The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde And Other Stories

Everyone has a dark side. Dr Jekyll has discovered the ultimate drug. A chemical that can turn him into something else. Suddenly, he can unleash his deepest cruelties in the guise of the sinister Hyde. Transforming himself at will, he roams the streets of fog-bound London as his monstrous alter-ego. It seems he is master of his fate. It seems he is in complete control. But soon he will discover that his double life comes at a hideous price...

Why has the mild mannered Dr Jekyll suddenly begun to associate with the ugly and violent Mr Hyde? And why are they never seen together? When Jekyll’s old friend Utterson tries to solve these mysteries he uncovers a horrific story of suffering and brutality that eventually leads to the terrible revelation of Mr Hyde’s true identity. Accompanied here by three other memorable stories of horror, murder and the supernatural, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a masterpiece of Victorian Gothic literature by Robert Louis Stevenson, and one of the most potent and enduring of modern myths. This beautiful edition of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde & Other Stories features an afterword by playwright and screenwriter Peter Harness. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector’s Library is a series of beautifully bound gift editions of much loved classic titles.

Bold visionary, Henry Jekyll, believes he can use his scientific knowledge to divide a person into two beings--one of pure good and one of pure evil. Working tirelessly in his secret laboratory, concocting a potion that would tear at the core of what makes a man human, he eventually succeeds--but only halfway. Instead of separating the good and evil halves, Jekyll isolates only the latter. What seems at first a relief to the doctor becomes a nightmare as he loses control of the transformation. His friends feel Jekyll will waste away and fear the worst. Can Jekyll undo what he has done? Or will it change things forever?

This dark psychological fantasy is more than a moral tale. It is also a product of its time, drawing on contemporary theories of class, evolution and criminality and the secret lives behind Victorian propriety, to create a unique form of urban Gothic.

An abridged version of the tale of a kind and well-respected doctor who can turn himself into a murderous madman by taking a secret drug he has created.

This collection of three of Stevenson's stories ('Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde', 'Markheim' and 'The Body Snatcher') analyses the moral fibre of Victorian society and highlights the conflict between good and evil: man’s social, civilised, rational being versus his egotistic, instinctive, sensual self.