Table of Contents
From the Pages of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories
Title Page
Copyright Page
Robert Louis Stevenson
The World of Robert Louis Stevenson and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. ...
Introduction
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
STORY OF THE DOOR
SEARCH FOR MR. HYDE
DR. JEKYLL WAS QUITE AT EASE
THE CAREW MURDER CASE
INCIDENT OF THE LETTER
REMARKABLE INCIDENT OF DR. LANYON
INCIDENT AT THE WINDOW
THE LAST NIGHT
DR. LANYON’S NARRATIVE
HENRY JEKYLL’S FULL STATEMENT OF THE CASE
A Lodging for the Night
A STORY OF FRANCIS VILLON
The Suicide Club
STORY OF THE YOUNG MAN WITH THE CREAM TARTS
STORY OF THE PHYSICIAN AND THE SARATOGA TRUNK
THE ADVENTURE OF THE HANSOM CAB
Thrawn Janet
THRAWN JANET
The Body-Snatcher
THE BODY-SNA TCHER
Markheim
MARKHEIM
Endnotes
Inspired by The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories
Comments Questions
For Further Reading
From the Pages of The Strange
Case of Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde and Other Stories
“You must suffer me to go my own dark way. I have brought on myself a punishment and a danger that I cannot name. If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also. I could not think that this earth contained a place for sufferings and terrors so unmanning.” (from “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” page 36)
All things therefore seemed to point to this; that I was slowly losing hold of my original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second and worse.
(from “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde,” page 70)
“Now you know me as well as I know myself: a fool, but consistent in his folly; and, as I will ask you to believe, neither a whimperer nor a coward.” (from “The Suicide Club,” page 110)
In spite of the iron composure of his features, his eye was wild, scared, and uncertain; and when he dwelt, in private admonitions, on the future of the impenitent, it seemed as if his eye pierced through the storms of time to the terrors of eternity.
(from “Thrawn Janet,” page 187)
Macfarlane, sobered by his fury, chewed the cud of the money he had been forced to squander and the slights he had been obliged to swallow. (from “The Body-Snatcher,” page 212)
Time, now that the deed was accomplished—time, which had closed for the victim, had become instant and momentous for the slayer. (from “Markheim,” page 229)
He played a game of skill, depending on the rules, calculating consequence from cause; and what if nature, as the defeated tyrant overthrew the chess-board, should break the mould of their succession? (from “Markheim,” page 234)
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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was first published in 1886.
“A Lodging for the Night” first appeared in 1877, “The Suicide Club” in 1878,
“Thrawn Janet” in 1881, “The Body-Snatcher” in 1884, and “Markheim” in 1886.
Published in 2003 by Barnes & Noble Classics with new Introduction,
Notes, Biography, Chronology, Inspired By, Comments & Questions, and For
Further Reading. This trade paperback edition published in 2004
Introduction, Notes, and For Further Reading
Copyright @ 2003 by Jenny Davidson.
Note on Robert Louis Stevenson, The World of Robert Louis Stevenson,
Inspired by The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories,
and Comments & Questions
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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories
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eISBN : 978-1-411-43321-2
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Robert Louis Stevenson
The name Robert Louis Stevenson is synonymous with adventure, romance, and the exotic—qualities that characterized the author’s life as well as his fiction. Born in Edinburgh on November 13, 1850, Stevenson contracted in his early years what was probably tuberculosis, a condition that would cause repeated bouts of illness throughout his life. But frequent confinement to the sickbed did not stifle the child’s imagination. The young boy wrote tales based on biblical passages and Scottish history and soon gained a reputation as a storyteller.
In 1867 Stevenson enrolled in Edinburgh University. His family expected that he would join the distinguished line of Stevenson engineers; instead he chose to study the law. But conventional study was, he later claimed, the farthest thing from his mind. “To play the fiddle, to know a good cigar, or to speak with ease and opportunity to all varieties of men”—these were Stevenson’s youthful pursuits, which he sought despite academic and familial consequences.
This self-professed idler was a devoted student of the curriculum he devised for himself. Sometimes on the verge of grave illness, Stevenson wandered through the wilder quarters of Edinburgh, and worked at honing his writing skills by imitating his favorite authors, among them Defoe, Hazlitt, and Montaigne. In 1875 he passed the bar exam, but rather than take up legal practice, he set out for the European continent; his time there is recounted in early essays and travel narratives. While in France Stevenson fell in love with Fanny Osbourne, a married American woman ten years his senior. He joined Fanny in the United States in 1879. Upon her divorce in 1880 she and Stevenson were married; they lived for a short time afterward in northern California.
