The Suicide Club

By Robert Louis Stevenson

A generous and remarkable young prince, together with his loyal and brave servant, find more adventure than they bargained for in The Suicide Club, Robert Louis Stevenson's engrossing trilogy of short stories about a bizarre club for people with a strong desire to end their lives.
In these interrelated tales, Prince Florizel of Bohemia and his aide, Colonel Geraldine, travel incognito through some of the most dangerous haunts of 19th-century London. "The Story of the Young Man with the Cream Tarts" introduces Florizel to the formidable Suicide Club, an organization for people who wish to end their lives, but don't have the courage to accomplish the act themselves. The "Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk" reveals the grim contents of a large piece of luggage that travels hundreds of miles to its final destination; and in "The Adventure of the Hansom Cab," a bloody resolution seals the fate of a notorious and elusive assassin.
Brimming with heart-stopping drama, this rare, lesser-known work by a master storyteller will appeal to a wide circle of readers, including fans of the great 19th-century English writer as well as lovers of a good mystery story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Release date: Apr 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9780486112947

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was a Scottish poet, novelist, and travel writer. Born the son of a lighthouse engineer, Stevenson suffered from a lifelong lung ailment that forced him to travel constantly in search of warmer climates. Rather than follow his father’s footsteps, Stevenson pursued a love of literature and adventure that would inspire such works as Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped (1886), Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), and Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879).

Book preview

Story of the Young Man with the Cream Tarts

DURING HIS residence in London, the accomplished Prince Florizel of Bohemia gained the affection of all classes by the seduction of his manner and by a well-considered generosity. He was a remarkable man even by what was known of him; and that was but a small part of what he actually did. Although of a placid temper in ordinary circumstances, and accustomed to take the world with as much philosophy as any ploughman, the Prince of Bohemia was not without a taste for ways of life more adventurous and eccentric than that to which he was destined by his birth. Now and then, when he fell into a low humour, when there was no laughable play to witness in any of the London theatres, and when the season of the year was unsuitable to those field sports in which he excelled all competitors, he would summon his confidant and Master of the Horse, Colonel Geraldine, and bid him prepare himself against an evening ramble. The Master of the Horse was a young officer of a brave and even temerarious disposition. He greeted the news with delight, and hastened to make ready. Long practice and a varied acquaintance of life had given him a singular facility in disguise; he could adapt not only his face and bearing, but his voice and almost his thoughts, to those of any rank, character, or nation; and in this way he diverted attention from the Prince, and sometimes gained admission for the pair into strange societies. The civil authorities were never taken into the secret of these adventures; the imperturbable courage of the one and the ready invention and chivalrous devotion of the other had brought them through a score of dangerous passes; and they grew in confidence as time went on.

One evening in March they were driven by a sharp fall of sleet into an Oyster Bar in the immediate neighbourhood of Leicester Square. Colonel Geraldine was dressed and painted to represent a person connected with the Press in reduced circumstances; while the Prince had, as usual, travestied his appearance by the addition of false whiskers and a pair of large adhesive eyebrows. These lent him a shaggy and weather-beaten air, which, for one of his urbanity, formed the most impenetrable disguise. Thus equipped, the commander and his satellite sipped their brandy and soda in security.

The bar was full of guests, both male and female; but though more than one of these offered to fall into talk with our adventurers, none of them promised to grow interesting upon a nearer acquaintance. There was nothing present but the lees of London and the commonplace of disrespectability; and the Prince had already fallen to yawning, and was beginning to grow weary of the whole excursion, when the swing doors were pushed violently open, and a young man, followed by a couple of commissionaires, entered the bar. Each of the commissionaires carried a large dish of cream tarts under a cover, which they at once removed; and the young man made the round of the company, and pressed these confections upon everyone’s acceptance with an exaggerated courtesy. Sometimes his offer was laughingly accepted; sometimes it was firmly, or even harshly, rejected. In these latter cases the new-comer always ate the tart himself, with some more or less humourous commentary.

