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    Jekyll and Hyde
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    Jekyll and Hyde
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    Jekyll and Hyde
    Ebook96 pages2 hours

    Jekyll and Hyde

    By Robert Louis Stevenson

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    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; and 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 arms raised to shield me from that prodigy, my mind submerged in terror...

    First published in 1866, Jekyll and Hyde was an instant success. Stark and skilfully woven, this fascinating novel explores the curious turnings of human character through the strange case of Dr. Jekyll, a kindly scientist who by night takes on his stunted evil self, Mr. Hyde.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster UK
    Release dateJan 28, 2016
    ISBN9781471147418
    Unavailable
    Jekyll and Hyde
    Author

    Robert Louis Stevenson

    Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson was born on 13 November 1850, changing his second name to ‘Louis’ at the age of eighteen. He has always been loved and admired by countless readers and critics for ‘the excitement, the fierce joy, the delight in strangeness, the pleasure in deep and dark adventures’ found in his classic stories and, without doubt, he created some of the most horribly unforgettable characters in literature and, above all, Mr. Edward Hyde.

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    Reviews for Jekyll and Hyde

    3.5/5

    6 ratings119 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Glimrende koncept. Henry Jekyll eksperimenterer med et medikament som skal hjælpe ham til at skille sin gode fra sin onde side. Det lykkes kun alt for godt. Han bliver til en ond person, Mr. Hyde, og finder for sent ud af at de kemikalier han bruger i starten indeholder et eller andet stof, som ikke findes i senere leverancer. Til sidst kan han ikke længere blive til Dr. Jekyll.En klassiker
    • 4/5
      This is one of those classic stories it would be almost impossible to not be aware of on some level. The basic concept of the book is deeply ingrained in pop culture, but a lot of people probably haven't read the origin of what has become a legend of sorts.Reading the classics isn't always easy; the writing style being of a previous era. But it gives a new and interesting perspective to read the original texts that have spawned so many echoes through to the modern day.This book is a good place to start if you're wanting to start dipping into the classics. The older style might take some getting used to, but it's short. It would be easy enough to read the whole thing in a single quiet afternoon, but if read in smaller doses, still wouldn't take a terribly long time to get through.As with other classic works I've read, such as Frankenstein, the nuances and details were not quite what I expected. It has a much deeper reflection on human nature, for one.This is well worth reading, if only to see how the tale was originally portrayed.
    • 4/5
      The classic story of the good, but boring Dr Jekyll who transforms himself into the vital and evil Mr Hyde. Jekyll comes to loath him, but has become addicted.
    • 4/5
      I originally selected this book because I have it on my bookshelf and I have never had the time to read it. I pulled it off the shelf and placed it by my bed with hopes to finish it before my reading class was over. As it turned out I just never found the time to crack open the cover. Therefore, I searched for the audio version. To my surprised I found it right away at a reseaonable price and by a narrartor with which I was familiar. I have listen to Dick Hill narrate several novels I have read by Sanda Brown. I listened to the book in one night. I was was intrigued by the story but also confused. I had a hard time following the narration. A few times I glanced through the book while i was listening to Dick read the pages. I was surprised with how difficult this book is to read. I didn't think it would be so complicated. I had never thought of this as a text for children, and now I really don't think that it is. I think the text is too difficult for many students, and students in the classes I teach would need a lot of background information taught before a story like this could be even be looked at. I do not forsee reading this book to my class, or for my class. I am glad I read the story and I feel it was important, but I think the text would be better suited for a college level course where students were able to talk about the characters in greater detail and with greater insight. I do recommend this book for adults. The text is a classic and it should still be read because it did explain what I knew about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
    • 4/5
      So short, but so powerful. This is one of those stories where you think you know how it goes, but upon reading you find that it has been re-interpreted for so many years in so many forms that it feels completely different. Well, not completely. But still, the decades of alterations made this novella feel fresh and rich. I would have liked it to be longer, since I was so drawn in by the world of dark clouds and sinister encounters, and the novella ends on an abrupt note. However, it was pleasingly eerie and direct while it lasted.
    • 5/5
      "He was wild when he was young; a long while ago to be sure; but in the law of God there is no statute of limitations." - Utterson, Esq.The best thing about old books is the detail in the writing. It makes more obvious the complacency of mind found in the generation of television and wifi.Henry Jekyll recognized that man has two persons living inside them - both good and evil. He was bored with being the "good doctor" and wanted to indulge in mischief without being held accountable for his actions, so he freed his murderous, unscrupulous self in the form of Edward Hyde. At first, had it not been for his evil other's indifference toward him, Jekyll would have been tempted to remain the depraved Mr. Hyde, but eventually they came to resent one another and Hyde became Jekyll's ruin as happens when one chooses their evil self.I'm glad I read this book. I was expecting Mr. Hyde to be as big and ugly as he is in movies, but he was actually a petite man who had an appetite for very bad coupled with a malevolent countenance and a look of deformity that no one could put their finger on.Goodread!
    • 5/5
      I wish people still wrote this way. Or at least, still wrote this way WELL.Just the first sentence is great. Stevenson really has a great way of describing people, both physically and characteristically.One of the most interesting things about this story is all the possibilities and underlying meanings you can get from it. The way Jekyll refers to both of his personalities in third person, his underlying thirst for and pleasure in evil, his addiction to Hyde, etc. It's actually pretty dark, and I'm sure we can all agree that Jekyll is a bit on the crazy side.But there's definitely a reason that Jekyll and Hyde have become household names and inspiration to countless stories and characters.
    • 5/5
      Great story. I was very surprised that the chronology was reversed. It starts at the end and works its way forward, a device that none of the knock-off versions of this tale use. A master story teller.
    • 5/5
      I wasn't sure what to really expect with this one. Yes, it's a classic that "everyone knows about," but I didn't really know what it was about going into reading it. I knew there was a Doctor who turns himself into Mr. Hyde (pure evil). I didn't really know the specifics or anything about other characters or story line in general.

