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Reviews tagging 'Violence'
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde / Der seltsame Fall von Dr. Jekyll und Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
68 reviews
sofipitch's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I listened to this on a long car ride. I really enjoyed it. I know Dr. Jeckyll needed to be a chemist to make his potion but it would make a lot of sense if he were a politician or businessman.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Ableism
waytoomanybooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
It's interesting to read this through a modern lens when everyone already knows the twist. I can see how shaken the audience of the day would have felt! The book is spookier and creepier than I thought it would be.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Suicide, and Violence
ggcd1981's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde é terror/ficção científica gótico. Cada vez mais me convenço de que terror gótico é um dos meus sub-generos preferidos. Tive um pouco de dificuldade com o inglês da obra original, porém não foi empecilho para desfrutar essa obra. Durante toda a história a atmosfera é sombria e intrigante. Todo o tempo se percebe que a história caminha para um final sombrio, as perguntas são "qual" e "como". Gostaria de ter lido sem saber nada sobre a história, infelizmente já era familiar com a resposta ao "grande" mistério da obra. Mesmo assim a atmosfera sombria e a história em si me mantiveram interessada, mesmo sabendo a resposta. Sem dúvida, até este momento, uma das melhores novelas que li. Daria 4.5 estrelas, mas como goodreads no momento não me permite terei que dar 4 estrelas, pois 5 reservo para obras que tem um significado mais profundo para mim.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Murder, and Suicide
Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Mental illness, and Violence
cpruskee's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
knightbirds's review against another edition
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Suicide, Violence, and Drug abuse
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
wolfiegrrrl's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The story is told to us through other characters' exposition rather than shown to us through much action. This is supposed to lend the story an element of mystery and the readers are supposed to question/doubt the reliability of the narrators of each version of the events being told. This can be an effective method of storytelling if the narrators are interesting characters that make us want to follow them on this journey, but I unfortunately did not find them to be very engaging.
The introductory essay by Vladimir Nabokov in this Signet Classic suggests that the characters whose eyes we see Jekyll's story through are written specifically to be the common everyman so that the readers would think it possible that such an unreal story could be true - if an everyman could believe it in the story, then surely it shouldn't sound so farfetched! - but the effect this technique had on me was underwhelming. No matter how hard I tried, I could not bring myself to think Utterson was anything other than dull and that may have spoiled some of the story's punch for me even if I could easily see how he came to the conclusions he did with the information he was given.
I did find Jekyll's letter at the end of the story to be an interesting character study. It is tempting to portray the doctor as a martyr who sacrifices himself for the greater good of mankind in an ultimately failed experiment, as many adaptations do, but to come into this story with that mindset does the character much injustice. He is a flawed human, just as we all are, who ultimately embarks on a selfish adventure and his entire journey becomes an object lesson in how unavoidable (and undeniable) the duality of man truly is. Once you give in to the temptation of being a malicious person and make a habit of it, "turning back" becomes harder and harder to do.
That aside, I must add that I enjoyed Dan Chaon's afterword at the end of this book far more than Nabokov's essay at the beginning. Perhaps that is in part due to the fact that these two sections were written decades apart by two different personalities, but mostly I found the essay to be pretentious, condescending, and boring. In all fairness, it was originally taken from Nabokov's Lectures on Literature and it definitely felt like I was back in a college literature course with a teacher who clearly thinks he's "not like other professors" just because he doesn't like detective stories and prefers staged theatre over motion pictures. There were some interesting nuggets of analysis in the lecture between the back-patting and the heavy quoting from the text, but it droned on and on in monotony and was the most difficult part of the book for me to finish.
Conversely, Dan Chaon's afterward is a curious speculative piece that discusses adaptation and allegory, and their effect on how we understand the classic story of Jekyll and Hyde. In that sense, it complements Nabokov's analytical lecture rather well and is a breath of fresh air after Nabokov started off this publication by condemning adaptation for ruining the true nature of Stevenson's "most wonderful book." Analysis and adaptation go hand in hand, and both are equally valid ways of consuming a piece of media. For such a story about duality, it is perfectly fitting that it should be bookended by such complementary yet differing perspectives.
The introductory essay by Vladimir Nabokov in this Signet Classic suggests that the characters whose eyes we see Jekyll's story through are written specifically to be the common everyman so that the readers would think it possible that such an unreal story could be true - if an everyman could believe it in the story, then surely it shouldn't sound so farfetched! - but the effect this technique had on me was underwhelming. No matter how hard I tried, I could not bring myself to think Utterson was anything other than dull and that may have spoiled some of the story's punch for me even if I could easily see how he came to the conclusions he did with the information he was given.
I did find Jekyll's letter at the end of the story to be an interesting character study. It is tempting to portray the doctor as a martyr who sacrifices himself for the greater good of mankind in an ultimately failed experiment, as many adaptations do, but to come into this story with that mindset does the character much injustice. He is a flawed human, just as we all are, who ultimately embarks on a selfish adventure and his entire journey becomes an object lesson in how unavoidable (and undeniable) the duality of man truly is. Once you give in to the temptation of being a malicious person and make a habit of it, "turning back" becomes harder and harder to do.
That aside, I must add that I enjoyed Dan Chaon's afterword at the end of this book far more than Nabokov's essay at the beginning. Perhaps that is in part due to the fact that these two sections were written decades apart by two different personalities, but mostly I found the essay to be pretentious, condescending, and boring. In all fairness, it was originally taken from Nabokov's Lectures on Literature and it definitely felt like I was back in a college literature course with a teacher who clearly thinks he's "not like other professors" just because he doesn't like detective stories and prefers staged theatre over motion pictures. There were some interesting nuggets of analysis in the lecture between the back-patting and the heavy quoting from the text, but it droned on and on in monotony and was the most difficult part of the book for me to finish.
Conversely, Dan Chaon's afterward is a curious speculative piece that discusses adaptation and allegory, and their effect on how we understand the classic story of Jekyll and Hyde. In that sense, it complements Nabokov's analytical lecture rather well and is a breath of fresh air after Nabokov started off this publication by condemning adaptation for ruining the true nature of Stevenson's "most wonderful book." Analysis and adaptation go hand in hand, and both are equally valid ways of consuming a piece of media. For such a story about duality, it is perfectly fitting that it should be bookended by such complementary yet differing perspectives.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Violence
Minor: Suicide
bedneyauthor's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Death and Violence
Minor: Mental illness
jowmy4's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I really like the way this story is told, from several different perspectives, while managing to maintain a sense of the immediacy of a threat or danger. While modern audiences are likely to already know what is revealed at the end, the way all the threads of the 'mystery' lead towards the end and the eventual reveal remain satisfying.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Violence
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