The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
Glorious and original
Book cover blurb
With this edition being a multi-story collection it bares no cover blurb. So please beg my indulgence while I offer you the cover blurb found in the Barnes and Noble Classics edition from 2004.
Idealistic young scientist Henry Jekyll struggles to unlock the secrets of the soul. Testing chemicals in his lab, he drinks a mixture he hopes will isolate - and eliminate - human evil. Instead, it unleashes the dark forces within him, transforming him into the hideous and murderous Mr. Hyde.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde dramatically brings to life a science-fiction case study of the nature of good and evil and the duality that can exist within one person. Resonant with psychological perception and ethical insight, the work has literary roots in Dostoevsky's "The Double" and Crime and Punishment. Today Stevenson's novella is recognized as an incisive study of Victorian morality and sexual repression, as well as a great thriller.
My Review
I've currently only read the title story in this compilation, since that was my main reason for buying it. I plan on picking off the other stories between other books I read throughout the year.
First off, the star rating aspect of reviews. How can anyone really rate a classic, such as this, without being influenced by the years of its prevalence in our history and by virtue of it being labelled a classic, I honestly don't think you can. So, letting alone the quality of writing, narrative construction, pacing and the myriad other elements that go into writing a quality novel, or in this case novella, my rating is based simply on overall reading enjoyment. To which end I think four stars is accurate. It possibly would have made it to five stars if not for the last twenty pages, Jekyll's own accounting of his experiments and their results, which was a large block of narration that seemed to offer little relief for the reader and bogged me down a little.
The story itself was not what I was expecting at all. Which is actually very gratifying to discover, and the reason I want to read more classic stories like this, to experience the real stories as they were originally written. We grow up privy to so many bastardised versions of classic stories, in movies, TV and written adaptations that all we tend to get is the exaggerated essence and not the actuality.
The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde was not the monstrously violent escapade I'd presumed it would be, instead, it was more an externally observed case of loss and tragedy. The majority of the goings-on are observed from without not within, until the last section that is. I think it probably held much more atmosphere because of this than if the story had been written solely from Jekyll's point of view, as I’d anticipated it would be.
The writing itself won me over completely, I found it an absolute joy, and was more than happy to meander through the rich prose. I think it's both a tragedy and a blessing that books today aren't written with this kind of language structure, because it's a joy to read this kind of thing as a rarity, but if all books were written in this manner it would simply be an incredible chore.
I am a fan of, for want of a better phrase, 'flowery writing'. Writing that is happy to wander off into colourful and detailed explanations and descriptions, character moods and mindset, atmosphere building and sensory elements. So I very much look forward to dipping into this book and more of the works of Stevenson in the future.
My copy of this novel
Barnes & Noble Flexibound edition.
Published in 2016
82 pages (Title story alone)
ISBN 9781435163096