The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson's short novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , first published in 1886, became an instant classic, a Gothic horror originating in a feverish nightmare whose hallucinatory setting in the back streets of London gripped a nation mesmerized by crime and violence. Its revelatory ending is one of the most original and thrilling in English Literature. This new edition of Stevenson's most famous work includes additional short stories.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Horror, Gothic, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Mystery

161 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of English literature. He was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling and Vladimir Nabokov.

Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the Western canon.

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

This was the first time that I had read the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde but I can't remember a time when I did not know the story thanks to the educational efforts of Scooby Doo and other noted teachers.

The rest of the stories in this volume are not so strong: Markheim - a remarkably condensed, down to fifteen pages version of Crime and Punishment - Henry James could not get on with it and so gifted his copy to RLS apparently. The Body Snatcher - well given the title and the set up on the first page - four men drink together regularly in an inn, one has no apparent income but sets bones and attends to small medical matters and sits up abruptly hearing that a certain famous Doctor is coming to the small town to attend to a case - I guessed 95% of the story and was not surprised at the Gothic remaining 5%. Olalla - a tale of an upright protestant narrator recuperating among an inbred and degenerate Spanish aristocratic family - it reminded me slightly of an Angela Carter story - except less fun, much less fun.

Then I came to A Gossip on Romance which is I suppose a manifesto for a certain kind of fiction writing - the immersive action adventure, which is fun and engaging - pure escapism that seizes the imagination violently and carries it up the 39 steps, or off to Mars, or to some other Lost World, or Ruritania, or deep into the riddle of the Sands. Anyhow in this essay RLS praises incident and drama claiming that this is what we remember in a story - he mentions Rawdon Crawley striking Lord Steyne in Vanity Fair - an incident which I had completely forgotten until I read the essay and I am still not sure if Thrackeray actually shows us the blow or if we only learn about it. I could see how RLS was such an inspirational figure and grandfather to generations of genre adventures but what strike me most was how his slightly later Jekyll and Hyde story does not conform to his earlier thoughts on Romance. Jekyll and Hyde is a set of nested narratives - a good deal of the action consists of a man opening a letter or a packet of documents and reading the contents. The most dramatic incidents - Hyde beating a member of Parliament to death with Jekyll's walking stick not a recommended course of action as he breaks an otherwise fine walking stick, the final suicide we learn about indirectly.

What RLS does is retell the story of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner - including using its nested narrative technique, mixes it with a splash of Deacon Brodie (giving us a Prime link towards the future) and his own autobiography to create an atmosphere of mystery and unease.

The threat remains a moral one but the expression is not religious - although RLS was trying to escape his religious childhood, but scientific and social. The shadow self - this story must be a joy to those of a Jungian persuasion - is both described as monkey like in his actions (echoes of The Descent of Man) and seems to be working class - smaller, darker skinned, stronger with corded hands and inevitably in the spirit of the times filled with rage against religion and the good and the great of Late Victorian London. The story is open also to queer readings - it is a story about bachelor men frightened of reputational damage living lives in all male friendship circles.

Beautifully the story about the dual nature of a man (a favourite RLS theme) relies on a house with a dual nature - a front door opening on to a smart street and a back door opening on to a slummy one, the madwoman in the attic becomes the madman by the back door. Delightfully the transformation of stiff, upright, law abiding Jekyll, into bad, violent Hyde is experienced as a pleasant one. It is a joyful escape from repression. The Jekyll character is a construction, constricting, a corset, Hyde is freedom from the prison that Jekyll created for himself, and that gives the story the energy of ambiguity.

[Melania 🍒 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4|5

I really liked this, so much more than expected.

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it!!!
A story about the men as a dualistic being...

With the help of a drug Dr. Jekyll opens the door to another reality!
Better not to touch what lingers in the deep dark and secret recesses of the human heart...

This edition is a paricularly good one, having in addition to the main story also other literary jewels...
If you want to experience and enjoy Robert Louis Stevensons novels, this is a good one to start with!

Dean;)

[Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes it's a well written, suspenseful, and important novella. But it would get 5 stars alone for how hard this line makes me laugh: "If he be Mr. Hyde,” he had thought, “I shall be Mr. Seek."

[Karen Ireland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and found the other tales enjoyable the most interesting read for me came at the end of the tales and was of papers that were published around the time of the stories.

These were on Mental health and how the Victorians try to explain the changes that too place in a person at different times of their lives.

[Jude: The Epic Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read a second time for school: Book #4 for my senior thesis on Gothic literature (I never really imagined that this would be considered gothic)

Read for school. This was not at all what I expected it to be but that is not a bad thing. I love how it sort of goes backwards. But the lawyer dude did not make a good detective, everything was so obvious.

