Strange
Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
1886
While we all know the expression “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”,
we don’t necessarily know the book to actually be good. This short narration delivers,
effortlessly capturing the reader’s attention in its very first few lines. Tension is well suffused; you want to
know, it gets you so close to the narrative, confined within this misty
nighttime London and its back alleys lined with sombre doors…and leaves you on
the borders, never really plunging in those foggy London Streets, never really
fearing as the characters fear. You’re told what occurs, the suspense lingers,
but the story is not lived for it’s first and foremost a narration. For a book
on evil you see very little manifestation of it and, though the attraction and
freedom of a split nature is well-developed, it’s fair to say it could
have gone further, dared more in exploring Hyde’s evilness and Jekyll’s falling over the
edge. Utterson is your guide and, being kept pure till the very end, his
meeting with evil will be something of an anti-climax. Whispering at so many close doors, this captivating read only brushes when you
want to dig in.
Tags: 19th-century backstreet London, gothic science fiction or nighttime London thriller, and man made Hyde and Hyde destroyed man, story of the parasite within and the parasite without or the unleashing of the id, from science to schizo to magic, limits of man, science vs. nature or the theory of chaos
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