Scan barcode
A review by regitzexenia
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with the Merry Men & Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson
4.0
This review is mostly going to be of the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
I reread this more or less every year in October, just as Bram Stoker's Dracula, for what they both have in common is the way they craft a creepy and uncomfortable horror in a way that is so human that I can not help but be fascinated. Although I know that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person, it is still easy to see and feel that Stevenson has really done a lot to disguise this fact, while also dropping hints. It might have worked better then than it does now, as the phenomenon of a "Jekyll & Hyde" persona has become such a widespread expression that I think most people know a little about this part of history, even if they have not read the book.
But for me it does not take anything away from the book. I like to reread it anyway and noticing the small details in the descriptions. There are many ways that one can choose to interpret the book: an effective portrayal of man's good and bad sides, as something that is in all of us, society's sometimes hypocritical positions on many issues, especially in Stevenson's own time, and there are probably many other interpretations, I have not even thought about. And perhaps that is why I like this book. The hateful, and easy-to-hate Mr Hyde and the mysteriously disappearing, but lovable in everyone's eyes Dr Jekyll are both characters, who most people know, but the book has many ways to see them. The Italian writer Italo Calvino has said "A classic is a book der har never finished saying what it har to say" and for me, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde just such a book.
This review is also found on my blog, here.
I reread this more or less every year in October, just as Bram Stoker's Dracula, for what they both have in common is the way they craft a creepy and uncomfortable horror in a way that is so human that I can not help but be fascinated. Although I know that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person, it is still easy to see and feel that Stevenson has really done a lot to disguise this fact, while also dropping hints. It might have worked better then than it does now, as the phenomenon of a "Jekyll & Hyde" persona has become such a widespread expression that I think most people know a little about this part of history, even if they have not read the book.
But for me it does not take anything away from the book. I like to reread it anyway and noticing the small details in the descriptions. There are many ways that one can choose to interpret the book: an effective portrayal of man's good and bad sides, as something that is in all of us, society's sometimes hypocritical positions on many issues, especially in Stevenson's own time, and there are probably many other interpretations, I have not even thought about. And perhaps that is why I like this book. The hateful, and easy-to-hate Mr Hyde and the mysteriously disappearing, but lovable in everyone's eyes Dr Jekyll are both characters, who most people know, but the book has many ways to see them. The Italian writer Italo Calvino has said "A classic is a book der har never finished saying what it har to say" and for me, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde just such a book.
This review is also found on my blog, here.