[Sophia Alexis Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed these stories a lot more than I was expecting. I think Dr Jekyll and the Body Snatcher were my two favorites.

4 out of 5 stars.

[pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In anything fit to be called by the name of reading, the process itself should be absorbing and voluptuous; we should gloat over a book, be rapt clean out of ourselves, and rise from the perusal, our mind filled with the busiest, kaleidoscopic dance of images, incapable of sleep or of continuous thought." – A Gossip on Romance

This Oxford World’s Classics Edition contains not only the short novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but also the short stories The Body Snatcher, Markheim and Olalla, along with two essays on romance and dreams.

I was particularly impressed by Stevenson’s prose, which is both imaginative and accessible. His essays reveal a deep love and care for literature and the craft, and he strikes me as a truly genuine writer. Every text in this collection is worth reading, though in this review, I’d like to focus on just two of them.

"This, as I take it, was because all human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil." – Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a haunting and masterfully written gothic novel. Its themes are gripping and its atmosphere eerily immersive. I firmly believe that with regard to structure and flow, this novel is the paragon of a great work of literature.

Similarly, I was deeply impressed by the Dostoevsky-inspired Markheim, in which a murderer grapples with his conscience after killing a pawnbroker. Given my admiration for the original, my expectations were high, and I feared Markheim would pale in comparison. After all, how could anything compare to Crime and Punishment? Yet Stevenson eased my concerns, skillfully adding his own unique flair to the story.

[Neeta Timsina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Multipersonality Disorder at its literary best.

[ouliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

is it normal to want what they have?

[n · Rating 4 out of 5]

wrote another one of those "two years have gone by, why didnt i write it immediately" reviews but it didnt save so basically, dr j & mr h is grandiose and you should read it if you like gothic horror-ish things that deal with the struggle for identity and the essence of humanity. now fuck off, im mad

*

let’s pretend im finished with this bc the only things left are two of RLS’ essays on stories/writing and the intro+appendices and while i am SUPER interested in all, i really don’t feel like diving into that rn so i might just... push this off until im gonna be rereading dorian

anygays, rtc

[Midnight Blue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this but I didn't love it. I'm glad that it was written because so many great film adaptations were based on it--but it's kind of the same way I feel about Dracula--the movies and the whole archetype based on the work far outstrip the work itself.

[Kate Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the few gothic classics I hadn’t read was Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, so this copy featuring a collection of his works was a perfect edition. Although it was a quick read, I felt like the story contained masses with detailed characters and an intricate plotline. Anyone would sympathise with Dr Jekyll and his attempts to keep his darker side at bay. The ending saddened me, I would have liked to see Mr Hyde reformed, but realistically Stevenson chose to conclude his novel darkly. At times it read almost like fantasy, with his transformation being portrayed as so physically different – this made a lot more sense after it was explained to me that Stevenson was portraying him as an ape/beast to show his animalistic nature, the zoomorphism added an extra layer to his villainous attributes.
While reading, I completely forgot that this edition contained other short stories and essays, and until I started Olalla, I kept thinking: when is it going to loop back round to Dr Jekyll? So daft, on reflection it is easy to separate the works, I was obviously tired! Out of all the additional pieces, ‘The Body Snatcher’, ‘Markheim’, ‘Olalla’, ’A Chapter on Dreams’ and ’A Gossip on Romance’, I think ‘Olalla’ was my favourite out of the others included. I loved the storyline of a gentleman sent to a Spanish island to recuperate after a sickness with an outlandish aristocratic family. Due to inbreeding, the family is presented as inhuman and bestial. The son is disabled and the mother is bloodthirsty, but the daughter gets away mostly unaffected and is still a beautiful heroine – what a coincidence for the eligible gentleman.
A fantastic quick read and a great introduction to Scottish gothic fiction.

[sarah-jayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

another horror classic read during october for the books! i think id assess this one in the ranks of frankenstein, in that i kind of consider it to be literary fiction about a “horrific monster,” but is more so a commentary on it rather than a pure horror story, which i consider dracula to be more along those lines.

i didn’t know anything about this story aside from the bare bones basic about dr jekyll and mr hyde, so i was quite surprised when i started reading and learned that they were not truly the main characters. the main focus, yes, but not the main characters and you do not receive any text from their point of view until the final chapter.

overall good and would rec, but have higher hopes for next years classic.

[Callum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for Hyde and Jekyll, but felt left wanting. Given its historical weight, I expected more substance for a story where there was none. It felt as though it should be the beginning to its story, the act I; cut off as its boots hit the ground. Nevertheless glad to have it read.

The last two short stories (very short), A Gossip on Romance, and A Chapter on Dreams, are a must-read for any aspiring writer.