At last he accosted Prince Florizel.

Sir, said he, with a profound obeisance, proferring the tart at the same time between his thumb and forefinger, will you so far honour an entire stranger? I can answer for the quality of the pastry, having eaten two dozen and three of them myself since five o’clock.

I am in the habit, replied the Prince, of looking not so much to the nature of a gift as to the spirit in which it is offered.

The spirit, sir, returned the young man, with another bow, is one of mockery.

Mockery? repeated Florizel. And whom do you propose to mock?

I am not here to expound my philosophy, replied the other, but to distribute these cream tarts. If I mention that I heartily include myself in the ridicule of the transaction, I hope you will consider honour satisfied and condescend. If not, you will constrain me to eat my twenty-eighth, and I own to being weary of the exercise.

You touch me, said the Prince, and I have all the will in the world to rescue you from this dilemma, but upon one condition. If my friend and I eat your cakes—for which we have neither of us any natural inclination—we shall expect you to join us at supper, by way of recompense.

The young man seemed to reflect.

I have still several dozen upon hand, he said at last; and that will make it necessary for me to visit several more bars before my great affair is concluded. This will take some time; and if you are hungry——

The Prince interrupted him with a polite gesture.

My friend and I will accompany you, he said: for we have already a deep interest in your very agreeable mode of passing an evening. And now that the preliminaries of peace are settled, allow me to sign the treaty for both.

And the Prince swallowed the tart with the best grace imaginable.

It is delicious, said he.

I perceive you are a connoisseur, replied the young man.

Colonel Geraldine likewise did honour to the pastry; and every one in that bar having now either accepted or refused his delicacies, the young man with the cream tarts led the way to another and similar establishment. The two commissionaires, who seemed to have grown accustomed to their absurd employment, followed immediately after; and the Prince and the Colonel brought up the rear, arm in arm, and smiling to each other as they went. In this order the company visited two other taverns, where scenes were enacted of a like nature to that already described—some refusing, some accepting, the favours of this vagabond hospitality, and the young man himself eating each rejected tart.

On leaving the third saloon the young man counted his store. There were but nine remaining, three in one tray and six in the other.

Gentlemen, said he, addressing himself to his two followers, I am unwilling to delay your supper. I am positively sure you must be hungry. I feel that I owe you a special consideration. And on this great day for me, when I am closing a career of folly by my most conspicuously silly action, I wish to behave handsomely to all who give me countenance. Gentlemen, you shall wait no longer. Although my constitution is shattered by previous excesses, at the risk of my life I liquidate the suspensory condition.

With these words he crushed the nine remaining tarts into his mouth, and swallowed them at a single movement each. Then, turning to the commissionaires, he gave them a couple of sovereigns.

I have to thank you, said he, for your extraordinary patience.

And he dismissed them with a bow apiece. For some seconds he stood looking at the purse from which he had just paid his assistants, then, with a laugh, he tossed it into the middle of the street, and signified his readiness for supper.

In a small French restaurant in Soho, which had enjoyed an exaggerated reputation for some little while, but had already begun to be forgotten, and in a private room up two pair of stairs, the three companions made a very elegant supper, and drank three or four bottles of champagne, talking the while upon indifferent subjects. The young man was fluent and gay, but he laughed louder than was natural in a person of polite breeding; his hands trembled violently, and his voice took sudden and surprising inflections, which seemed to be independent of his will. The dessert had been cleared away, and all three had lighted their cigars, when the Prince addressed him in these words:—

"You will, I am sure, pardon my curiosity. What I have seen of you has greatly pleased but even more puzzled me. And though I should be loath to seem indiscreet, I must tell you that my friend and I are persons very well worthy to be entrusted with a secret. We have many of our own, which we are continually revealing to improper ears.

