Instantly the spirit of hell awoke in me and raged... I was suddenly struck through the heart by a cold thrill of terror - Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
How thin is the line between good and evil?
Dr Jekyll has been experimenting with his identity. He has developed a drug which separates the two sides of his nature and allows him to occasionally abandon himself to his most corrupt inclinations as the monstrous Mr Hyde.But gradually he begins to find that the journey back to goodness becomes more and more difficult, and the risk that Mr Hyde will break free entirely from Dr Jekyll’s control puts all of London in grave peril.
Author ProfileRobert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on the 13 November 1850. He studied at Edinburgh University and also qualified as a lawyer. He travelled extensively in Europe and began his writing career during these years. He also met his future wife, Fanny, in France in 1876.They were married in 1880. In 1883 he published
Treasure Island to great acclaim.
Kidnapped and ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ were both published in 1886. Problems with his health meant that Stevenson frequently travelled in the warmer climates of the South Seas. He died in Samoa on 3 December 1894.
ReviewsStevenson’s short stories are certain to retain their position in English literature. His serious rivals are few indeed,Mr Hyde's sordid and perhaps deviant excesses are rendered more suggestive through being left undescribed,A fable that lies nearer to poetry than to ordinary prose fiction,Robert Louis Stevenson…was a storyteller, that’s what I’d like to be, that’s what I’m trying to be,
Jekyll and Hyde, in particular, is such an important novel in terms of suspense and setting a perfect scene for crime,Writers I love: Ellroy, Larry Block, Robert Louis Stevenson, Muriel Spark, Anthony Burgess, Chandler... ‘[Edinburgh] was the city of
Jekyll & Hyde, where the template for that story was a real-life Edinburgh character named Deacon William Brodie, who was a gentleman by day and a burglar and murderer by night. He gave Stevenson his story,Another genius Scottish take on the theme of split personalities. Needs no further introduction