[Emily Strom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never read any of these stories before, but they were really fitting for spooky szn. "Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde" reminded me a lot of Frankenstein.

PSA the last two "stories" in the book are NOT short stories like I expected them to be - they're essays about writing and dreams (Stevenson should talk to Freud and compare thoughts).

[Art van Houwelingen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange to think that there isn't a time I can remember where the names "Jekyll" and "Hyde" weren't familiar ones in my mind. Amazing story, obviously. One could write an intriguing comparison between this case and the Smeagol/Gollum dynamic in Lord of the Rings.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read Jekyll and Hyde. Reading the academic footnotes was funny. Didn’t know they were gay, good for them! Happy Pride

[Clau;) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really impressed by these horror tales. They were well-developed and with amazing plots and characters, specially Olalla and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hide. I want to remark the latter one and how it portrays the duality of the unconscious.
Really interesting if you enjoy gothic literature

[Megan McElhone · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick dissertation/tutoring reread.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone knows the story, or at least they think they do. But as is the case with much classic literature that enters into popular consciousness, much gets lost or forgotten or shockingly misremembered (I'm looking at you, Wuthering Heights, and your freakish misinterpretation as a love story!) Stevenson's tale is both more and less than you probably recall it being, far more reliant on frames within frames in a way that makes you wonder if he wasn't a long-lost Bronte sister and with much less overt in its depictions of evil.

There are many theories regarding the latter and the possible implications Stevenson's apparent timidity: that he was eliding obvious references to homosexuality, or possibly child prostitution, a major scandal over which happened during the time he was writing. I personally think Stevenson left Hyde's perversions deliberately opaque as a way of demonstrating the duality of nature even in his reader, for each of us supplies from some dark corner of our being suggestions as to what the infamous Hyde could have been up to, suggestions all the more disturbing for coming solely within ourselves.

This particular edition includes several other tales that further illustrate Stevenson's fascination with duality and evil, as well as an essay, "A Gossip on Romance" that should be required reading for anyone enrolled in a creative writing MFA program. Rather than seeming extraneous, the extras add to the enjoyment of Stevenson's classic, as does the excellent introduction by Luckhurst, which makes getting to know this particular tale all over again an utter delight.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally picked up this book just for the fact that it had Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in it, but I figured I'd read the whole book so I could truthfully say I completed it.🤗
I quite enjoyed Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It carried a similar air as Frankenstein does, and as I'm rereading Frankenstein this year I hope to make connections between the two stories. I listened to a podcast on this book by The Literary Life, which was good. They shared some good insight. (Fun fyi, I love The Literary Life. 10/10 reccomend reading along to their podcast episodes.)
My favorite short story in this compilation was Markheim, which left me not sure what to think. It was so open ended, as Stevensons stories seem to be thus far, but it makes sure to leave the story wiggling around in my brain for future thoughts.
The final two works of Stevenson's seemed to be were non-fiction and seemed to be his thoughts are a couple of things. I liked A Gossip on Romance more than A Chapter on Dreams, possibly because I zoned out through the latter.
All in all I have found Robert Louis Stevenson writes quite well. This is the first work I have read by him.

[Sheree | Keeping Up With The Penguins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read my full review of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde on Keeping Up With The Penguins.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was published in 1886 (and, yes, the original publication intentionally and infuriatingly left out the definite article that would have made the title grammatically correct, ugh). Stevenson managed to cram a lot into those 66 pages, and literary types continue to analyse Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to death. The introduction to this edition (which is almost longer than the book itself) goes deep into a critical analysis. If you assume you’re familiar with the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and you don’t need to read the original, you’re really missing out. I’ll definitely read it again - the metaphor and imagery of this book is surely evergreen.

[Nadine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was boring. And short.

I already kind of knew what was going to happen (thanks Once Upon a Time) and that might have ruined the tension a bit for me. But then, not much was happening, so the tension probably would never have been there, even if I didn't already know what was going to happen. So I guess I should be thankful that it was so short.

This book just didn't do it for me.

[Scherzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

If each, I told myself, could but be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the unjust might go his way, delivered from the aspirations and remorse of his more upright twin; and the just could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path, doing the good things in which he found his pleasure, and no longer exposed to the disgrace and penitence by the hands of this extraneous evil. Pg 53

Then these agonies began swiftly to subside, and I came to myself as if out of a great sickness. There was something strange in my sensations, something indescribably new and, from its very novelty, incredibly sweet. I felt younger, lighter, happier in body; within I was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images running like a mill race in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but not an innocent freedom of the soul. I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to my original evil; and the thought, in that moment, braced and delighted me like wine. I stretched out my hands, exulting in the freshness of these sensations, and in the act, I was suddenly aware that I have lost in stature. Pg. 54

