The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories

by Robert Louis Stevenson, B.J. Harrison (Narrator)

Includes pictures and an extra material section on Stevenson's life and works  One of Stevenson’s most famous and enduringly popular works, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde describes the mysterious relationship between a respectable and affable doctor and his brutal associate. Set in the grimy streets of Victorian London, this tale of murder, split personality, and obscure science, with its chilling final revelation, became an instant horror classic when it was first published in 1886 and has enthralled and terrified generations of readers ever since.

Genres: Classics, Horror, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Mystery, School

Audiobook

Published March 31, 2011

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

[RavenReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such an interesting little book, I'll admit I didn't know what was going on until 70% through! That's how it's meant to be, everything is explained at the end and it made my jaw drop. I was only going to rate this three stars but the ending made up for it and this is a book I will be thinking about a lot. I feel like most classic books have a lesson to learn from them and this one was about being comfortable in your own skin and making sure that whatever you do, you are willing to pay the price for your actions and that if you go too far, it might be too late to turn back. Definitely recommend reading this (it's only 90 pages) but it's in the same style as a Jane Austen novel so the wording is very eloquent and prestigious. Honesty, it makes me realize how far our modern language has fallen and been dumbed down.

[Allana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeckyll and Hyde is way better than I thought it was going to be - Pop culture doesn't do this one justice.

[Yuri Alberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es buenisio, comencé no teniéndole tanta fe, pero, la verdad es que como vas avanzando y entendiendo todo, se convierte en una experiencia increíble que le recomiendo a todos.

[lily-rose marrello · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved!

[Anna Mash · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, captivating story that reads like a mystery and likely would have more impact if one was not aware of the ending. It does leave itself open to many interpretations on the nature of man and tendencies to good and evil.

[Macy Kemble · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit drawn out at times but overall a great classic

[Justine AnnaH · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25
Bon classique qui se lit vite.

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love love love Jeckyll and Hyde, if only for the questions that it poses to the modern reader (so many) and the thrill of the detective-esque story in the first half of the novel. As much as it is a short, fun story to read (or have read to you - I have only ever read this book in audio form and will always recommend it to be read in that way particularly in the first half), it is a lovely book to study as it covers a decent range of late-victorian social concerns.

The structure of a story is always something I look at while reading, and from the few Victorian Gothics I have read, it seems that they have a very strict two-part structure: crime and detection, followed by a long and slow resolve. This makes the last part seem even longer than it is, and is why I'd recommend listening to audiobook versions of these novels. I'm not going to write too much because Caleb's playing Mac Miller and I'm trying to work out if his music is good or not.

Read Jeckyll and Hyde, I love it and I love Victorian Gothic. So fun, so entertaining, I need more.

[melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

idk what i expected for a book that is only 80 pages but i am lowk disappointed. i thought we were gonna get to know jeckyll and hyde better and that hyde would be even remotely interesting but he wasnt even a little. i feel like the nuance i was hoping for was not there but also there were like no fun details either? i did however love the line “if he’s hyde than i’m seek.” absolute banger. i also really liked how the characters’ statures were used to depict the more prominent identity. i am mainly just happy to have finished this because now i know why hyde was on fire in monster high but other than that i could have lived without reading this

[Dan V · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book when i first read it, and i am not that easy to do so.

[Eli Shay · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a little hard to read in old English, but it was still a great story

[Taryn Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

nothing like monster high 😮‍💨

[Giselle · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my childhood favorites

[G128T · Rating 3 out of 5]

If he be Mr Hyde then I shall be Mr Seek - comedy gold line

[Clemm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yup, strange is the right word.

[Rodger Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

January 2024: I read this in 2007.

[Hattie Long · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shorter than I expected. To be honest I expected something different, I’m not sure what. Reminded me or Dorian grey but I guess that’s just the doubling.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

When starting a book with such a well-known story, there are bound to be preconceptions. The transformation seen in the film in which Jekyll becomes Hyde, from whatever version, but especially the John Barrymore sequence from the 1920s, must be close to the top of most peoples’ movie memories. The fact that the entire idea involves chemical changes that are reversible just becomes a willingly overlooked untruth, so strong is the idea of the original story. This, after all, is fiction. Surprise, then, is what is felt when approaching the original text for the first time, since the description of the transition comes at the end of the story.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s text begins with someone called Otterson, who has been a long-term friend of Dr. Jekyll. The really strange thing that challenges preconceptions is that we get to know Edward Hyde before we encounter Thomas Jekyll. And the tale does not begin at the end, but some time after Jeckyll has made his transformation. From Otterson’s point of view, there is no association between Jeckyll and Hyde were it not that his friend, Jeckyll, has begun to refer to his acquaintance, Mr. Hyde.

Otterson is worried because Jekyll seems to have withdrawn from the world and drafted a new will that gives this Mr. Hyde inheritance rights. The story unfolds, but it does not clarify. Only when Hyde kills Sir Denvers Carew do people really get suspicious. Only then do Jekyll’s acquaintances try to force the issue and get to the bottom of things.

And then, it is only in the last chapter, and only in writing, that we encounter Jekyll’s project in detail. Here Jekyll muses on the duality of human life, with its apparently in-built tendency to be both good and evil. In Jeckyll’s case, he agonises over whether the darker side, personified as Mr. Hyde, will become dominant. He even alludes to the belief that human beings will always revert to the savage, unless society, rectitude and laws prevent it. Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde thus becomes a tale of the morality of convention. Like many novellas, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is much bigger in ideas than its size suggests.

