Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror

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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror by Robert Louis Stevenson

8 reviews

thequeercaseofmarius's review against another edition

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

4.5

“…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.

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riverofhorton's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was a very interesting and in places somewhat unexpected read. I knew the basic premise

that Jekyll and Hyde share the same body with Jekyll being the 'good' side and Hyde being the 'bad' side

, but I hadn't anticipated the subtext of repressed homosexuality contained within the Hyde character. I also hadn't expected one of the characters to be accepting of this,

but questioning of the perceived choice of partner

. I also went into this expecting some discussion of substance use based on other media, but I wasn't expecting

the suicide towards the end, I did find this to have been well done within the context of the story however.

Overall, I enjoyed this story and will likely re-read it in the future

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kananineko's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-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

3.5

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meganpbennett's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

True story: when watching The Avengers (2012) for the first time, after meeting Dr Banner, my mom said, "I take it that was Hulk?" to which I replied, "that was Dr. Jekyll." Turns out I owe poor Bruce an apology. While there are similarities between the two men, reading the book for the first time showed that, as in a lot of classic Victorian horror texts, the adaptations have taken on a life of their own, the monsters from the stories becoming those from the movies, not the books.

As discussed in the introduction to the Signet Classics edition (by no more than Vladimir Nabovok himself), the story is a mediocre detective story, going through the motions of a Victorian mystery. It is, however, a splendid look at how good and evil exist within each person, and how attempting to alter the balance within oneself is not a good idea.

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