Reviews for The Suicide Club

[26kathryn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An intriguing three part mystery story based around the Prince of Bohemia and his discovery of a secret club for men who want to end their lives. After discovering the club, the Prince then takes it upon himself to make the leader of the club pay for his crimes.I enjoyed the first part of the story where we are first introduced to the Suicide Club itself. I didn't enjoy the second and third parts of the story quite as much, but it was interesting how they were all connected to each other.

[geoffhabiger · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I honestly don't remember if I ever read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when I was younger. Of course, I knew the tale (in passing), though what I "knew" was always tinted through the lens of pop culture references to the character. Stevenson's tale, and his description of Mr. Hyde, is very different from many of the more "monstrous" characterizations of the character, and honestly I think that these retellings do an injustice to Stevenson's work. Hyde is a monster for sure, an purely evil man, but having him be a shriveled, gnarled man who can illicit fear and revulsion by his mere presence, but who can speak as a gentleman is a much more compelling take than as a rampaging hulk. (I'm glaring at you, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.) I picked up this copy through my library to listen on my daily commute. The story was very good, and is befitting its place as a classic of story-telling. Robert Louis Stevenson does a great job of setting the scenes and letting the reader explore the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and his alter ego. The method that Stevenson uses is one that probably wouldn't work in today's market - with most of the story told through the exposition of letters and confessions that are read, as opposed to the readers experiencing the shock of "seeing" the strange transformation from Utterson's perspective. My enjoyment of this particular telling of the story was a bit diminished by the pronunciation of the title's namesake - Dr. Henry Jekyll. I am an American, and I have always heard the name pronounced as "Jeh-kill". The narrator, the amazingly talented Sir Ian Holm, pronounced it as "Jee-kil" - a long "E" sound, rather than the soft "E" I am familiar with. Everything else about Holm's reading was wonderful, and I really enjoyed it, but every time he said Dr. Jekyll's name I would go "who? oh, he means the main character". Overall I liked the book and I am glad that I have read it. If you have never read the original story, and like me are only aware of the tale through second and third-hand pop culture references, then I highly recommend you pick it up.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Een Victoriaanse klassieker, terecht. Beklemmend geschreven, met een mooie opbouw.

[ghr4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It would have been a treat to read Robert Louis Stevenson's classic horror tale Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde without the foreknowledge of the now familiar story or having seeen its multiple film adaptations. A well deserved sensation when first published, it remains a sturdy tale of terror, psychological conflict, and the frightening duality of human nature. Stevenson artfully lays out clues for the reader to guess the identity of Mr. Hyde, and the final chapter, recasting the events from Dr. Jekyll's viewpoint, provides a chilling conclusion.

[msaucier818 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another classic that I surprisingly enjoyed. This story is well known to anyone who has followed anything to do with pop-culture, but as is often the case, the original was not all that similar to the many different adaptations. The story is basically about Dr. Jeckyll and his journey into becoming two people. Mr. Hyde is obviously his evil side, and the story simply goes through how it came to be and the torments of the Dr. in dealing with the transition. A good story that looks into the human mind and its through process. It does not evolve into any comic book type of story and Mr. Hyde is not a tragic character.

This was a super-quick read and I would recommend it to any fans of literature.

[rajivc_18 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I had read this book many years back, and read it again. It is indeed one of the more fascinating books that I have read. It's been a while since I read some of the old classics ( I started with Bertie Wooster!), and it took one or two pages before I got back into the swing of it allThe concept is incredible, and does indeed hark to the present when we are trying all sorts of brain and other experiments. It does teach us the dangers of meddling too much with biology, and playing God. Beautiful book, Needs to be widely read again

[joe73-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great story. Should have been a bit longer. But all things considered I can really respect the writer for keeping it short. In many cases writers from this period tend to go on and on. If Stoker would have penned this it would have never ended and rolled over into the realm of politics. The story was very effective in showing the division between the personalities. This was a relief from Prince Otto which I read in the same day.

