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Summary: Classics and British Literature class
Review: I find classics rather confusing. I believe that is just the language of the time that it was written in. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde does have a rather interesting plot line but, like some of the other reveiw topics, it is a very common Horror plot. But I did enjoy the psycological theme of a persons darker side in Dr. Jekyll's experiment. Yet, this story has become rather cliche and predictable. It just seems as if we already know what is going to happen because this story is so well known. We read and studied this book in British Literature and will be tested on it. It was a rather good book but I still find classics rather confusing.
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Summary: The book was too slow for real enjoyment.
Review: I read the book for a class assignment and was bored to sleep. The plot was interesting but it was too drawn out.
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Summary: Ok,dark side
Review: I thought this book was a great book and there is also a restaurant of it. It was a smashing scientific book about a man that tested experiments on himself and became a monster by night.
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Summary: Not bad at all
Review: Jekyll and Hyde is a good choice if you're looking for a short but absorbing read. It's fast-paced, suitably creepy, and (fortunately) lacking a lot of the melodrama that suffocates similar works of the time. The only real drawback is that Jekyll's chapter at the end can be very hard to read; Stevenson writes this in a lofty, over-cultured style which is not found in the rest of the book, obviously to reflect Jekyll's highly-educated mindset. This book is not only a science-gone-bad yarn or a psychoanalytical study of human personality, but is something of a reflection on hypocrisy. Jekyll is quite bothered at the thought of revealing any trace of indecency about himself, even more so than the typical gentleman of his time, and resorts to using Hyde as a release rather than lose face by submitting to his lustier appetites even just a little bit as Jekyll. Of course, this ultimately leads him to ruin.
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Summary: A Review for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Review: Jekyll and Hyde is a mind twisting suspense thriller. Throughout almost every moment of the book I was waiting to see what happened next. Although the book is very exciting it can also be hard to read at times. The book was written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886. Some of the language is written in a proper old english style. Some people might read this book because it is short. The truth is that sometimes it takes a while to finish because of the difficult context. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is about a kind and friendly doctor named Henry Jekyll. He concocts some sort of potion which he tests on himself. Something horrible has happened. He is Henry Jekyll by day, of course, but by night he transforms into the malevolent Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde is a bent-over, repulsive looking man. He represents Jekyll's evil side which Jekyll cannot control. At night Hyde kills numerous amounts of people and is never caught. Everyone is puzzled as to why Hyde suddenly dissappears without a trace. At the same time Jekyll sits in his labratory all day trying to figure out a way to stop this transformation from occuring. He is always at war with his other self. he is no longer the friendly doctor everyone has come to know and love. He no longer enjoys hiss life and he will not speak with anybody. Jekyll's good friend Mr. Utterson is confused about the doctors strange behavior lately. He tries to see Jekyll, but he will not let anybody inside. He and the doctor's butler, Poole, are starting to get frightened by what they come to see. If you want to know what happenss to Dr. Jekyll read this book!
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Summary: Fascinating!
Review: One of the classics that actually lives up to its reputation. Although it is actually more like a short story than a novel (app. 100 pages), it's a fascinating read.
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Summary: An allegory of a double life
Review: The book is an allegory of someone who leads a dual lifestyle. by day Dr Jekyl is a respected physician, but he wants to see the evil side of his nature. So he creates a chemical that separates the two. And what does he become-a shorts, monkey like man who is as wild and violent as any coke fiend today. It reminded me of how many of our neighbors lead double lifes. Closeted homosexuals, drug users, are people who have two sides to themselves but don't show it. The sory mirrors Stevenson's own lifestyle. He had an affair with a married woman and suffered from tubberculosis. He had a reckless side to him but wouldn't show it. He wrote this book with one thing in mind-everyone wants to be able to do as they please, even if the things they want to do are evil, but do some people actualy do them?
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Summary: My Review
Review: The book was a pure twist to the end. It had so many twist and turn that at points it was hard to follow. The parts I did get lead me on a path though the human mind that I have never felt before. It was definently a shocker the way Dr. Jekell precived his actions and attempted to solve the problem. Overall I struggled with intrest in it and would only recomend this book to people with true open minds and can easily precieve fiction.
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Summary: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-A Bantam Classic
Review: The classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. HYde by the famous author Robert Louis Stevenson with an afterword by Jerome Charyn,was quite hard to understand. As most novels usually start hard to understand, the end was just as hard to as well. The old english in this novel was probably not as hard to understand while it was still being spoken when this book was published in 1886, but over 100 years later, the language got me off track. Although I had liked the plot of a scientist by day, evil character by night, everything just seemed too hard to comprehend.
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Summary: A psychological drama of the dual nature of man
Review: The tale of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde has been quite familiar to me for as long as I can remember, but only now have I read the original short novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is unfortunate that familiarity has robbed modern readers of the suspense that almost certainly was engendered in Stevenson's contemporary audience. Nor can I attribute a strong hint of terror in these pages, partly because of the plot structure. This is not a straightforward story; we don't follow Dr. Jeckyll in his experimentation. Rather, we are introduced to Jeckyll and Hyde through Jeckyll's lawyer Mr. Utterson. Having drawn up Jeckyll's will to leave everything to Hyde should he disappear, he is most concerned for his client and friend upon learning that Mr. Hyde is a misshapen monster of a man responsible for trampling a young girl in the street. The first half of the book follows Utterson's attempts to discover this Mr. Hyde for himself. The final half of the book contains the story of Jeckyll and Hide, told first in the words of a mutual friend and doctor and ultimately in an account of events penned by the unfortunate Dr. Jeckyll. It goes without saying that the heart of the story revolves around the duality of the human mind. Each of us has a dark side as well as a good side, and the majority of individuals attempt to disguise any bad, uncontrollable aspects of their natures from the public. Dr. Jeckyll had a predilection for thoughts and acts which he and society frowned upon (although what these acts were is never revealed); as he neared middle age, his life became defined by a continuous inner struggle to keep on the straight and narrow path. He often failed, so he came up with the idea of totally separating his evil nature from his good one. Through the use of chemistry, he developed a solution that, when ingested, transformed him into a different persona in both body and mind, one which had free reign to indulge anonymously in those worldly delights Dr. Jeckyll secretly lusted after. He thought that his original persona would then be freed of the guilt of his desires, while his Mr. Hyde persona could satiate himself in performing guilty actions without any moral restraint. As is only natural, the dark side grew stronger as time passed, and the person of Dr. Jeckyll found himself in more of a quandary than he ever dreamed of before giving birth to Mr. Hyde. Inner conflict between the good and bad in ourselves is something every reader can easily understand, and it is this psychological aspect of Stevenson's famous short novel that accounts for the tale's continuing popularity. It is a quick and absorbing read, but the method of the tale's presentation is a slight weakness in my opinion. We can only watch the human drama from a third person perspective, and I would like to have gotten more deeply inside the mind of Jeckyll and Hyde. Still, this is a classic of literature that will retain its place in popular culture for untold years to come. As for the afterword by Jerome Charyn in the Bantam edition of the book, I must say I could have done without it. It does provide some interesting background on Stevenson, but its psychological assumptions and surmises struck me as overdramatic and groundless. The story of Jeckyll and Hyde stands strongly on its own merits and does not need to be accompanied by psychobabble.
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