The evil side of my nature, to which I had now transferred the stamping efficacy, was less robust and less developed than the good which I had just deposed. Again, in the course of my life, which had been, after all, nine tenths a life of effort, virtue and control, it had been much less exerciced and much less exhausted. [...] This, too, was myself. It seemed natural and human. In my eyes it bore a livelier image of the spirit, it seemed more express and single, than the imperfect and divided countenance, I had been hitherto accustomed to call mine. Pg.55

Hence, although I had now two characters as well as two appearances, one was wholly evil, and the other was still the old Henry Jeckyll, that incongruous compound of whose reformation and improvement I had already learned to despair. Pg. 56

Hyde had more than son’s indifference. To cast in my lot with Jekyll, was to die to those appetites which I had long secretly indulged and had of late begun to pamper. To cast it with Hyde, was to die a thousand interests and aspirations, and to become, at blow and forever, despised and friendless. The bargain might appear unequal; but there was still another consideration in the scales; for while Jekyll would suffer smartingly in the fires of abstinence, Hyde would be not even conscious of all he had lost. Strange as my circumstances were, the term of this debate are as old as commonplace as man; . Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Pg. 59

‘The people of that house…’ I began.
‘But he interrupted me with a savage outburst. ‘The people?’ he cried. ‘What people? There are neither men nor women in that house of Satan’s! What? have you lived here so long, and never heard?’ And here put he put his mouth to my ear and whispered, as if even de fowls of the mountain might have overheard and been stricken with horror./ What he told me was not true, nor was even original; being, indeed, nut a new edition, vamped up again by village ignorance and superstition, of stories nearly as ancient as the race of man. Pg 136

The face looked down upon me with a painful and deadly contraction; but the rays of glory encircled it, and reminded me that the sacrifice was voluntary. Olalla Pg 138

Drama is the poetry of conduct, romance the poetry of circumstance. The pleasure that we take in life is of two sorts -the active and de passive. Now we are conscious of a great command over our destiny; anon we lifted up by circumstance, as by a breaking wave, and dashed we know not how into the future. Now we are pleased by a conduct, anon merely pleased by our surroundings. It would be hard to say which of these modes of satisfaction is the more effective, but the latter is surely the more constant. [...] healthy relations; where interest turns, not upon what a man shall choose to do, but on how manages to do it; [...] With such material as this is impossible to build a play, for the serious theatre exists solely on moral grounds, and is a standing proof of the dissemination of the human conscience. But it is possible to build, upon this ground, the most joyous of verses, and the most lively, beautiful, an buoyant tales. Pg 140

Here are stories, which powerfully affect the reader, which can be reperused at any age, and where the characters are no more than puppets. The bony fist of the showman visibly propels them; their springs are an open secret; their faces are of wood, their bellies filled with bran; and yet we thrillingly partake of their adventures. [...] satisfy the reader’s mind like things to eat. Pg 143 A gossip on romance.

I am sometimes tempted to suppose he is not a story-teller at all, but a creature as matter of fact as any cheesemonger or any cheese, and a realist bemirer up to the ears in actuality; so that, by account, uct of some Brownie, som Familiar, some unseen collaborator, whom I keep locked in back garret, while I get all the praise and he but share (which I cannot prevent him getting) of the pudding. Pg 150 A chapter on dreams.

It is impossible to describe the feeling of unreality that I have about everything: I assure myself over and over again that I am myself, but still I cannot make impressions take their proper hold of me, and come into fit relations of familiarity with my true self; between my present self and my past self it seems as if an eternity of time and an infinity of space were interposed; the suffering that I endure is indescribable: -such is the kind of language by which these persons endeavour to express the profound change in themselves which they feel only too painfully but cannot describe adequately. Pg 165 APPENDIX A from HENRY MAUDSLY, ‘THE DISINTEGRATIONS OF THE “EGO”’

[Liselotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book just isn't for me. It was incredibly boring and I'm just adding this one to my collection, as I want my Oxford World Classics collection to be reasonably complete with books I've read. Not one I will read anytime soon, ever, probably.

[Ellie Lythe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have to admit I was expecting a bit more from the title story given it's cultural standing. The narrative would have been far more captivating for a naive reader who wasn't aware of the relationship between Jekyll and Hyde from the offset - as we all are!

[Seda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This bundle of stories by Robert Louis Stevenson is nice.
Some stories are hit or miss though.
I did really enjoy The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, Markheim and the Body Snatcher.
Also I did not see the love triangle in The Pavilion on Links coming lol

[Rick Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde many times, but this is the first time I've read any of the stories and essays included in this volume. Good stuff.

[Elsa K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this short book and wish I didn't know the twist ending! I loved how the author presented the strange case!