Stevenson then returned to Edinburgh with Fanny and her son from her first marriage, Lloyd Osbourne. Stevenson’s health was so fragile for the next several years that sometimes he was bedridden; at other times he and his family traveled to the south of France and Switzerland in hopes of restoring his well-being. As in his youth, sickness galvanized rather than diminished his imagination; during this period he composed such classics as Treasure Island (1883), A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885), and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Kidnapped (both 1886). From 1884 to 1887 the family lived in Bournemouth, a resort on England’s south coast.
After his father’s death in 1887, Stevenson and his mother, wife, and stepson moved to America. The
author’s vagabond spirit and quest for better health led the family on a South Seas voyage that would prove to be his greatest adventure; in 1888 they visited the islands of the Marquesas, Tahiti, and Hawaii. During the journey Stevenson suffered a lung hemorrhage, and the family settled in Samoa to attend to his failing health. Stevenson’s works of the period include In the South Seas (1890), which chronicles the clash between Eastern and Western cultures and champion the Samoan people; these writings shocked his friends in Scotland, drew fire from local warring political factions, and nearly provoked his banishment from Samoa.
As Stevenson’s health seriously worsened he felt nostalgia for his native country, although he knew he would not survive a voyage home to Scotland. He collapsed from a brain hemorrhage while at work on his unfinished novel Weir of Hermiston and died on December 3, 1894, in Samoa.
The World of Robert Louis Stevenson and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories
1850 Robert Louis Stevenson is born on November 13 in Edinburgh, the only child of Thomas and Margaret (née Balfour) Stevenson. As a child, he suffers from an illness, probably tuberculosis, which will plague him throughout his life.
1858 Poor health keeps Stevenson bedridden, and he attends school infrequently; tutors educate him at home.
1859 Darwin’s On the Origin of Species is published, as is Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities.
1865 Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is pub lished.
1867 Thomas Stevenson enrolls his son in Edinburgh Uni versity with the hope that he will join the family engi neering firm. The romantic, often sickly young man delights his professors but takes his formal studies lightly. Instead he fraternizes with the citizens of Ed inburgh and spends time imitating the writing style of Michel de Montaigne, William Hazlitt, and Daniel De foe.
1871 To his father’s dismay, Stevenson leaves his engineering studies to pursue a law degree. He continues to develop his true interest, writing. Royal Albert Hall opens in London.
1872 ewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and George El iot’s Middlemarch are published.
1874 Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd appears.
1875 Stevenson passes the bar but decides not to practice law, choosing instead to write and to travel to Europe.
1876 A boat trip down the river Oise in France inspires Ste venson to write the travel narrative An Inland Voyage. In France he meets Fanny Osbourne, a married American woman ten years his senior; the two fall in love.
1878 An Inland Voyage is published. Fanny returns to the United States, leaving Stevenson depressed and mel ancholy. He sets out on a journey through the moun tains of France’s Massif Central and documents it in a narrative that becomes the book Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, published the following year.
1879 In August Stevenson sets out for California to see Fanny. A severe chest infection leaves him on the verge of death.
1880 Having been granted a divorce, Fanny weds Stevenson and nurses him in northern California. The two then return to Edinburgh. During the next four years, be tween bouts of illness, the couple travels to southern France and Switzerland.
1881 Stevenson, inspired by a map he made with his stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, begins thinking about the plot for a story about a search for buried treasure.
1883 Treasure Island is published in book form and becomes a favorite among British readers.
1884 While traveling in southern France, Stevenson is struck by illness. He, Fanny, and Lloyd return to Britain and live from 1884 to 1887 in Bournemouth, a resort on the southern coast of England. Stevenson composes nu merous works in the following two years. He also de velops a friendship with Henry James.
1885 A Child’s Garden of Verses is published.
1886 The Strange Case of Dr. jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Kidnapped are published.
1887 Stevenson’s father dies in May. The remaining family members—Stevenson’s mother, wife, and stepson—journey to America. Memories and Portraits is published.
1888 Stevenson, Fanny, her son, and Stevenson’s mother set sail for the South Seas on the Casco. The family visits many islands, including those of the Marquesas, Tahiti, and Hawaii.
1889 Stevenson visits a leper colony in Molokai to investi gate—and exonerate—a missionary named Father Da mien. The Master of Ballantrae is published.
1890 Stevenson sails throughout the Eastern Pacific until a lung hemorrhage leads him to settle in Samoa. In the South Seas and Father Damien are published.
1891 The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, is published.
1892 Stevenson begins to campaign for Samoan rights against the encroaching Western powers; he publishes A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa.
