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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I wish that I could have read this without knowing anything about it. I wonder if I would have been surprised by the truth of Jekyll and Hyde like I imagine the first readers were? While I didn't enjoy the way this story was told (the entire story played out and then ended with Jekyll explaining everything) I do understand why it needed to be done that way to maintain suspense. I see this method in other works like Conan Doyle's <i>A Study in Scarlet</i>. I'll be keeping my eyes out for more of this trend in Victorian literature.
One of those classics that make you wonder how it came to be so.
fast-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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
dark
mysterious
tense
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
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
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
No
Short, powerful, and terrifying! I first read this book in high school and remember how chilling it seemed, from start to finish. Stevenson is a wonderful young adult author, before there was such a thing. The pacing is perfect, stringing out the mystery, the story, the clues, and the sudden smack of ultimate realization.
Reading as an adult, I enjoy it just as much, but I'm also struck by its scientific value. Pharmacology didn't exist in Stevenson's day, so as an imaginative creation, it's a science fiction marvel on par with H.G. Wells or Jules Verne. The ancient idea that mental illness was intimately connected to angels, demons, good, and evil yielded very slowly and stubbornly to the modern science of mind. So to re-imagine a spell-inducing potion or tincture in the hands of an inquiring early scientist and to turn it into a story of hubris is quite the literary feat. What is Mr. Hyde if not the chemically induced essence of Dr. Jekyll's shadow (in the Jungian sense of the word)? The mere suggestion that mankind could turn a scientific eye on those ancient potions and tinctures and rid the world of mental demons is as profound an idea as building a ship to sail to the moon. The fact that we've done both these things in the intervening century ought to give one pause over just how magnificent our accomplishments have been in so short a span of time. And the ending to Jekyll and Hyde ought to serve as a prophetic warning against taking these things too far.
Reading as an adult, I enjoy it just as much, but I'm also struck by its scientific value. Pharmacology didn't exist in Stevenson's day, so as an imaginative creation, it's a science fiction marvel on par with H.G. Wells or Jules Verne. The ancient idea that mental illness was intimately connected to angels, demons, good, and evil yielded very slowly and stubbornly to the modern science of mind. So to re-imagine a spell-inducing potion or tincture in the hands of an inquiring early scientist and to turn it into a story of hubris is quite the literary feat. What is Mr. Hyde if not the chemically induced essence of Dr. Jekyll's shadow (in the Jungian sense of the word)? The mere suggestion that mankind could turn a scientific eye on those ancient potions and tinctures and rid the world of mental demons is as profound an idea as building a ship to sail to the moon. The fact that we've done both these things in the intervening century ought to give one pause over just how magnificent our accomplishments have been in so short a span of time. And the ending to Jekyll and Hyde ought to serve as a prophetic warning against taking these things too far.