Killing my TBR Classics pile: #3 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

That has to be the longest heading I have had to date!

Still in fear of the state of my wrists, I picked up another short classic that I had been putting off: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. I don't know why I was putting this one off. I have wanted to read it for years. To top that, I really enjoyed Treasure Island and Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson when I read the unabridged classics as a child, so I doubted that there would be anything in the language to put me off. I suppose I just didn't pick it up, because, like everyone else, I knew what this one was about.

I can only imagine what a thrill this book must have been to read back in the late 1800s, before the plot was general knowledge, before we had seen weirder things on TV, before there was TV. I wish I could have read this without any knowledge of the plot.

There were a few 'surprises' along the way. I did not expect this to be narrated from the lawyer, Mr Utterson's, point of view. There was another surprise, but I won't go into it here, as it is a bit of a spoiler. It is very difficult to discuss much about this. For starters, it is a whopping 54 pages long. For another, it is such a part of pop culture that it is hard to believe I could say anything here that you would not already know.

The language gripped my imagination. I could feel danger lurking through the streets. I could feel the wickedness of Hyde leaking off the page. Right from the opening, questions were raised, an ominous atmosphere was created, and the characters were moving. I wonder if I would have seen all the clues along the way had I not known what the story was about? Once again, I can only reiterate that I think this must have been spectacular to read without prior knowledge of the plot.

"The old gentleman took a step back, with the air of one very much surprised and a trifle hurt; and at that Mr. Hyde broke out of all bounds and clubbed him to the earth. And next moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway."

― Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I did not expect the violence to be as vivid! Audibly shattering bones! Dexter didn't even go that dark! (Maybe I should reread Treasure Island at some time and see if the violence was as graphic there. I cannot remember!)

There is one thought that I have on this, and that is the desire to be able to drop all of society's requirements and 'let loose'. After all, isn't that a desire of most of the characters I have read about so far? Women wanting to not have to comply to everything expected of them; a woman wanting to be loved in the time of arranged marriages and so stranded with a cold husband; falling in love with a man beneath one's status and feeling that he is therefore unattainable? In this case, it was to break out of the required properness in conduct. And just like so many of the characters I have mentioned, the result was not in his favour. (I think one just has to look at how people interact with strangers on the internet to see that this desire is still there today.)

 I also felt, at the time of reading this, that there was a huge comparison one could make between what went on with Jekyll and Hyde to drug addiction as it is known today.

I gave this 4 stars because it was definitely a fun. quick read.