      I have a somewhat ignorance with a good amount of classic books. I know them, I know enough to want to read them, but I don't peruse them further until I read them. This helps give me a fresh reaction to the story.

      So my reaction to this story was great overall. Like many classics I actually listened to the audiobook version (librivox.org is GREAT for this and my budget) because it helps me read them at a good pace and makes it easier for me to pay attention. I just can't read some of the writing sometimes no matter how beautiful. Ok, back to the review, haha. It was a great story with a mystery and a great moral dilemma about good and evil. I won't really get into much more though. I know it's short and I'm not saying really anything at all. But I really like Stevenson's writing and the horror added into the mystery of what's going on. I've read Treasure Island only from him, so this is number 2 I've read. I'll have to now go and read more of him since I'm enjoying it.
    • 5/5
      I liked this book a lot. It's a short book but it still has lots of mystery and exciting parts within it. It's about a man named Mr. Utterson who tries to learn about the mysterious Mr. Hyde who is Dr. Jekyll's evil side.In the book, the setting is based in England. Dr. Jekyll finds a way to make a compound that allows him to transform into a separate personality, Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde is a younger and pure evil being. I personally like Mr. Hyde's name a lot. His name sounds like the word "hide" and Mr. Hyde's personality reflects his name. He tries to be discreet and tries to not talk to anyone unless he has to. Throughout the book, Mr. Utterson tries to learn about this mysterious Mr. Hyde. Almost nobody knows about him. Finally, after many mysterious encounters with Dr. Jekyll and one murder, he learns who Mr. Hyde truly is when he reads a letter that was left for him. I also liked this book a lot because the story isn't just told from the point of view of one person. It's mainly told from the point of view from one person, but it's also told from the point of view of two other people.This book is very good! It makes you feel multiple emotions as you read it. It makes you excited, scared, surprised, and curious. I would recommend it to many people.
    • 5/5
      I had read this book many years back, and read it again. It is indeed one of the more fascinating books that I have read. It's been a while since I read some of the old classics ( I started with Bertie Wooster!), and it took one or two pages before I got back into the swing of it allThe concept is incredible, and does indeed hark to the present when we are trying all sorts of brain and other experiments. It does teach us the dangers of meddling too much with biology, and playing God. Beautiful book, Needs to be widely read again
    • 5/5
      I could not put this book down. I love it and I can't believe it took me this long to read it. I will definitely be re-reading this one next month and every October from now on.It is such an incredible story. Like me, you may know it from movies but, as always, the book is so much better. I cannot say enough good stuff about this it.Since it is so good and such a fast read, I will be making everyone I know read this. If you haven't read it yet, go read it right now. You wont regret it. Seriously, go! Right now!
    • 4/5
      This is the first time I've ever read the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I'll admit I had no idea it was written by the same author as Treasure Island, which I also have not read yet. I would not have put those two ideas to the same author, so it's been enlightening all around! It's also amazing to me what a short story this really was, only 94 pages, to have inspired so many adaptations and interpretations, movies, etc.