[hopeevey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like most folks, I knew the broad outline of this story, but hadn't actually read it. I'm very glad I did. It's both simpler, and more complex, than a tale of one man split between his higher and his baser selves.

The telling is a combination of memior, and epistilary. Dr. Jeckyll's solicitor tells the story, including reading out some documents, including Dr. Jeckyll's final confession. Through the narrative, we meet a group of wholely believeable characters, through a beautifully structured tale. The writing is lovely and engaging. And the more I think about the plot, the more impressed I become. Generally, I can find a hole or two, but I don't mind in a well-told tale, or a story about really good characters. In this case, I can't find any. Nothing happens purely out of narrative imperative. Even at the end, it makes perfect sense that Edward Hyde not only wants, but needs to return to being Dr. Jeckyll, for all that he hates him.

This is a wonderful example of Sciene Fiction, and hard s/f at that. It is a chemical compound that allows him to seperate himself into two identities. The author very neatly keeps the experiment from being duplicated - the effect was caused by an unkown impurity in an indgredient. Dr. Jeckyll himself tries desperately to recreate the compound, but cannot. I simple makes sense that no one else is able to, either.

The story says volumes about the morals and philosopy of morals of the time. Dr. Jeckyll is trying to divorce himself from what he considers his baser urges. Those urges become a seperate identity, which takes on an outer shape reflecting his inner nature. It's taken for granted that morality or lack thereof would be obvious on someone's face.

Dr. Jeckyll may have been, originally, trying to put aside his baser urges. His chemical compound, however, gave him a way to indulge those urges, without consequence to himself. If Edward Hyde indulged in reprehensible acts, no one would think it had anything to do with Dr. Jeckyll. Even those who knew there was a connection, assumed that Hyde was blackmailing Jeckyll.

I find myself comparing this to the Orginal Series Star Trek Episode, "The Enemy Within". (Yes, everything in the world is connected to Star Trek. Hush.) In this episode, a transporter accident splits Captain Kirk into two men. They're physically identical, but one has all of Kirk's higher, gentler aspects, and the other has all of his baser, more violent aspects. The acting (Yes, there was so acting. Didn't I tell you to hush?) was the only difference between the two Kirks. And, unlike the good Dr. Jeckyll, Kirk found his salvation not in repression, but in integration. To be his best self, he needed both his angel and his devil.

Dr. Jeckyll, however, found that give way to his darker side gave that side power. To him and his contemporaries, Kirk's solution was unthinkable. The baser part of man was a thing to be fought, suppressed, ideally to be killed entirely. Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde is a dramatic lesson in the dangers of giving way to your baser urges. At the end, it was just thinking like Hyde that brought on the transformation; that part of him had become that strong.

I don't, personally, subscribe to that philosophy. But you don't have to agree with the underlying philosophy to be moved by the tale. Dr. Jeckyll let something dangerous into his life. Once he realized just how dangerous, he stopped using the compound, and put Hyde out of his mind entirely. But he gave into temptation. You could imagine him thinking, "It'll be okay just this one time." Who hasn't thought that? But that one more time was his undoing.

[heycaye · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book would have shocked me more if only I didn't know what the real mystery was. But Stevenson's novella (I actually think it's more like a short story) is such a masterpiece that it's inevitably being referred to a lot of times. In my case I first heard of it through Van Helsing, and I was really fascinated by the thought of having dual identities. I even went so far as to name my two sim cards (my phone's dual-sim) after Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. #deadserious

So now, at least I know what the story behind the two famous characters really is. It sounded more like a mandatory thing to me, reading this book. (Though I hoped it wasn't! If only I read this before getting wind of the cultural references) :)

[librarylou · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Classic gothic horror story.

[maxernst11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Een Victoriaanse klassieker, terecht. Beklemmend geschreven, met een mooie opbouw.

[gonzalo8046 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nice short read. Even though you know the ending ten pages in, I still enjoyed it.

