The Penguin Podcast is back! Listen Now
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Stories

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Stories

Summary


How thin is the line between good and evil?

Discover the classic tale of gothic horror


Dr Jekyll has been experimenting with his identity. He has developed a drug which separates the two sides of his nature and allows him occasionally to abandon himself to his most corrupt inclinations as the monstrous Mr Hyde. But gradually he begins to find that the journey back to goodness becomes more and more difficult, and the risk that Mr Hyde will break free entirely from Dr Jekyll's control puts all of London in grave peril.

Reviews

  • Stevenson's short stories are certain to retain their position in English literature. His serious rivals are few indeed
    Arthur Conan Doyle

About the author

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh in 1850. The son of a prosperous civil engineer, he was expected to follow the family profession but was finally allowed to study law at Edinburgh University. Stevenson reacted forcibly against the Presbyterianism of both his city's professional classes and his devout parents, but the influence of Calvinism on his childhood informed the fascination with evil that is so powerfully explored in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Stevenson suffered from a severe respiratory disease from his twenties onwards, leading him to settle in the gentle climate of Samoa with his American wife, Fanny Osbourne.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more