1893 Stevenson is accused of sedition when he supports the position of a Samoan chief, nearly causing his banish ment from Samoa. Knowing his health will not permit him to return to Scotland, Stevenson feels deep nostal gia for his native country.
1894 Samoa experiences peace, and Stevenson is hailed as a hero. While working on his novel Weir of Hermiston, Ste venson dies of a brain hemorrhage on December 3. He is buried atop Mount Vaea in Samoa.
Introduction
Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella The Strange Case of Dr. jekyll and Mr. Hyde is at once a sharply conceived allegory about the psychological costs of living the respectable life and a thrilling page-turner as compelling as anything written by such modern masters of horror as Clive Barker and Stephen King. Published in January 1886, Stevenson’s story quickly became a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic.
The American actor-manager Richard Mansfield purchased the copyright to Stevenson’s novella with the goal of maintaining exclusive rights for theatrical adaptation, but the copyright laws failed to prevent a host of other impresarios from mounting competing productions; one producer touring in New England advertised that his Mr. Hyde was so terrifying that he had to be kept chained in a boxcar on the way to the theater. Though the text of the adaptation, by playwright Thomas Russell Sullivan, would seem dated and melodramatic to modem readers—as does the trick photograph in which Mansfield’s Hyde crouches behind his Jekyll, ready to spring—the actor’s performance brought to life for his contemporaries all the most terrifying aspects of Stevenson’s story. First acted at the Boston Museum on May 9, 1887, as Mansfield’s biographer Paul Wilstach recounts, Jekyll and Hyde had immensely powerful effects on its audience: “Strong men shuddered and women fainted and were carried out of the theatre.... People went away from ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ afraid to enter their houses alone. They feared to sleep in darkened rooms. They were awakened by nightmare. Yet it had the fascination of crime and mystery, and they came again and again” (Richard Mansfield, the Man and the Actor, pp. 146- 147; see “For Further Reading”).
Spectators found it difficult to believe that Mansfield transformed himself without chemical assistance, and he was charged with using acids, phosphorus, or even an inflatable rubber suit to facilitate the transformation from Jekyll to Hyde. The truth of the matter, Wilstach goes on to say, was that “his only change was in the muscles of his face, the tones of his yielding voice, and the posture of his body” (pp. 147- 148). The account of Mansfield’s friend and fellow actor De Wolf Hopper confirms the effectiveness of the performance. As the two men sat one evening in a darkened room at the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia, Hopper asked Mansfield what he did and how he did it: “ ‘And then and there, only four feet away, under the green light, as that booming clock struck the hour—he did it—changed to Hyde before my very eyes—and I remember that I, startled to pieces, jumped up and cried that I’d ring the bell if he didn’t stop!’ ” (Wilstach, p. 155) .
The great Victorian actor Henry Irving soon invited Mansfield to bring his production to the Lyceum Theatre in London, and Jekyll and Hyde opened there on August 4, 1888. On the last day of August, however, an event took place that would transform the significance of Mansfield’s production
and, indeed, of Stevenson’s story as well. The mutilated corpse of a prostitute was discovered in the East End of London, the first in a series of five or more murders attributed to the terrifying figure who would come to be known as Jack the Ripper. The Ripper cut his victims’ throats, sliced open their torsos, and removed their organs; he was suspected of having trained as either a butcher or a medical man.
As subsequent bodies were discovered, London went wild with fear. Reporters drew public attention to the extraordinary poverty and squalor of Whitechapel in the East End, where most of the murders took place, and pointed to the hypocrisy of a society that allowed such neighborhoods to exist in the face of the nation’s great prosperity, thereby encouraging the emergence of a monster like the Ripper. Amid riots and public frenzies, many citizens wrote letters to the newspapers and the police suggesting precautions that might be taken to prevent more murders. These suggestions ranged from providing better street lighting and giving policemen whistles as a rapid warning system, to arming prostitutes with revolvers, or even dressing up police officers as prostitutes and protecting their throats and torsos with metal corsets, perhaps attached to batteries that would electrocute the unwary attacker. Many of these letters singled out prominent members of society as suspects in the Ripper murders. At the peak of the frenzy the police received more than a thousand letters a week, and the actor Richard Mansfield was among those charged with being responsible for the Whitechapel murders. As Donald Rumbelow relates in his history of the crimes, “The writer accusing Mansfield had not been able to rest for a day and a night after seeing the performance, claiming that no man could disguise himself so well and that, since Mansfield worked himself up to such a frenzy on stage, he probably did the real life murders too” (The Complete, jack the Ripper, p. 124).
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories (Barnes & Noble Classi Page 1