Helle's Reviews > Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

This short novel, or novella, is a good example of how our culture and the media have influenced us
and imparted knowledge to us about books we haven’t even read. While I haven’t actually seen any
movie versions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I can’t remember ever not knowing what it was about.
This meant that there were no big surprises for me while reading in, and I imagine that a Victorian
reader, when the novel came out, would have suffered a much greater (intended) shock upon
reading it.

In sum, it is about the duality of man, the struggle between different parts of our being – the
civilized vs. the primal, good vs. evil – though the twist in this book is that the good doctor chooses, more or less, to go over to the dark side. It thus also becomes a story of addiction, about the mask that we show others and about self-destruction, ostensibly things we are all capable of but which society, at least Victorian society, represses. It is perhaps thee story about this timeless topic, although for a modern reader and movie-goer the story felt a little quaint and simple at times, but that is no fault of Stevenson’s. The tone, likewise, felt a bit dated at times, certainly inspired by Poe, and yet that was also part of the reason why if felt like one of the true original works belonging to the horror genre. 3,5 stars