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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Signet Classics)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Signet Classics)

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Your Price: $3.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Ultimate Tale of Good and Evil
Review: The classic tale of Dr. Jekyll struggling with his inner demon, Mr. Hyde. The story is told mainly from the point of view of Mr. Utterson, the lawyer of Dr. Jekyll, who is trying to find out who Mr. Hyde is.

This is a great book, one of those classics that everyone should read at least once. Stevenson gives great descriptions of the battle between Jekyll and Hyde. I highly recommend it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: misunderstood classic
Review: this has been considered one of the real classics in horror. it's about a doctor going to far in his experimentations. he is actually good natured, but drinking a certain elixir he becomes pure evil, mr. hyde. one would perhaps think that jekyll was not ineterested in becoming mr. hyde, but it has certain advantages. desires can be satisfied, without distress for the doctor. so he adjusts to his new two lifestyles life, supporting mr. hyde. ti his friend, it is only known that jekyll has some strange contact with hyde. how long will it take before hyde goes too far? can jekyll give hyde up? stevenson's style is good,, and the plot interesting, the suspence kept. although he sadly does not explore the plot's true potentiality. this is a very misunderstood book. it is interpreted as man being of good and evil (which is right) and that jekyll simply divides these two sides between his two lives (which is wrong). what people forget is that jekyll was a nice guy, doing nothing bad, before becoming mr. hyde. he wakes his evil side, which lures him and grow in him. the book is about the power of evil more than the duality of man. if we surrender to evil or awaken it, we are going on a path of no return.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hyde is evil incarnate
Review: Unrestrained evil awaits the reader within this brief novel. "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is a novel dealing with human duality and theories to that effect. You already know this Victorian-era story: good Dr. Jekyll brews himself some potions in his laboratory, and after drinking them his body deforms and he becomes the evil Mr. Hyde.

We see much of the action through the eyes of witnesses to Hyde's corrupt deeds. Hyde is a brutal antagonist; he represents a man at his very worst, from his hideous sneer to his violent gaze. Hyde slinks around the city for some time before finally succumbing to his nature, and committing murder.

We meet Jekyll early on, but he remains a cryptic figure until we get a glimpse of his confession, in the form of his journal. Jekyll was experimenting with what some theorists call man's "dual nature", the idea that each man has a good side and an evil side. Alas, Jekyll's experiments worked a little too well...

The enduring strength of this story is a tribute of sorts to the superior storytelling skills of Robert Louis Stevenson, also well known for his "Treasure Island". This novel is direct and to the point, yet never does Stevenson gloss over the horrors of Dr. Jekyll's fate. The novel contains just as much detail as is needed, and most of the storytelling packs a wallop with very few words. Stevenson's descriptions of the horrors of Hyde are complex and satisfying. The reader can almost feel Hyde staring at them with his hateful, penetrating eyes; they can watch Hyde expressing his contempt for humanity needing only his angered stride as proof of his malice. Jekyll's pain comes through nicely as well; his personal horrors are brought home with climactic flair.

Even knowing what was going to happen, I loved reading this story. To me, the story is a warning against both leashing your inner "beast" and letting him out. While I do not believe in the "duality of man" theories, I do subscribe to the notion of men needing to vent frustrations rather than tethering them. A person's life is not either / or in the case of emotions; emotions of all sorts are a part of every man's life, and rational people need to know how to constructively provide their emotions with an outlet.


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