Product Description

Dr. Jekyll's dual nature is revealed when he becomes the evil Mr. Hyde by night. Includes biographical data about the author.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #523310 in Books
• Published on: 1982-04-01
• Released on: 1982-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 112 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780553212778
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
The young Robert Louis Stevenson suffered from repeated nightmares of living a double life, in which by day he worked as a respectable doctor and by night he roamed the back alleys of old-town Edinburgh. In three days of furious writing, he produced a story about his dream existence. His wife found it too gruesome, so he promptly burned the manuscript. In another three days, he wrote it again. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was published as a "shilling shocker" in 1886, and became an instant classic. In the first six months, 40,000 copies were sold. Queen Victoria read it. Sermons and editorials were written about it. When Stevenson and his family visited America a year later, they were mobbed by reporters at the dock in New York City. Compulsively readable from its opening pages, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is still one of the best tales ever written about the divided self.

This University of Nebraska Press edition is a small, exquisitely produced paperback. The book design, based on the original first edition of 1886, includes wide margins, decorative capitals on the title page and first page of each chapter, and a clean, readable font that is 19th-century in style. Joyce Carol Oates contributes a foreword in which she calls Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a "mythopoetic figure" like Frankenstein, Dracula, and Alice in Wonderland, and compares Stevenson's creation to doubled selves in the works of Plato, Poe, Wilde, and Dickens.

This edition also features 12 full-page wood engravings by renowned illustrator Barry Moser. Moser is a skillful reader and interpreter as well as artist, and his afterword to the book, in which he explains the process by which he chose a self-portrait motif for the suite of engravings, is fascinating. For the image of Edward Hyde, he writes, "I went so far as to have my dentist fit me out with a carefully sculpted prosthetic of evil-looking teeth. But in the final moments I had to abandon the idea as being inappropriate. It was more important to stay in keeping with the text and, like Stevenson, not show Hyde's face." (Also recommended: the edition of Frankenstein illustrated by Barry Moser) --Fiona Webster

From Booklist
The Whole Story series, which features unabridged texts, annotations, and many colorful pictures, appeals to young people who are urged to read the classics, but reject the small print and dull look of many editions intended for older readers. This edition of Stevenson's classic tale gives the flavor of late Victorian England through its lively ink-and-watercolor illustrations and plentiful reproductions of period photos, sketches, engravings, and paintings. Marginal notes comment on Stevenson and on aspects of the story and of Victorian culture that might be obscure to modern readers. Given the colorful look of the book and the perennial appeal of the story, this version will be a useful addition to many libraries. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Two comic-book veterans condense Stevenson's well-known psychological thriller into 40 pages in this slim graphic-novel adaptation. Following closely to the original, Grant's adaptation portrays the enigmatic Dr. Jekyll, as pursued by the lawyer Mr. Utterson. When Utterson hears rumors of a ruthless maniac named Mr. Hyde, he begins an investigation into Hyde's background. As he deepens his search, he makes the startling discovery that Jekyll and Hyde are actually the same person. Grant's reworking should serve as an adequate introduction for younger readers interested in Stevenson's work. Kennedy's illustrations, while brightly colored, are somewhat flat, with a consistently straight-on point-of-view; the overuse of this angle becomes tiring. As far as graphic-novel adaptations go, this one is rather pedestrian: There are no real standout features, though no glaring detractions. And not much popular appeal, either, unless classics adapted in this form are actively being sought. (Graphic fiction. 10 & up) (Kirkus Reviews)

Customer Reviews

Do You Know the True Story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde??
+++++

I have seen many movie versions of this classic. So, I made the assumption that I knew the true story. Then I read this book. Was my assumption ever wrong!!!

This particular book (published by Signet Classics in Sept. 2003) of less than 150 pages has five parts:

(1) Opening Pages. They include a brief biography of Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 to 1894). (Takes up 4% of the book.)
(2) Introductory Essay. This was written by the late, famous Russian author Vladimir Nabokov. (Takes up 20%.)
(3) The Actual Story. Its original title is "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886). (Takes up 65%.)
(4) Afterword to the Story. It is written by a modern writer. (Takes up 8%.)
(5) Selected Bibliography. Outlines great works by and about R.L. Stevenson. (Takes up 3%.)