[regoodrich · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another spectacular book by Robert Louis Stevenson. His writing enthralls me! It's so easy to find yourself held spellbound by his description of settings and characters and mood, painting such a clear picture of every aspect of the story that you can't help but shudder as if experiencing the horrors in person. One of my favorite written descriptions sets a clear image of the early-morning, fog-laden streets of London and the eeriness accompanying the pursuit of a murderer.

"It was by this time about nine in the morning, and the first fog of the season. A great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over heaven, but the wind was continually charging and routing these embattled vapours; so that as the cab crawled from street to street, Mr. Utterson beheld a marvelous number of degrees and hues of twilight; for here it would be dark like the back-end of evening; and there would be a glow of rich, lurid brown, like the light of some strange conflagaration; and here, for a moment, the fog would be quite broken up, and a haggard shaft of daylight would glance in between the swirling wreaths. The dismal quarter of Soho seen under these changing glimpses, with its muddy ways, and slatternly passengers, and its lamps, which had never been extinguished or had been kindled afresh to combat this mournful reinvasion of darkness, seemed, in the lawyer's eyes, like a district of some city in a nightmare."

And this...perfect words to describe the awful demon that was Mr. Edward Hyde.

"Is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that thus transpires through, and transfigures, its clay continent? ....O my poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan's signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend.(Edward Hyde)"

I enjoyed this tale; a dark glimpse into the struggles of every man, resisting or succumbing to vile temptations. This was a short story, but an intense read.

[robert.zimmermann · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't sure what to really expect with this one. Yes, it's a classic that "everyone knows about," but I didn't really know what it was about going into reading it. I knew there was a Doctor who turns himself into Mr. Hyde (pure evil). I didn't really know the specifics or anything about other characters or story line in general.

I have a somewhat ignorance with a good amount of classic books. I know them, I know enough to want to read them, but I don't peruse them further until I read them. This helps give me a fresh reaction to the story.

So my reaction to this story was great overall. Like many classics I actually listened to the audiobook version (librivox.org is GREAT for this and my budget) because it helps me read them at a good pace and makes it easier for me to pay attention. I just can't read some of the writing sometimes no matter how beautiful. Ok, back to the review, haha. It was a great story with a mystery and a great moral dilemma about good and evil. I won't really get into much more though. I know it's short and I'm not saying really anything at all. But I really like Stevenson's writing and the horror added into the mystery of what's going on. I've read Treasure Island only from him, so this is number 2 I've read. I'll have to now go and read more of him since I'm enjoying it.

[max3tyrone · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

With a classic name in literature, one should read this story of duality sans the preconception of it; otherwise, this will kind of seem boring due to the myriad of other stories akin to the theme. While I am quick to admit that a general audience of today will have a hard time finishing this novel due to the lack of today's immediacy, I will too admit that I did not enjoy this novel as much as any other story of good versus evil. I appreciated that it came out in its time; however, I personally look for something more, something beyond good and evil, something beyond duality. The story overall didn't do me much service, neither: I felt that everything hung on Dr. Jekyll's account at the end of the novel, which gave a great insight on the struggle between two moral magnets. However, to read a story as something witnessed, then something explained, can either resonate well with me or not. The witnessing of madness in this novel left much to be desired, at least on my account.A great read if you're starting on the duality of man.

[something_-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I fantom I would have liked this book a lot more if I didn't already know from the start who was Hyde. Nevertheless, it was actually very interesting once the "action" picked up. Although I found Utterson somewhat boring at times, the ending of the book made it worth it to see it through. The most interesting part was definitely the explanation of Dr Jekyll himself at the end, which I read eagerly. Overall, it was a nice book.

[cyderry · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Each year I try to read a few CLASSICS just so that I can mark them off my list. I usually don't care for the stories or writing and have a hard time making it through the book, however, this one surprised me. The story was different than what I had imagined.Dr. Jekyll is the good guy and he has worked on a formula which will separate his baser nature from his kind and good attributes. Unfortunately, he loses control of Mr. Hyde (the bad guy) and must surrender his life to protect others.

