I’ve had the book for a while but finally got around to reading it, while waiting for Notes from Underground(Dostoevsky) to arrive. When I first got the book through Amazon I was surprised how short it was, I was only aware of the common expression of Jekyll/Hyde and I watched the characters in the movie the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen where they’re pretty much just the Hulk, a character the book probably inspired. The short length is definitely a good choice because the main point or the most important message is delivered in the last chapter(Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case), and everything before it is just to set that up. I feel the author Robert Louis Stevenson really poured his experiences in that last chapter, and it was heavy stuff that culminates in a terrific way to end a book down to the last sentence. It’s a classic for a reason and highly recommended.
I discovered that a friend had never heard of the story before, was entirely unfamiliar, and had no meaningful recollection of references to it in pop culture.
What a rare opportunity!
Had to find a printing that doesn’t half-spoil it in the blurb, but it was so worth it to get an authentic reaction from someone for whom it was actually a ‘twist’ ending.
Like a juggernaut trampling a child at each intersection and moving on. (Or something to that effect.)
Actually, it’s much better than my poor recollection:
“The figure in these two phases haunted the lawyer all night; and if at any time he dozed over, it was but to see it glide more stealthily through sleeping houses, or move the more swiftly and still the more swiftly, even to dizziness, through wider labyrinths of lamplighted city, and at every street corner crush a child and leave her screaming.”
I’ve read the book for a class in high school. I remember liking it a lot and couldn’t put it down! I should probably give it a re-read
An interesting piece of trivia is that the book that we have is Stevenson’s second attempt at the novel. After he wrote the first version, based on a dream, his wife burnt it after judging it to be “utter nonsense.” He then had to rewrite it from scratch.
Have 2 copies and don’t regret it lol. It’s Very good read and definitely is a classic for a reason! I didn’t realize his wife burned the first copy .Crazy how she thought it was mostly utter nonsense lol.
I had always heard that he burned it himself in a fit of temper after he realized his wife’s criticism of some aspect of it was valid.
That was what I thought, too. But there’s a letter written by his wife where she says that she is going to burn it, so that seems to be the accepted version. Either way, it’s a great story.
He has some amazing short stories: Bottle Imp, Suicide Club, Body Snatchers are my faves. His novel Kidnapped is great fun too.
If you haven’t seen the 1931 film of Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde starring Frederic March, it is really worth checking out. March won the Oscar for it, one of the few to go to a horror film, and for damn good reason— it was pre-Code too, so they did not hold back on his treatment of women etc.
I also read it for the first time this year and really enjoyed it! Did you know that there is a book called “The strange case of the Alchemist’s daughter”, which is about Mary Jekyll, Dr Jekyll’s daughter? I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my TBR list.
That series is amazing! Completely recommend.
Yeah despite knowing the story (just from popular fiction etc) this book was awesome.
He has some other short stories that are a bit spooky too, Thrawn Janet springs to mind (but it is dated in its racial stereotypes if I remember)
A legendary book that went a long way in the coining of one of the finest ever jargonised phrases.