      It was an interesting dark fantasy tale with an important lesson about giving in to our baser natures. The more we indulge them, the more it becomes who we are until we're no longer able to hide or control those tendencies.
    • 4/5
      This creepy novel explores the good and evil found in all of us, as well as the marriage of science and mysticism, A fabulous horror classic!
    • 4/5
      This is a story of multiple personality person.He has two personality.One is very aggressive,another is calm.This is a interesting story.
    • 5/5
      Great piece of literature. Really interesting way of keeping the reader blind to very key pieces of information that would allow for easier identification of potential threats and climaxes. Really enjoy RLS and look forward to reading more of his work.
    • 4/5
      Nice short read. Even though you know the ending ten pages in, I still enjoyed it.
    • 4/5
      This book truly does earn the title of "classic". It has suspense, interesting characters, a fine storyline, and something that some books that are considered "classics" are lacking: a point. You could argue about whether the true demon of the story is man's nature, science, or the Promethian tendency of the eponimous doctor. However, the essence of the story is the classic "tradgedy" plotline: the hubris of the lead character leads to his downfall. I do emphasize the word "tragedy" in my review, as it's definitely not a happy-fun-time kind of book. But if you don't go into it expecting that, you will probably be perfectly satisified. In the end, I would say that the main flaw of this book is that it is infuriatingly short. You could almost complain that this book is nothing more than an extended short story. However, from another viewpoint this could be a virtue; what's better than a classic novel that can be read in less than two hours?
    • 4/5
      Strangely affecting, considering that obviously I (like everyone else, pretty much) started it already knowing the "secret" at its core. Even though I knew Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde would ultimately turn out to be the same man, the story kept me turning pages, in equal parts horrified and fascinated to find out the details of the transformation. A masterwork of suspense.It's weird how there are no women, really, in the whole story. Were there really so many bachelors wandering around London during this era, and did anyone comment on it, or is this just an artifact of fiction?
    • 5/5
      Of course, everyone knows the relationship between Jekyll and Hyde, but if you haven’t read the novel, you probably are missing the intention of Stevenson’s story. Jekyll wanted to free mankind from his evil, baser nature, but in the end, was doomed by it. This novel is a brilliant study in the dual nature of man, and the conclusion must be that when it is tampered with, at least in this case, evil wins. If we assume that Hyde was pure evil, is it safe to assume that Jekyll was all good? But if he were, would he have concocted the formula that split him into two unique beings? Ultimately, Jekyll could only overcome Hyde’s tendencies when he was one whole being. The concept and story remain fascinating even now, more than a century after it was penned.
    • 4/5
      The famous and classic story about a doctor who has discovered the way to divide the good and evil natures of himself into two different persons.My first surprise was how short this story is. My second was that we never actually meet Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde, except in passing. My third was that I have no greater understanding of how to interpret the book now than I did before, and perhaps even less. I'm glad I've read it at last. It is, as I said, short. The language, while stilted, isn't that difficult. It is thought provoking - the whole issue of the natures of good and evil and which is dominate in man - but maybe not as provocative now as it was when first published in 1886. I think its greatest value now is as a cultural icon, rather than a great story. But that is still terribly important.
    • 3/5
      I was expecting more. Why? Because everyone knows the tale, I just assumed the writing would be better.
    • 4/5
      This book isn't bad; it's a short read, and doesn't go too much in depth. But I think the fact that, reading it today as one of the classics in literature that EVERYONE knows the story of, even though most of us haven't really read it, has really and truly spoiled it for me. I tried to transport myself back to Victorian England. I tried to think of the times where "penny dreadful" suspense and horror novels were rampant, and books like "The String of Pearls" (about and characters like Sweeney Todd) could be bought, or, later real life characters like "Jack the Ripper" could be read about in the sensationalistic newspapers. I tried to keep in mind the sentiments and misconceptions of the time about death and character. But for all of that, the suspense of this novel was ruined by my having been inundated with various versions of the story since I was a kid. I imagine it really could have been something, though, at the time it was published. After all, I do appreciate the author's picking out the calm, objective character (Utterson) to tell the story, in order to make the suspense build up that much more and make the other characters in it come across that much more fantastical. Having read a good bit of "Gothic fiction" again lately, I find this fits nicely in with fantastical, almost campfire-story-like books such as Dracula, Frankenstein and even the aforementioned String of Pearls. But overall it's not so strange and transporting as stories like The Monk, The Castle of Otranto, or even Faust. But then again, who knows? Perhaps if I had never heard of Jekyll or Hyde before this, I would put this book in with the latter group, too. Although I tend to think that in order to do that, Stevenson would have had to elaborate a little more on the differences between Jekyll and Hyde, and would have had to go into the psychological aspect quite a bit farther (and really, he only touched the tip of the iceberg here).
    • 4/5
      Stevenson paints a very dark and bleak picture of London. His language makes the story very claustrophobic and although I came at this book already knowing the plot, I found that the understated writing style made it all just a touch more scary than I'd expected. Best read alone on a rainy night, under a blanket.
    • 3/5
      I liked this book. It is a classic that deserves to be read and it took me about an hour to read it. Now I wonder why it took me so long to start reading it in the first place. Because it is a classic, I already knew what the end was going to be like, I already knew that Jekyll and Hyde were the same person, but that didn't mean I wasn't a bit shocked at the moral of this story. I like the way the story is built up and I like the main character, Mr Utterson as well. It is a story that lingers in your mind after you've finished it.
    • 4/5
      Like most folks, I knew the broad outline of this story, but hadn't actually read it. I'm very glad I did. It's both simpler, and more complex, than a tale of one man split between his higher and his baser selves.

