The strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde....

[E38Ross]

Has anyone on here read this? Thoughts/opinions?

seems like a renowned classic so guessing it's not going to be a bad book. Not long ago finished Little Dorrit by Dickens and fancy a bit of a shorter read now and this seems like an idea.....

thanks

[FlossyThePig]

This was one of the first stories I read on my Kobo eReader. I enjoyed it and found it an easy read compared to Dickens.

Forget what Hollywood did to the plot.

[E38Ross]

cheers

[kenny Chim 4]

I'm so glad that avid modern day readers are seeking out Victorian classics such as this (aside from the big Dickens novels etc.) and 'The Strange Case of..' to me is up there with 'Frankenstein' (albeit, pre-Victoria) and Dracula.

Unlike the totally fictional characters mentioned, Dr. Jekyll was based upon the real-life dual personality of Deacon William Brodie of Edinburgh. Decent citizen by day but rabid thief by night!

Unlike Sir Walter Scott (waay too wordy) I've always enjoyed the writings of RLS perhaps because the first book that I read as a kid was Treasure Island and I love it still.

I remember reading that Stevenson gave his initial hand-written copy of the book to his wife to read for approval. However, she was so disgusted by it that she threw it in the sitting room fire and the entire novel burned.

RLS re-penned the whole thing from memory and, when published, it became a huge best seller.

[E38Ross]

started reading it earlier this week, probably a couple of hours through so far and must say i'm really enjoying it. It's quick moving and well written. Looking forward to reading more later

edit - i noticed the book i'm reading on the kindle is also "....and other readings"

which has a few other short stories as shown here http://www.shelfari.com/books/4559167/The-Strange-...

has anyone read any of those? i'm liking this at the moment and i'm tempted to read treasure island, for some reason i've always assumed it's a "kiddies" book, but i really don't know....i suspect i thought that because of the title. worth a read?

Edited by E38Ross on Friday 22 February 15:12

[FlossyThePig]

kenny Chim 4 said:

Dr. Jekyll was based upon the real-life dual personality of Deacon William Brodie of Edinburgh. Decent citizen by day but rabid thief by night!

My family name is Brodie and a previous owner of our house was a Dr Hyde.

[kenny Chim 4]

E38Ross said:

I'm liking this at the moment and i'm tempted to read treasure island, for some reason i've always assumed it's a "kiddies" book, but i really don't know....i suspect i thought that because of the title. worth a read?

Hey, much as I first read it as a kid, it's an adventure story for everyone- perhaps the first (and probably the best) pirate tale told.

Without that novel there would be no pirates saying 'arrrh' or 'Jim boy' as that was Robert Newton's west country take when playing Long John Silver in the 1950 Disney movie: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://outla...
The story itself is a timeless depiction of revenge, deceipt and ultimately, greed. Give it a go- it depicts some great characters.

Flossy, that's really weird, what a coincidence!

[Tango13]

kenny Chim 4 said:

I remember reading that Stevenson gave his initial hand-written copy of the book to his wife to read for approval. However, she was so disgusted by it that she threw it in the sitting room fire and the entire novel burned.

RLS re-penned the whole thing from memory and, when published, it became a huge best seller.

I read the same in Stephen Kings' book 'Danse Macabre' Iirc RLS wrote it in three days flat and after his wife burnt the original he re-wrote it in another three days.