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Автор Robert Stevenson
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson
1886
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde can be seen as a story about the concept of good and evil that exists in all of us or a critique on the hypocrisy and double standards of the society and also an interesting study into the mind of the author and into the theories of dualism.
First published to critical acclaim in 1886, this mesmerizing thriller is a terrifying study of the duality of man’s nature, and it is the book which established Stevenson’s reputation as a writer.
ISBN: 978-9949-9424-6-6 (epub)
2013
Biographical note
Robert Louis Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped (1886), and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886).
Despite his lengthy education at Edinburgh, he always dreamed of being a writer. Soon he told his father that he would not be following in his footsteps to become an engineer. At the age of twenty-six he began to write for magazines and soon he was publishing his own books and articles. His first famous novel “Treasure Island” didn’t come until 1883 after he had married Fanny Osborne, an American. Eventually he moved to America for a time, before continuing on to Samoa. In Samoa he criticized Western domination of the islands and sided with the native Polynesians. “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” was published in 1886 in attempts to raise money to support the family.
Stevenson dreamt the plot and soon feverishly jotted his memories down on paper, finishing the short novel in three days. Unfortunately, Stevenson died suddenly, at the pinnacle of his writing career. Throughout his life he had suffered from a strange lung condition hampered by the cold, wet climates in which he lived. Despite his family’s relocation to Samoa after his father’s death, Stevenson soon passed away in 1894 at the age of forty-four. Stevenson will be best remembered not only for his children’s adventure novels but also for his repeating theme of the duality of human nature.I
Story of the Door
Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow lovable. At friendly meetings, and when the wine was to his taste, something eminently human beaconed from his eye; something indeed which never found its way into his talk, but which spoke not only in these silent symbols of the after-dinner face, but more often and loudly in the acts of his life. He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years. But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove.