      The telling is a combination of memior, and epistilary. Dr. Jeckyll's solicitor tells the story, including reading out some documents, including Dr. Jeckyll's final confession. Through the narrative, we meet a group of wholely believeable characters, through a beautifully structured tale. The writing is lovely and engaging. And the more I think about the plot, the more impressed I become. Generally, I can find a hole or two, but I don't mind in a well-told tale, or a story about really good characters. In this case, I can't find any. Nothing happens purely out of narrative imperative. Even at the end, it makes perfect sense that Edward Hyde not only wants, but needs to return to being Dr. Jeckyll, for all that he hates him.

      This is a wonderful example of Sciene Fiction, and hard s/f at that. It is a chemical compound that allows him to seperate himself into two identities. The author very neatly keeps the experiment from being duplicated - the effect was caused by an unkown impurity in an indgredient. Dr. Jeckyll himself tries desperately to recreate the compound, but cannot. I simple makes sense that no one else is able to, either.

      The story says volumes about the morals and philosopy of morals of the time. Dr. Jeckyll is trying to divorce himself from what he considers his baser urges. Those urges become a seperate identity, which takes on an outer shape reflecting his inner nature. It's taken for granted that morality or lack thereof would be obvious on someone's face.

      Dr. Jeckyll may have been, originally, trying to put aside his baser urges. His chemical compound, however, gave him a way to indulge those urges, without consequence to himself. If Edward Hyde indulged in reprehensible acts, no one would think it had anything to do with Dr. Jeckyll. Even those who knew there was a connection, assumed that Hyde was blackmailing Jeckyll.

      I find myself comparing this to the Orginal Series Star Trek Episode, "The Enemy Within". (Yes, everything in the world is connected to Star Trek. Hush.) In this episode, a transporter accident splits Captain Kirk into two men. They're physically identical, but one has all of Kirk's higher, gentler aspects, and the other has all of his baser, more violent aspects. The acting (Yes, there was so acting. Didn't I tell you to hush?) was the only difference between the two Kirks. And, unlike the good Dr. Jeckyll, Kirk found his salvation not in repression, but in integration. To be his best self, he needed both his angel and his devil.

      Dr. Jeckyll, however, found that give way to his darker side gave that side power. To him and his contemporaries, Kirk's solution was unthinkable. The baser part of man was a thing to be fought, suppressed, ideally to be killed entirely. Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde is a dramatic lesson in the dangers of giving way to your baser urges. At the end, it was just thinking like Hyde that brought on the transformation; that part of him had become that strong.

      I don't, personally, subscribe to that philosophy. But you don't have to agree with the underlying philosophy to be moved by the tale. Dr. Jeckyll let something dangerous into his life. Once he realized just how dangerous, he stopped using the compound, and put Hyde out of his mind entirely. But he gave into temptation. You could imagine him thinking, "It'll be okay just this one time." Who hasn't thought that? But that one more time was his undoing.
    • 3/5
      Very interesting. I thought I had read this before but perhaps the memory is from the various takes on this in film or other stories. A very short novel, which I could have finished in a day if I had not been looking at booking holidays instead. It is ultimately about the duality of personality and I think about evil that lurks in us all. Dr Jekyll stumbled on a way of separating his identities from his normal benevelent self from his undernourished evil self in the evil form of Mr Hyde. The mystery of the events from his lawyer friend's point of view drew me in quite quickly. The confession at the end by Dr Jekyll was intriguing in the way he explained what was happening, and it seems like the good doctor was not entirely separate from that evil self throughout his life. So ultimately a struggle of good against evil and the perils of what happens if you indulge that evil.
    • 3/5
      two and a half stars--the plot was great, and it is such an original idea that is so often warped today, but the writing style overall had trouble captivating me.
    • 4/5
      As with many classics, this book is far more subtle and nuanced than the modern reader might expect based upon subsequent movie adaptations. Nonetheless, I highly recommend this book as it is a wonderful combination of horror, suspense, humor and commentary on each of us.
    • 3/5
      This books was surprisingly fun. It has a slow start for the first few pages, but after that it takes off.

      A quick fun little read, definitely worth the time.