The strange case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
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Being like most people in the modern world, i had several preconceptions about the tale of Jekyl and Hyde before even picking up the book. I have seen umpteen televisual interpretations and seen everyone who displays even the slightest piece of out of the ordinary behavior be described as having a "jekyll and hyde" personality by the media. I wasnt quite prepared for what i found inside this little gem though.
The story itself is just seventy pages and all too easy to read in one sitting. The language can be a little challenging on a tired brain at times, but the feel you get from the way the words have been constructed is nothing short of genius. A dark tale about the reclusive and retiring Doctor Jekyll and the devestatingly wicked Mr Hyde is strung together by the narrative of Jekyll's lawyer friend Utterson, it is of course a true gothic story of good and evil competing for space inside one mans conciousness, but also a reflection on how abuse of a substance can lead to losing a grip on who we really are, how hard it can be to accept what we have and the perils of striving for some forbidden pleasures.
An amazing read for those who love victorian fiction, horror, thrillers, mysteries or just life changing books.
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Stevenson's Dark Places!
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'You must suffer me to go my own dark way. I have brought on myself a punishment and a danger that I can't name.' (Dr Jekyll)
Stevenson's remarkable novel explores the 'other' face of Victorian respectability, the underbelly of a society 'profoundly committed to the duplicity of life.'
The setting of novel lends itself to horror. We are in London, a filthy degraded place, full of labyrinthine streets. We are blinded by fog, searching for a 'creature' who evades detection at every turn. We wander the streets with 'gentlemen' who have a pronounced predilection for night walks and alley ways and speak in 'masculine' codes. Their nightly Insomnia suggests sexual restlessness and with no women in sight, and lots of male friendships, this fin-de-siecle text rather suggests the unlawfulness of homosexual desire.
Then we abruptly encounter the inhuman figure of 'Mr Hyde' as he stamps maliciously on a helpless child. This transgression of any residue of civilised behaviour catapults the novel into horror where it lingers for the rest of the narrative. We spend time gazing at a 'blistered and distained door' through which the unspeakable Hyde makes his way and we metaphorically lose our respectable ways!
Ironically for a novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson, 'Tusitala', 'a teller of tales' the tale refuses to be told. This is because the narrative is initially dependent upon the voice of the unprepossessing Utterson, ironically a man who fails to utter anything in terms of personal disclosure or revelation. This secrecy is then reinforced by other restrictive narrative viewpoints, thus confining the 'secret' of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to conjecture - the strait jacket of Victorian repression. (And yes, there is a joke in there!)
For who is the final teller of this macabre tale? The last voice we hear in the novel is that of Dr Jekyll, yet we know he died as the infamous Mr Hyde, and that we are only privy to this knowledge through the 'eyes' of Utterson who never comments about it .He just disappears into respectable silence. Each time I read the novel I am always aware of the missing voice in the text and feel rather bewildered at the lack of any stable conclusion to the novel. We are just left with the voice of the very much resurrected and undead Jekyll/Hyde voice who finishes his own novel after all!
Read it at night and lock your door!
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Read it even if you think you know the story.
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The first time I sat my Junior Honours year at Aberdeen uni I signed up for a class on Scottish Lit. Among a few other titles this was one of the two that really blew me away. Stevenson wrote the piece in a few nights, the pace is cracking. It charts the fracturing of Henry Jekyll a talented and awkward young doctor. Upon creating a medical powder an ingredient is off and when testing the drug it transforms him into a distorted, twisted version of the man he once was.
Thematically exploring the repression of homosexuality and the dangers of drug use, the most interesting part of the story is its reaction to Darwin's (at the time mind-bending) theories of evolution and the symbolism Stevenson uses to make this point.
The book is modernist but easily appreciated by the reader, it's very short and despite Jekyll's transformations, pretty straight forward. Despite being set in London, my teacher pointed out the books Scottishness and that the London in the book has many similarities with Edinburgh.
The main reason I feel people should read this book is simply that everyone knows the story; it's so ingrained in pop culture. Yet the book itself is so horrifying and atmospheric that it is completely new to read.
The text in this version is clear and a good size. Definatly give it a go, it's rewarding read.
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Classic
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This novel is a classic! Robert Louis Stevenson (of Treasure Island fame) had a dream/nightmare, awoke and immediately wrote down the tale; this novel.
It is only around 85 pages long which is very short, this however is a brilliant thing because most novels are way to long, this can be read again and again in no time!
The story is set in a sinister/magical Victorian London and as most people are aware; it is a tale of dual personality. The good Doctor Henry Jekyll creates a serum to turn himself back and forth into the evil Edward Hyde, after a little time however he cannot get rid of Hyde!
If you love literature, real honest to goodness classic British literature and gothic horror set in the magical world of Victorian, foggy London, then read this!
Classic.
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Brilliant horror story - brilliant edition
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Before reading this edition, I had only ever encountered this classic stroy through versions on film. Years ago I saw the version with Michael Caine, and because of this I brought a lot of preconceptions to my reading of the novel. Having read this edition now, I am glad that I bought one with such a good introduction to the tale. The introduction opened my eyes to aspects of the novel that otherwise I would have missed.
The novel is very different to the story I remember from the film version. In the film a lot more attention is given to Jekyll. The novel however concentrates on the lawyer, Mr Utterson, who is a friend of Jekyll and fears that the evil Mr hyde is somehow blackmailing his friend. As the introduction explains, Mr Utterson feared that Mr Hyde may have been blackmailing Jekyll because of homosexual acts that they were involved in (something which apparently occurred at the time of the writing of the novel). Of course the truth is far worse than this assumption.
I think anyone is aware of the basic stroyline - that Jekyll makes up a potion which turns him into Hyde; a person who is amoral and evil, and who committs terrible acts. In a sense, it is quite a simple idea. But the meanings can be taken much further. For example, consider the idea that every single human being is essentially 'made up' of two such people - one who is capable of good, the other only capable of bad. Also, something which I could not help but think about while reading, is why would a good person want to unleash such a person into the world? So, following on from this, how 'good' was Jekyll in the first place? This is perhaps one downfall of the novel; the reason for him carrying out his experiment is not discussed in great lengths, so questions remain as to why he did such a thing to begin with.This book will always be a classic. All around us we see good and bad being done by ourselves and others. And although it may not go towards explaining why such things occur, the story continues to conjure up philosophical questions which remain as relevant now as they were when first written.
If you have never read this novel, please do so. It is very different to how you may know this classic of horror.
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