The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and MR Hyde: And Other Tales of Terror

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.

I believe that this book deals alot more with chemical (alcohol)addiction and the seemingly alternate personalities one can create as a result of pounding the brews, shouting the needle, etc. I've read that Stevenson entered a kind of trance and wrote the original while locked in a room for four days. His wife read the manuscript and made him burn it because of it's wickedness. He then wrote the entire story again. I would've loved to have seen the orig. because as far as horror is concerned, I've never read 'Jekyll's' equal.

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.

This macabre tale--inspired by a dream--starts slowly but with an ever increasing sense of mystery, culminates in a vortex of horror worthy of Poe. What evil could be more impossible to resist or to conquer than Man's inherent flaw of dualtiy? RLS describes it as the innate struggle bewteen angelic and demonic forces which lurk in every soul. Beneath the veneer of Cilivization the two extremes wage eternal war in one breast. Mr. Utterson, a conscientious laywer in Victorian London and longtime friend of both Henry Jekyll and Dr. Lanyon, confides his misgivings about the former's will to his cousin, Mr. Enfield. During the course of the chilling novella, each of the gentlemen contributes to our knowledge of this morbidly fascinating central character, who gradually loses control of his reason or his will. What has caused the respectable Dr. Jekyll to condone such bizarre behavior from his guest/protege/parasitecalled Mr. Hyde? Why does he endure the odious presence of a younger, shorter, vicious person--even to entrusting him with the key to his residence? This Edward Hyde emotes something bestial and unrestrained, which inspires instant fear or disgust in normal men. Quick to flair up in unprovoked anger and shocking brutality, this Hyde creature is proving a menace to society. Naturally the concerned lawyer becomes increasingly alarmed at this unexplained hold over Henry Jekyll, but can a few learned gentlemen protect him from himself or his rash devotion to a human monster? By uniting forces, can they preserve both his property, his reputation and ultimately, his life? When an elderly MP is murdered on the street, even Jekyll seems to realize that things have gone too far, but can the now drug-dependent physician control his urge to throw off the shackles of Society? Is he himself a victim...of the arrogance of medical and scientific knowledge or of attempting to play the god of creation with unknown powers? Hollywood has offered us various excellent, chllling versions, but the Classical Faithful will want to consult the original--which is more subtle and therefore more horrible than simply presenting the tale from the viewpoint of the protagonist. The last chapter consists of Jekyll's gripping confession: how a once learned and noble man realized the only way to destroy his diabolical alter-ego...Can he yet be saved by his loyal friends? Or must he face his destiny completely alone? Beware the beast that lurks within!

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.