The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Robert Louis Stevenson

List Price: $1.50
Our Price: $0.01
You Save: $1.49 (99%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Book Reviews of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Dover Thrift Editions)

Book Review: Stevenson's psychological nightmare realized
Summary: 5 Stars

The respected London scientist Henry Jekyll seems normal enough, but he is fascinated by what he considers to be two distinct sides to his (or, he believes, anybody's) personality, which can be described crudely as good and evil. He furthermore believes these sides are physically separable, just as water can be separated into its constituent elements, hydrogen and oxygen, by electrolysis; and so he invents a potion that essentially splits his personality so that only one side will manifest itself while the other becomes latent. In this way, Jekyll reasons, the "good" side may be an agent of good works without being burdened by the disgrace of an inherent evil, and the "evil" side is free to do his damage without the pangs of remorse he would inherit from the conscience of his good twin. In Freudian terms, Jekyll is the ego, Hyde is the id, but unfortunately -- and this is the point that drives the story -- Jekyll has no superego to tell him that the potion is an irresponsibly bad idea in the first place.

In society Jekyll retains his high esteem, but his mutation, the sinister, deformed Edward Hyde, whom he names as an heir as a further disguise of his own identity, is cursed to live in ostracism for his hideous appearance, cruel behavior, and disregard for the law. The fact that Hyde is physically smaller than Jekyll could be symbolic of his moral deficiency or merely reflect the notion that he is only a "part" of Jekyll; but the difference in size is convenient as a plot device because it prevents others from suspecting that Hyde and Jekyll are really the same person.

One should not approach "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" as if it were just a primitive example of generic horror. Stevenson excels as a prose writer, suffusing his story with the kind of descriptive nuances that successfully evoke Victorian London at its darkest and most ominous contrasted with the civilized society of gentlemen and otherwise benevolent scientists. I was aware that Stevenson was an essayist, but I was unprepared to find that "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is really an illustrative essay at its base, dressed in monstrous fashion.

Summary of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Dover Thrift Editions)

This University of Nebraska Press edition is a small, exquisitely produced paperback. The book design, based on the original first edition of 1886, includes wide margins, decorative capitals on the title page and first page of each chapter, and a clean, readable font that is 19th-century in style. Joyce Carol Oates contributes a foreword in which she calls Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a "mythopoetic figure" like Frankenstein, Dracula, and Alice in Wonderland, and compares Stevenson's creation to doubled selves in the works of Plato, Poe, Wilde, and Dickens.

This edition also features 12 full-page wood engravings by renowned illustrator Barry Moser. Moser is a skillful reader and interpreter as well as artist, and his afterword to the book, in which he explains the process by which he chose a self-portrait motif for the suite of engravings, is fascinating. For the image of Edward Hyde, he writes, "I went so far as to have my dentist fit me out with a carefully sculpted prosthetic of evil-looking teeth. But in the final moments I had to abandon the idea as being inappropriate. It was more important to stay in keeping with the text and, like Stevenson, not show Hyde's face." (Also recommended: the edition of Frankenstein illustrated by Barry Moser) --Fiona Webster

Classics Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Classics
• Genre Fiction > Horror