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dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Murder
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence
Minor: Child death, Drug use, Toxic friendship
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A perfectly accurate adaption of the original novella. A good read to introduce the source material to younger readers who may be put off by the 'antiquated' language of the original. A fast read, and I enjoyed the art of Daniel Ferren. A bit simple and perhaps too fast for a tense mystery, but still fun.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Murder
Minor: Medical content, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
i feel like ending the book on that final sentence of Jekyll's letter and not pulling back out to Utterson's POV to see his reaction or what people said of the case after is a really effective choice. it makes the darkness of Jekyll ending his life after that whole ordeal land really well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence
Minor: Confinement
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I felt slightly shameful that I’d never interacted with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde before.
I didn’t adore it, but I can see why in 1886 it would’ve been such a hit! 😳
We all know what happens, right? Dr. Jekyll is the well-respected doctor whose alter ego takes the form of Mr. Hyde 🥲
3 out of 5 stars for me, thank you ✨
I didn’t adore it, but I can see why in 1886 it would’ve been such a hit! 😳
3 out of 5 stars for me, thank you ✨
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
While I can understand why this book has become a classic, as it was the first of its kind and an interesting take on good vs evil (which was explored a lot in the Victorian era), I found the novella itself fairly underwhelming. I expected there to be more to the story than "Jekyll is good and Hyde is evil", but there just wasn't. I also didn't find the writing compelling or enjoyable at all. I listened to the audiobook, but I think if I'd been reading the physical book I would have been even more bored.
I think going into the book with the societal knowledge that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person, and that they're two sides of the same coin, makes reading the book largely pointless. I'm sure if I'd read this at the time it was written, or if I'd never heard of Jekyll and Hyde before, I would have enjoyed the story more and been more drawn into it, but as it is it gets 2 stars.
This version also included the short stories 'The Body Snatcher' and 'Olalla'. These were both also fairly meh.
A note also to say that I largely only read this so I could know the source material before reading 'My Dear Henry' by Kalynn Bayron, which is a queer remix of the classic, but I don't think it was necessary at all! You can enjoy the gay version without bothering with this.
I think going into the book with the societal knowledge that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person, and that they're two sides of the same coin, makes reading the book largely pointless. I'm sure if I'd read this at the time it was written, or if I'd never heard of Jekyll and Hyde before, I would have enjoyed the story more and been more drawn into it, but as it is it gets 2 stars.
This version also included the short stories 'The Body Snatcher' and 'Olalla'. These were both also fairly meh.
A note also to say that I largely only read this so I could know the source material before reading 'My Dear Henry' by Kalynn Bayron, which is a queer remix of the classic, but I don't think it was necessary at all! You can enjoy the gay version without bothering with this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Murder
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I did enjoy this, I can see why it did well when it released.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Child abuse
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Body horror
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not bad but nothing special.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Murder
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Violence
Minor: Ableism
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“…I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.”
The legacy that Dr Jekyll and his alter ego, Mr Hyde, have left on the Western world is a strange one. Almost 140 years later, most people can still recognise these characters when they appear onscreen, perhaps even know of the original story they are from, and yet surprisingly few people can say that they’ve actually taken the time to read the novella. I’m here to tell you that it is absolutely worth your time to do so.
While The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde unfortunately hasn’t aged as well as some of its contemporaries, its historical value is nonetheless fascinating as it presents a unique and complex insight into the 19th century psyche. However, I did find without the historical context it’s incredibly easy to miss a lot of the story. The Penguin edition with notes by Robert Mighall phenomenally helps with this, and I couldn’t recommend this version more.
You can tell that Robert Louis Stevenson was an incredibly intelligent man, well-read on the current sciences of his time with equally impressive creativity to boot. I thoroughly enjoyed his writing style, I found it to be very vivid, moody, and even frightening at times. His use of suspense and terror as well is nothing short of remarkable, and I came to notice this more when reading the short stories I was previously unfamiliar with; The Body Snatcher and Olalla. They were great reads, I would say just as much as Jekyll and Hyde was.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Blood, Murder, Alcohol
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Suicide, Cannibalism, Classism
Minor: Racism, Sexism, Death of parent
I do believe it would be wrong to read these works without a level of cynicism. Partly what makes this collection so interesting, but also so backwards, was just how pseudoscientific Victorian era science really was. When reading Stevenson’s work, you start to realise how we have actually held onto many of these pseudoscientific beliefs in our collective unconscious, and noticing this has given me the incentive to finally dismantle it. However, if you find that rampant ableism is too much for your sensibilities, I would give this book a miss.