The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Title: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Genre: Mystery, Horror, Suspense, Gothic

Time: 1.5 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book more that 100 years old

With my experience with The Great Gatsby, I knew I that wanted a light and short read for this challenge.  So I decided to go with The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  I was vaguely familiar with the story probably from one of those children’s books I’ve read or most likely a cartoon show I’ve watched.  I have always known, more or less, the plot but I never bothered to find out the exact details of this book before.

 

It started somewhat dragging for the reason of how it was written.  Being an old book, the kind of dialogue used was from “olden” times.  It kinda reminds me of the readings I had for my Philosophy classes like Sarte or Marcel.  But as I reached around the 2^nd (or was it 3^rd?) chapter, you kinda get the rhythm of it and glide through the paragraphs.

 

The one thing I was surprised to know was Mr. Hyde wasn’t this giant monster.  He was, in fact, small in stature.  He was described as dwarfish.  Maybe it was just artistic license that the succeeding adaptations made his character big or maybe I just remembered it wrong.  Or perhaps, his being pure evil gave him a larger than life persona.

 

As the book began to conclude, I was surprised to see myself looking forward to solving the big mystery along with the lawyer, Utterson.  Surprised because I already knew that Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde were one and the same person but I found myself anticipating the conclusion still the same.  Maybe I thought that the original version is more sinister than the adaptations I’ve known, kinda like the sanitized Disney versions of Hans Christian Anderson’s stories.  But it wasn’t, Dr. Jekyll is Mr. Hyde and vice versa.  And yes, the potion he drank caused the transformation.  But it was still a satisfying end nonetheless.

 

With that, the only question I have is—I wonder what “vices” Dr. Jekyll indulged in that he feared discovery?  The book never really went into details.  Given that this was written almost 130 years ago, those vices would probably be very tame in today’s’ standards.