The introductory essay was an actual lecture Nabokov gave when he was associate professor at Cornell University from 1948 to 1959. It gives a thorough, detailed analysis of this "seldom read" classic.

The afterword consists of a shorter analysis of this classic by the modern writer Dan Chaon. I felt that this afterword provided valuable insight regarding the story of Jekyll and Hyde.

Chaon sums up the entire story: "The structure of ['Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'] follows a path as indirect and elusive as its multiple narrative voices. With its obliquely recorded incidents, its eyewitness accounts and sealed confessions, it resembles...a [police detective's] casebook--a collection of gathered clues, fragments, through which the clever detective may be able to...project a complete narrative. Perhaps one of the most compelling aspects of this novel [of ten chapters] is that, in fact, there's so much left here for [the reader] to fill in, so many scenes that [the reader] can only imagine. Such a structure creates fertile ground for allegory [a story with symbolic meaning] hunters, and there are indeed many convincing interpretations of this novel...The puzzle-like structure of the novel [which only has eight major male characters] creates a kind of Rorechach test, open to various interpretations." (A Rorechach test is where a person interprets inkblot designs.)

The inspiration of this short novel is said to have come from a dream (or, perhaps more accurately, a nightmare) Stevenson had. His actual writing is amazing and skillful in all chapters. The writing especially of the last two chapters, chapters nine and ten, stood out for me. Here, for example, is his actual description of what happened when somebody observed someone using Dr. Jekyll's concoction: "He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp. A cry followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth; as I looked there came, I thought, a change--he seemed to swell--his face became suddenly black and the features seemed to melt and alter--and the next moment, I had sprung to my feet and leaped back against the wall, my arm raised to shield me...[and] my mind submerged in terror."

Finally, the cover of this particular book is interesting. It shows the shadow of a man in a top hat behind a window shade. This can be taken to represent Hyde who is a shadowy character.

In conclusion, this particular book has it all: an introduction by a late, well-known author, an intriguing mystery/horror story by a late, famous nineteenth century author, and an afterword by a gifted, modern writer. Be sure to read this book to learn the true story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!!!

+++++

Somewhat Faded With Time But Still Incredibly Influential
Published in 1886, THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE was an instant sensation and had a tremendous impact on later generations; it would not be an exaggeration to say that there have been hundreds of stage and film productions drawn either directly or indirectly from the original Robert Louis Stevenson story. Readers who come to the story from these adaptations, however, will very likely be surprised: few of them do more than borrow Stevenson's central concept.

Unlike the numerous stage and film adaptations, Dr. Jekyll is not a young or remarkably handsome man, nor the book does not contain any of the romantic subplots to which its adaptations are prone. At approximately one hundred pages, the story is very direct and extremely well suited to Stevenson's very precise style, which is very clean yet extremely evocative and very readable.

That said, modern readers are unlikely to be shocked by the book. For one thing, the story is too well known; for another, it contains very little of the graphic horror typical of current horror stories. But more than anything else, DR. JEKYLL is very distinctly a novel that draws from the Victorian era, and much of its impact was due to that society's remarkable hypocrisy; it was a world in which appearances were everything and a double life "acceptable" as long as you were not caught at it.

The same concept arises in two other novels from the same era, Bram Stoker's DRACULA and Oscar Wilde's THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, albeit in distinctly different forms. But whereas the Stoker and Wilde novels transcend their era, Stevenson's tale does not, and with the passing of Victorian attitudes the work has lost a great deal of its power to shock. Even so, Stevenson does touch a nerve with his chemically-induced transformation; then as now, drug abuse was a scourge, and in addition to this the work is somewhat similar to Mary Shelly's FRANKENSTEIN in the sense that it anticipates a host of ethical concerns that have become more and more pressing with the passage of time.

Although it has not held up as well as the other titles named, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE is nonetheless unavoidable for any one who has an interest in gothic or horror literature because it had--and continues to have--such a tremendous influence on later works. Stevenson's prose is elegant, it is "an easy read," and I think most contemporary readers will enjoy it if they make the effort to see it within the context of its era.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Narrative Technique
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.