Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Signet Classics)
by Robert Louis Stevenson
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Book Reviews of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Signet Classics)
Book Review: Still relevant today
Summary: 4 Stars
This is another classic that has seeped into popular culture. And, although the ending is a foregone conclusion, this book is still an enjoyable read. Stevenson does a stellar job of keeping an air of mystery about Mr. Hyde and his vile acts. He presents vivid imagery that enhances the overall environment. Throughout the novel, the supernatural conflicts with science and logic. It is not until the very end when the full scope of Jekyll's experiments and actions come to light.
It's also interesting to think about what Mr. Hyde's terrible actions were, that lent him an evil aura in Victorian London. Let's see. . . He describes countless acts of undignified and secret pleasures, youthful indiscretions, highly irregular behavior, a morbid sense of shame. Couple that with the fact that all the men are unmarried bachelors . . . Hmmmm . . . .
Anyway, there are a couple of weak points in the book. The idea that Dr. Lanyon would become ill and succumb to death after seeing Jekyll's transformation seems far-fetched, even for this tale. Also, Utterson's lack of desire to find the truth seems a bit odd, although perhaps it is a reflection of the Victorian era which put respect and honor above truth.
This novel is still relevant to today. Although there are no magical elixirs, the news wires are, unfortunately, littered with stories about the dark underside of man. A seemingly normal person can suddenly go "postal" and destroy countless human lives. Overall, I would highly recommend this book for a quick and easy read.
Book Review: Book Review: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Summary: 5 Stars
I really enjoyed reading this book, to me it was confusing at first then it got very interesting near the end. The novel is about a well respected doctor (Mr. Hyde) that invents a posion that can change a person into their alter ego. Dr. Jekyll drinks this posion, and becomes a character we know as (Mr. Hyde.) Mr. Hyde is known as a very disrupeted character that is responsible for the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. Before the Carew murder, Jekyll had become a disrupted person himself. After the Carew murder, Mr. Hyde is not seen nor heard from for a long time. The night of the Carew murder, Hyde leaves a note for Mr. Utterson. Also after Mr. Utterson received Mr. Hyde's letter he had received a dinner invitation from Dr. Jekyll that matched in handwritting to the letter from Mr. Hyde. After this Mr. Utterson investigates and later finds out that Mr. Hyde is only a figure of a posion. My Hyde is Dr. Jekyll's alter ego. At the end of the novel Hyde takes over Dr. Jekyll therefor, he kills himself. This novel was interesting because it makes you wonder whiel reading the novel, how is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde connected, and who really killed Carew? At first, I thought that Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll were good friends and Dr. Jekyll was lying for Mr. Hyde so that Mr. Utterson wont know his whereabouts. Later I thought that Dr. Jekyll was helping Mr. Hyde get away with the Carew murder, and was plotting to kill Mr. Utterson. It was even more interesting to find out that Mr. Hyde was only Dr. Jekyll's alter ego from a posion that Dr. Jekyll Invented.Book Review: Sight of Good and Evil struggle, before Freud's theories arise.
Summary: 5 Stars
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894) was a remarkable author from the Victorian Era. He has left us at least two masterpieces: "The Treasure Island" (1883) and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886) and some other good novels such as "The Black Arrow" (1888).
The present edition enriches the story with an introductory essay from Nabokov and a very interesting analysis by Dan Chaon as afterword.
It is amazing how writers and poets are able, thru intuition, to anticipate events or discoveries. When this book as first published, Sigmund Freud was studying with Charcot and not so many years later will produce his theoretic corpus of the human psyche. At some points the present story touches Freud's conceptualizations.
Dr. Jekyll suspect evil burdens every human soul, being an obstacle in its way to goodness. So he investigates and produces a drug that "liberates" the evil spirit and doing so he intend to be relived of it.
But Evil starts to grow each time more powerful and Mr. Hyde end cornering Dr. Jekyll into impotence and fear.
This story has captivated the public's imagination for more than a hundred years. Movies, comics and theater pieces had evolved from it. His tortured dual character is now a well known icon as Stoker's Dracula or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Even if you know more or less the story and its ending, reading this very short book is a powerful adventure.
A Classic you shouldn't let passes by unheeded!
Reviewed by Max Yofre.
Book Review: A true classic and very different from the films
Summary: 4 Stars
Dr. Jekyll and 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. I thought I knew the story well, and so I didn't expect to find myself surprised by much in the novel. How wrong I was!
The novel is interesting, because there are so many aspects of the story that are left to the imagination of the reader. Mr. 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. I was also intrigued with the complicated nature of the character of Dr. 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.
I found this to be a great read, and far more thought provoking than I had anticipated. It is a very short read, around 100 pages, but provides plenty of "meat" for the reader to chew on. If you haven't taken the opportunity to try this book before, I would recommend it as a very enjoyable read. This has been a great start to my Classics Reading Challenge for 2008, and has left me thirsting for more!
Book Review: not good
Summary: 1 Stars
Trying recently to read this book, I was struck by how terrible it is. Stevenson's non-fiction - mostly travel writings - is very well-written, but his fiction s*cks. THe story begins with a scene which is utterly false and impossible to picture: a scene of a man and a young girl running into eachother at a corner by accident, having been travelling perpendicular to one another. So they run into eachother, literally, at the corner. And the man, so the narrative goes, is not so much a man as a human juggernaut. He tramples calmly on the girl, headless of her screams. Now, physical interactions of this kind are chaotic. It would never come about that the girl collides with the man (Mr. Hyde) and then is trampled. If such an unlikely collision were to occur, the girl and the man would interact in a chaotic manner, with each being put off balance and spun around by the impact. The man would not be in a position to "calmly trample" the young lady. This scene, which is supposed to be a cornerpiece of Hyde's brutality, is completely false and impossible to visualize. And could much better have been dramatized as Hyde being importuned by the girl and giving her a good sound thrashing.