before, why are you waiting? ( )

Another book I started for the Edinburgh trip, having never read it before. It's a wonderful tale & a great edition, with 'The Bodysnatcher', a retelling of Burke & Hare, & Olalla, a story about a Spanish vampire, & extract from 'Chapter on Dreaming'. The notes & accompanying essays are also very good. ( )

“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson is a wonderful and suspenseful mystery. It’s about a mysterious man who is suspected of murder, and two men try to find out who he is. There is a well known twist in the plot that makes this story what it is. What I really enjoyed was the lack of information the reader receives as the story progresses, adding to the suspense and mystery. By the time the reader figures it out, he still won’t be able to predict what might happen. People who like the Hardy Boys series and pulp fiction will certainly get pleasure from reading this light novel. GP

The introduction to this book has a great quote: "...Stevenson's story is more known about than actually known..." This was certainly true for me, and ever since enjoying The League of Extra-ordinary Gentlemen*, I had a desire to change that. I finally managed to snag a copy of the tale and read it. As you probably know, it's the tale of a Doctor Henry Jekyll, who concocts a potion that transforms him into Mr. Edward Hyde, an amoral man without restraint. Or perhaps you can say that the potion releases Hyde from the restraint that is Henry Jekyll. At this point I'm supposed to say that it's a classic tale of suppressed desire and social façades--a masterpiece for all times. Or something like that. The truth is, while I enjoyed reading the story, I wasn't overly impressed. Like most people, I imagine, I share Dr. Jekyll's struggle with the darker part of my soul. But it seems that the better solution is just to fess up and ask the good Lord for forgiveness rather than try to cover it up or seek ways to secretly indulge it. Of course, if Dr. Jekyll had done that, it would have made for an even shorter tale. Ah, well....
--J.
______
*A work that takes great liberties with the character, I discovered. ( )

"Jekyll and Hyde" is one of those stories that a lot of people think they know, but relatively few these days go back to the source material and read Stevenson's original story.

The story presents three views of events in the life of Dr. Henry Jekyll. We first meet the lawyer Mr. Utterson who, out walking one evening with his cousin Enfield, sees a violent assault on a young girl. Apprehending the attacker, Enfield and Utterson get him to draw a cheque and pay the family off (some might say this was very unlawyerly behaviour!!). Utterson is surprised to discover the cheque is in the name of his friend Henry Jekyll, whom he hasn't seen for some time and proves to be very elusive when he tries to pay him a visit.

Utterson is also the guardian of Jekyll's will, which in the event of his death or extended disappearance bequeathes everything to someone called Edward Hyde.

Utterson is also drawn to the mysterious, windowless building outside which the assault takes place, believing it has something to do with the attacker. However, his attention is then distracted by the return to society of Jekyll for a couple of months, only for him to suddenly disappear again just before the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. Increasingly concerned for the welfare of his friend, Utterson breaks into Jekyll's laboratory and makes a startling discovery.

We also hear from Lanyon, a medical colleague of Jekyll's with whom he has had a falling on a matter of medical experimentation and ethics. Finally, we get Jekyll's own version of events, and everything falls into place.

As an idea, the story would have been seemed original when it was published in 1886, whilst also tapping into common fears about the nature of good and evil. As a piece of writing, it suffers from Victorian verboseness which dissipates some of the tension the modern reader might otherwise feel, as does the familiarity of the basic premise. This renders the story little more than an interesting curio to the modern eye, rather than singling it out as a great piece of literature. ( )

I enjoyed this classic horror story. Of course, the premise is very familiar - upstanding citizen Doctor Henry Jekyll has found a way to isolate the "evil" side of his personality by use of a potion, which lets him become the dastardly "Mr. Hyde." What happens, though, when this evil side starts to take control?

It's an interesting tale, well worth reading. ( )