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The London lawyer Mr Utterson is troubled by a strange will: his respected friend Dr Henry Jekyll has left everything to a certain Edward Hyde, a small…
The London lawyer Mr Utterson is troubled by a strange will: his respected friend Dr Henry Jekyll has left everything to a certain Edward Hyde, a small, repellent man who has just trampled a child in the street and paid the family off with a cheque signed by Jekyll. When Hyde beats a distinguished old gentleman to death, Utterson sets out to discover what hold this man has over the doctor, and the answer, revealed in Jekyll's own final statement, is far stranger than blackmail.
Context and significance
Robert Louis Stevenson is said to have written the first draft in a few days in 1886, burned it after his wife's criticism and written it again. The short novel gave the language the phrase 'Jekyll and Hyde' for a split personality. For Stevenson's adventure writing, read Treasure Island, or see his life.
About the author
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) came from a family of Edinburgh lighthouse engineers and was expected to follow them, but chose writing, despite lungs so weak he was often bedridden. He travelled constantly in search of health, married the American Fanny Osbourne and wrote Treasure Island for her son.
Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and A Child's Garden of Verses followed, and in 1890 he settled in Samoa, where the islanders called him Tusitala, the teller of tales. He died there at forty-four and is buried on a hilltop above his home.