Product Description

'Instantly the spirit of hell awoke in me and raged...I was suddenly struck through the heart by a cold thrill of terror.' Stevenson's short novel, published in 1886, became an instant classic. It was a Gothic horror that originated in a feverish nightmare, whose hallucinatory setting in the murky back streets of London gripped a nation mesmerized by crime and violence. The respectable doctor's mysterious relationship with his disreputable associate is finally revealed in one of the most original and thrilling endings in English literature. In addition to Jekyll and Hyde, this edition also includes a number of short stories and essays written by Stevenson in the 1880s, minor masterpieces of fiction and comment: 'The Body Snatcher', 'Markheim', and 'Olalla' feature grave-robbing, a sinister double, and degeneracy, while 'A Chapter on Dreams' and 'A Gossip on Romance' discuss artistic creation and the 'romance' form. Appendixes provide extracts from contemporary writings on personality disorder, which set Stevenson's tale in its full historical context.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29738 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
The best edition of Stevenson's supernatural fiction so far. The texts are very well edited, the notes are significant and unobtrusive for the average reader, and the appendices provide the perfect complementation for Stevenson's narratives of the uncanny. Roger Luckhurst's introduction is fascinating. A must. (Dr. Antonio Ballesteros-González, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha )

Customer Reviews

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
This book is a great insight or informant of the society that it was written in. The twist and turns of the story keep the reader's attention, but the attention to detail and links to the issues that concerned the late 1800's in my opinion, are the most interesting parts of the book. The style of writing is intricate and full. In my opinion the book is a great example of late 19th century writing and showed well how the society at the time was fascinated with mental illness, the consumption of substances and medical progress.

Fun, although everyone is spoiled for the twist these days.
I recently watched bits and pieces of a program on TV entitled "Great Scots," which quite obviously took a look at the famous Scots throughout history and modern times and how they contributed to society. I realized that I hadn't read all that many Scottish authors, and considering I'll now be living in Scotland for the rest of my life, I settled down to reading some good Scottish literature.

I've read Treasure Island, but that was back when I was 13, so it'd been quite some time. Most people know the premise of the story. Robert Louis Stevenson evidently came up with the idea for this story in an opium-induced haze. A London lawyer notices that his friend Henry Jekyll has been acting very odd lately and decides to investigate him and the bizarre Edward Hyde. He eventually realizes that they are the one and the same due to a potion that Jekyll drinks and splits himself into a fundamentally "good" person and a fundamentally "bad" person. It is an extended allegory on the dual nature of man, and it is a theme that has been revisited over and over again in literature. The saying of someone being a bit of a "Jekyll and Hyde" is still regularly used today.

The writing flowed well and my attention was kept throughout the novella. It was a good, short, read. Is it my favourite classic novel of all time? No, but all the same I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. This edition had clear print and I liked the cover (for some reason this book has a lot of awful covers).

A disappointing read
Having recently read Dracula (another classic horror), I was somewhat disappointed by this book.

It started out ok, but as I read on I found that I didn't particularly like the way the story was told - somewhat backwards. I did however like the fact that it was told from different viewpoints - I think that is the only way to tell the story effectively.

The story was short. This meant that, aside from the main character, there was little room for character development. This was disappointing as it meant that I had trouble connecting with the story.

I felt that because of the way the story was told (with the revelation at the beginning), I was carrying on with the book simply because I had started it and didn't want to leave it unfinished. The story didn't really go anywhere and left me feeling a little bored.

I did enjoy 2 of the 3 short stories in the book, and these almost made up for the disappointment of the main story... almost...