[leslie398 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I thought that I would give this classic another try via audiobook but my overall impression remains that this is one case where the movie is better (specifically the 1941 version with Spencer Tracy).

[a.berry · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"He was wild when he was young; a long while ago to be sure; but in the law of God there is no statute of limitations." - Utterson, Esq.The best thing about old books is the detail in the writing. It makes more obvious the complacency of mind found in the generation of television and wifi.Henry Jekyll recognized that man has two persons living inside them - both good and evil. He was bored with being the "good doctor" and wanted to indulge in mischief without being held accountable for his actions, so he freed his murderous, unscrupulous self in the form of Edward Hyde. At first, had it not been for his evil other's indifference toward him, Jekyll would have been tempted to remain the depraved Mr. Hyde, but eventually they came to resent one another and Hyde became Jekyll's ruin as happens when one chooses their evil self.I'm glad I read this book. I was expecting Mr. Hyde to be as big and ugly as he is in movies, but he was actually a petite man who had an appetite for very bad coupled with a malevolent countenance and a look of deformity that no one could put their finger on.Goodread!

[booklove2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was time to read this classic as it seems to be culturally everywhere at the moment. I'm in no way a writer, but I would have formatted this book to tell this story entirely differently. It might be presumptuous of me, but I like how it exists in my head better. (Alternating points of view from both Jekyll and Hyde with vastly different writing styles... halfway through the book you find it is the same person. Hyde slowly taking over by the end.) Maybe that is the fault of books being culturally everywhere all of the time: vaguely making assumptions about how it is written if you know the story. I didn't like the perspective from outside people ie: the lawyer. It's the only complaint I would have of a book like Bronte's Wuthering Heights: the housekeeper is telling the story and no matter how much she might have known Catherine or Heathcliff, no one can REALLY know everything from one person's perspective. Imagine the book being from Catherine and Heathcliff's POVs! Oh the drama! I thoroughly enjoyed the section on Stevenson's crazy dreams in my Broadview edition. And I thought I had crazy dreams! If he had dreams like that this book really should be better...sorry, Stevenson.

[ameise1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was an amusing listening. What first began as completely harmless showed itself with time as a transformation comedy of the first kind. I like how Stevenson leads the reader very slowly to the two protagonists, in order then to give an extra tension with a fulminate turn of the story.

[shaunesay · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first time I've ever read the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I'll admit I had no idea it was written by the same author as Treasure Island, which I also have not read yet. I would not have put those two ideas to the same author, so it's been enlightening all around! It's also amazing to me what a short story this really was, only 94 pages, to have inspired so many adaptations and interpretations, movies, etc.

It was an interesting dark fantasy tale with an important lesson about giving in to our baser natures. The more we indulge them, the more it becomes who we are until we're no longer able to hide or control those tendencies.

[mmmmtoasty · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Beautifully written and exquisitely deep, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde turns out to be more than just a horror book set out to disturb people suffering from OCD and Christians alike with its implication that self-control in relation to our temptations and impulses is one of the only things keeping us from turning into human equivalents of D&D pleasure-seeking demons. There's a bit more to this idea of course, as certain factors add for some ambiguity and complexity, such as Nabakov's mentioning in the intro to the book that Dr. Jekyll is neither completely "good", nor is Hyde completely "evil", with one of the more interesting lines in the book, at least in its relation to Freudian theory, being Hyde's response of "with pleasure" to someone asking a favor of him. There are other interesting aspects as well, such as the fact that Hyde's "evil" acts were most often not out of pleasure (or perhaps never?), but rather out of impulsive fits of rage. This is one quip I have with the book, as it's never really explained why Hyde goes into his "causeless angers", other than a small diatribe talking about him treating his victims like an angered child interacting with a toy. It's possible I may have missed the attribution to his killings, but otherwise, a killer without motive other than "hulk smash" at random moments of impatience, because that's apparently how we all naturally are, is a bit uninteresting. Thesis aside, other things worth mentioning are the incredible use of perspective changing, which may certainly be a surprise even to those (i.e., most) who know the basic idea of the story; the almost, once again as Nabokov says, poetic quality of prose at times; the great, dark, European, Victorian scene setting; and the perhaps uncommon combination of horror and murder mystery genres. Good stuff overall and certainly chilling at times, would definitely say it's one of the better classics I've read and enjoyed, even if many of it's psychological claims are outdated, or not even remotely something I and some others would agree with in certain aspects.