[Carmen Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding.

You think you know the story, but you really don't. Most of what I thought about the book came from references and movies, which strip down and alter the story. It was so much more vivid and moving than I realized.

It's not a long book, although the language can be difficult (the book is about 150 years old). I read it as an e-book and could easily look up the words I didn't understand. And some of the phrasing is backwards to the way we would say it now, although in some instances I thought it expressed the idea more clearly that way. It brings out differences in personalities, the nature of sin, and the consequences to ourselves and others when we indulge in things we know are wrong.

We read it for our book club, and it was one of the best discussions we've had in awhile. The classics are classic for a reason.

[Warda · Rating 4 out of 5]

(i actually rate this a 4.5)

i think i downloaded this book by accident and even though it's a classic i had no idea what it was abt going into it. i just saw a quick read (it's less than 100 pages) that was already added to my library so i figured id read it. at first it's a little hard to understand bc of how it's written but after a bit u get used to it and i actually grew to like it. not only is the plot of this story interesting, but it does a good job of showing both the good side and the evil side of man and the relationship that coexists between the two. i honestly loved this book and i found the ending to be very interesting and profound. 10/10 would absolutely recommend this it was so good

[Clarissa Belle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is this the most misunderstood novel of all time? Mr Hyde is not the evil one. He has by definition no morality. He is purely the creation of Jeckyll. Jeckyll is the evil one because he has choice but time and time again he chooses to become Hyde. The great trick of the novel, and I assume why Stevenson's wife tossed an earlier draft on the fire, is that the novel teases the reader about the relationship between the two men. Anybody reading it at the time would assume that it was a homosexual relationship between the two men. Male homosexuality had been made illegal by the Labouchere Amendment of 1885. This is what Stevenson teases his reader about until the discovery of his transformation. It's very clever and would have been very shocking at the time.

[Philemon - · Rating 5 out of 5]

This classic is worth rereading for its more than exemplary style and for the complex study it offers of the darkness in the depths of the psyche, as well as the possible evil lurking there that mere mortals are too terrified to explore either from within or from without. The ultimate terror is not knowing who we are, of suddenly realizing that our self-constructions must be shaky lies, even while sensing intimations of an actual second self, some primitive evil alter restlessly groping just beneath our barest, strained perceptions. Jorge Luis Borges adored Stevenson, and this clear but tortured work must be a signal reason why.

[Masha · Rating 4 out of 5]

In today's media, whenever Jeckyll and Hyde are mentioned or portrayed, Hyde is portrayed as a monster of sorts, a muscled up giant, while Jeckyll is a meek small human. In this, original, version it is actually the opposite. Dr Jeckyll is the tall, well built man, while Hyde is a dwarfish man with an 'off' feeling about him.
This is an excellent representation of the duality of man and our eternal struggles with good and evil. Evil might not seem so bad at first, might even feel pleasant and exciting, but in the end, if you allow it, it will consume you.

[Clarisse Puig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Je comprends tout à fait pourquoi ce livre est aujourd’hui considéré comme un classique, notamment parce qu’il a été l’un des premiers romans fantastiques de son époque. Malheureusement, cela s’arrête là : avec tous les chefs-d'œuvre fantastiques auxquels on a accès aujourd’hui, on peut rapidement s’ennuyer à la lecture. Cela dit, l’ambiance du vieux Londres reste très agréable. C’est un livre qui, selon moi, a surtout une valeur culturelle, mais qui divertit moins..

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary
The story of Jeckyll and Hyde is told through a third party narrator, an attorney who is suspicious of a new will his friend, Dr. Jeckyll, has written. Mr. Hyde is a mysterious new acquaintance of the doctor but no one is sure how they met or why Jeckyll has taken such a strong liking to the man. The doctor's friends take it upon themselves to get to the bottom of this strange new man lurking about.

Review
I've heard the story of Jeckyll and Hyde many times before but this was my first time reading it directly from the original. It's a classic for a reason! There are many times when, knowing the end, you can see why people would've been so gobsmacked by the twist at the end but Stevenson does a great job of keeping Mr. Hyde mysterious and unlikeable.

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook. Why is it actually so good. Everything is explained and revealed so perfectly. The emotions and thoughts and complexities of what happens are revelled and explained, not told, but experienced. I hate that Jeckyll tries to hide from the fact that this is literally all his doing, not because he initiated it, he was just too weak to stop

[Jackson Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like this was a childrens book with really complicated wording. I just wasn’t really impressed with the actual plot like very little actually happened. And I know it’s a short story but the plot was still lacking considering that. And why the complex wording. I do appreciate trying to make commentary on a dichotomy between good and evil. But it just didn’t work for me.

[Sherry Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very interesting- I think if it weren't so engrossed in modern media (with the multiple personality tropes) or just not as popular to retell, it would've been a better read. Knowing that Dr. Jecklyll and Mr. Hyde were the same person when I started reading the book ruined the giant plot twist at the end.

[Lindsay Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this. There were times that I felt my heart rate quicken and times that I found myself reading pages aloud just to hear the mesmerizing flow of the words. Still was surprising in regard to themes and character intentions despite the overall premise being so well known in pop culture. Also such a short and fun read! Love!

[Rupert Grech · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stevenson's writing is an exquisite use of language. This story is almost the perfect short story, building suspense the whole way through and with a supurb plot and twist at the end. Just brilliant.