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But if you could read anything you want, I would look elsewhere, storytelling has evolved thanks to classic authors like Stevenson paving the road for more complex stories and adventures. Most people already know the general plot, so I will skip a plot summary, If you're in school and this is manditory reading, I would say "that's fine, have fun with it" Otherwise Stevenson's storytelling style is outdated compared to even some of the books from his time, and if you know the story of Jekyll and Hyde, there's really no surprise factor to look forward to. It's always going to be a classic, and the duality of humanity (good and evil) in many ways is explored for the first time, and that is a theme that will live forever and keep this story a classic.
I've read Wilkie Collins's THE WOMAN IN WHITE three times and fully expect to read it again at some point. I even enjoy lesser writers like George Meredith and genre writers like Arthur Conan Doyle (who edges more into the Edwardian period for the bulk of his career). The historical importance of the book can hardly be overstressed.Yet, for a classic of its magnitude, it makes curiously unentertaining reading. The problem, in part, is that the book is structured to provide a shock, namely, that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person, only embodying different aspects of the same moral character.
It remains must reading for anyone concerned about the history of Sci-fi and the quirky edges of Victorian literature. But Stevenson's DR. But I wonder if I will be similarly tempted to read Stevenson's famous story again. And Jekyll is definitely one in a long line of insane (morally, if not psychologically) scientists who attempt to play god. I've read most of Dickens, nearly thirty novels by Anthony Trollope (one of my favorite authors), George Eliot's major works (and several minor), and a long string of early and late Victorian writers from Thackeray to Hardy to Butler to Wilde to Gissing, to Collins.
But in Moore's version, Hyde is a huge, hulking monster, akin to a Mighty Joe Young, capable of ripping men apart limb by limb. HYDE belongs in this group even if it is an odd fit. Victorian English literature is perhaps my favorite period in the history of literature. JEKYLL AND MR. Along with FRANKENSTEIN it provides the template for the isolated made geniuses that populate so much subsequent Sci-fi from Wells's THE ISLAND OF DR.
I am currently engaged in a long-term and pretty in depth project that involves me reading all of the major fictional works on robots, Cyborgs, and other artificially created human life forms. JEKYLL AND MR. My most recent encounters with Hyde have been in Alan Moore's brilliant graphic stories in THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, in which Jekyll and especially Hyde is vividly and brilliantly drawn. Jekyll. HYDE I found curiously uninteresting. I would love to have been one of the first readers of the story.
DR. With Darwin's theories prevalent, we are clearly to perceive Hyde as a devolution of a human soul, a step backwards in primitiveness. Stevenson's Hyde, on the contrary, is a diminutive, skulking thing. I thought rereading it as a more mature reader might make a difference, but it did not. I first read JEKYLL AND HYDE when I was in high school and did not enjoy it then, either. G.
But I wonder if it still has the capacity to entertain like so many other books.
The story as it currently exists is hurt by its own success.
Moving a bit further into literary history I have read all of H.
I would love to know precisely how this story appeared to people when the concept was fresh and unknown.
Hyde is definitely an artificial creation, due to the chemical and medical experiments of Dr.
The central idea of two people sharing the same body is brilliant and justly famous (is there anyone in our culture who doesn't know Jekyll and Hyde's joint secret)., but once you know that secret, the naiveté of Jekyll's friends in striving to understand the mystery of Hyde and his power over Jekyll is a tad tedious.The one thing that I did learn (or I supposed more properly, relearned) was that Hyde was a shrunken thing of a man.
Wells's major Sci-fi works and found something to enjoy in all of them.
MOREAU and THE INVISIBLE MAN to Crichton's JURASSAIC PARK.
And I absolutely adore Lewis Carroll.
Dr. Mr. Hyde; the words conjure up all sorts of images in my mind, mostly from the theatrical and cinematic depictions I've seen at different times in my life. How wrong I was.
It is a very short read, around 100 pages, but provides plenty of "meat" for the reader to chew on. Hyde's appearance, as well as his misdeeds, are never defined in black and white, but are instead only alluded to in a manner that almost makes them more horrifying. Jekyll, a man who desires to be seen as an upstanding individual, but is in many ways somewhat fascinated by the evil aspects of his nature. If you haven't taken the opportunity to try this book before, I would recommend it as a very enjoyable read. I found this to be a great read, and far more thought provoking than I had anticipated. Jekyll and Mr.
I was also intrigued with the complicated nature of the character of Dr. This has been a great start to my Classics Reading Challenge for 2008, and has left me thirsting for more. I thought I knew the story well, and so I didn't expect to find myself surprised by much in the novel. The novel is interesting, because there are so many aspects of the story that are left to the imagination of the reader.
Schools should assign this. A classic, without doubt, purchased for a 13-year-old who loves to read.
Utterson, as well as two letters which come into his possession, the tale centers around the good and evil in us all. With its 19th century language it is truly one of the great relatively short (less than 100 pages) horror stories ever written.
Jekyll and Mr. This is the classic tale for Dr.
Told from the perspective of Dr. Hyde is evil, scrawny, and far superior to some of later, more cartoonish, versions of the story which show him as an enormous monster (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comes to mind).
Hyde as published in 1886, I loved this book and highly recommend it to everyone. Jekyll's lawyer Mr.
This Mr.
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