[alejandrademena · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read it for my Great Books class in college. It is, for sure, a little weird, but it is interesting and it is a great book to find the patterns of contemporary literature. It has some mystery, it is sometimes frightening and it has a magical detail that I really liked.

[lindaliu-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very interesting. I thought I had read this before but perhaps the memory is from the various takes on this in film or other stories. A very short novel, which I could have finished in a day if I had not been looking at booking holidays instead. It is ultimately about the duality of personality and I think about evil that lurks in us all. Dr Jekyll stumbled on a way of separating his identities from his normal benevelent self from his undernourished evil self in the evil form of Mr Hyde. The mystery of the events from his lawyer friend's point of view drew me in quite quickly. The confession at the end by Dr Jekyll was intriguing in the way he explained what was happening, and it seems like the good doctor was not entirely separate from that evil self throughout his life. So ultimately a struggle of good against evil and the perils of what happens if you indulge that evil.

[andrewcambs · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This might be deemed as somewhat of a classic amongst some people, but i found it dull. Despite being surprised by just how short it was, it took me as much effort as a 300+ page book to get through. Hard going, slow, and not particularly enthralling i'm afraid.I read the Penguin English Library edition, and was reading the story, when all of a sudden all the characters changed along with the plot.. only to realise that i was now reading the short story 'The Bottle Imp' that was added to the back of the book - i hadn't even realised i'd finished Dr Jekyll & Mr Hide. That's just how enthralling it was.

[magadri-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I love the story. However, since nearly 98% of the population is familiar with this story, it is kind of a drag to read this since you know how everything unfolds. I also didn't find the way in which the story was told very captivating. It is such a thin book, and I had a terrible time getting through it. I actually skipped parts in this book because they were so dreadfully boring.

[monkeyrobo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"There comes an end to all things; the most capacious measure is filled at last; and this brief condescension to my evil finally destroyed the balance of my soul."It may be difficult for a reader to forget what is half-known about these famous characters, and approach this story afresh. But it's worth doing -- it's a tidy little story, and the title characters embody an intriguing attack on the nature of Victorian morality.

[ctpress_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Robert Louis Stevensons nightmarish fable about the good and the evil in man - a thriller about the very nature of man - who are we in our inner being? Do we have two natures and can they be separated as Dr. Jekyll thinks? And what are the terrible consequences of his devilish experiment?When I read this novel I?m really transported to the foggy streets of London and want to take a stroll with Utterson and Enfield in the late afternoon and chat with them about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and all the strange appearances. I?m absolutely fascinated by this story - it?s now my fourth reading. And this time it was as an audiobook read superbly by Scott Brick.

[maydacat_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Of course, everyone knows the relationship between Jekyll and Hyde, but if you haven?t read the novel, you probably are missing the intention of Stevenson?s story. Jekyll wanted to free mankind from his evil, baser nature, but in the end, was doomed by it. This novel is a brilliant study in the dual nature of man, and the conclusion must be that when it is tampered with, at least in this case, evil wins. If we assume that Hyde was pure evil, is it safe to assume that Jekyll was all good? But if he were, would he have concocted the formula that split him into two unique beings? Ultimately, Jekyll could only overcome Hyde?s tendencies when he was one whole being. The concept and story remain fascinating even now, more than a century after it was penned.