Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales of Terror
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Biographical note
Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh in 1850. The son of a prosperous civil engineer, he was expected to follow the family profession but was finally allowed to study law at Edinburgh University. Stevenson reacted forcibly against the Presbyterianism of both his city's professional classes and his devout parents, but the influence of Calvinism on his childhood informed the fascination with evil that is so powerfully explored in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Stevenson suffered from a severe respiratory disease from his twenties onwards, leading him to settle in the gentle climate of Samoa with his American wife, Fanny Osbourne.'Every bit as claustrophobic, creepy and chilling as when it first saw the light of day over a century ago'
Ian Rankin
Published as a 'shilling shocker', Robert Louis Stevenson's dark psychological fantasy gave birth to the idea of the split personality
The story of respectable Dr Jekyll's strange association with the 'damnable young man' Edward Hyde; the hunt through fog-bound London for a killer; and the final revelation of Hyde's true identity is a chilling exploration of humanity's basest capacity for evil. The other stories in this volume also testify to Stevenson's inventiveness within the Gothic tradition: 'Olalla', a tale of vampirism and tainted family blood, and 'The Body Snatcher', a gruesome fictionalisation of the exploits of the notorious Burke and Hare.
Edited with an introduction by Robert Mighall
If you enjoyed The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, you might like The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, by James Hogg, also available in Penguin Classics.