Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
2 journalers for this copy...
paperback.
My book is a different edition with a different cover from the one pictured here. I stole the ISBN from Barnes & Noble.
This story has been on television and on film so long that we hardly need to read it. Or so I thought! The story is very different from the lurid dramatic versions I grew up with. For one thing, it is told indirectly, through various second hand accounts, Very little of the action in the story is direct. This method both mutes the violence and makes it more sinister, more mysterious.
There are strong allegorical qualities as well. Each of us has inner demons that cry to get out, to express lust, rage and the other basest emotions. In Hyde, these inner feelings emerge in solid form. I would say "human" form but the lack of the angelic half makes him subhuman. We are told he is monstrous and disgusting. His face and features, though, are nothing remarkable. It is only his lack of humanity, as perceived below the senses, that makes him a repulsive creature.
Many books are an integrated part of the time and place where they are written. I cannot imagine this book being written anywhere or anywhen than Victorian England, where all unseemly emotions were buried beneath a veneer of respectablilty. That is why Jack the Ripper remains vivid in our racial memories -- he is the very real expression of the other side of the Victorian Coin. So, too, is Hyde. He is the hidden -- hence the name! -- unlaced part of a straight-laced society. He is monstrous for what he does, yes, but more so because we know his source is true, is real, and lies within each of us.
This is a very good book and well deserves to be called a classic.
My book is a different edition with a different cover from the one pictured here. I stole the ISBN from Barnes & Noble.
This story has been on television and on film so long that we hardly need to read it. Or so I thought! The story is very different from the lurid dramatic versions I grew up with. For one thing, it is told indirectly, through various second hand accounts, Very little of the action in the story is direct. This method both mutes the violence and makes it more sinister, more mysterious.
There are strong allegorical qualities as well. Each of us has inner demons that cry to get out, to express lust, rage and the other basest emotions. In Hyde, these inner feelings emerge in solid form. I would say "human" form but the lack of the angelic half makes him subhuman. We are told he is monstrous and disgusting. His face and features, though, are nothing remarkable. It is only his lack of humanity, as perceived below the senses, that makes him a repulsive creature.
Many books are an integrated part of the time and place where they are written. I cannot imagine this book being written anywhere or anywhen than Victorian England, where all unseemly emotions were buried beneath a veneer of respectablilty. That is why Jack the Ripper remains vivid in our racial memories -- he is the very real expression of the other side of the Victorian Coin. So, too, is Hyde. He is the hidden -- hence the name! -- unlaced part of a straight-laced society. He is monstrous for what he does, yes, but more so because we know his source is true, is real, and lies within each of us.
This is a very good book and well deserves to be called a classic.
Journal Entry 2 by tom-m at Browns Mills Post Office in Browns Mills, New Jersey USA on Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Released on Wednesday, January 05, 2005 at about 12:00:00 PM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Browns Mills Post Office in Browns Mills, New Jersey USA.
RELEASE NOTES:
mailed to Emogirlie in Canada, who asked for it.
RELEASE NOTES:
mailed to Emogirlie in Canada, who asked for it.
Thanx so much for passing the book on to me! Will be reading this for my english class
