Synopses & Reviews
What happens when a villain becomes a hero?Mr. Hyde is trapped, locked in Dr. Jekylls surgical cabinet, counting the hours until his inevitable capture. As four days pass, he has the chance, finally, to tell his story—the story of his brief, marvelous life.
Summoned to life by strange potions, Hyde knows not when or how long he will have control of “the body.” When dormant, he watches Dr. Jekyll from a remove, conscious of this other, high-class life but without influence. As the experiment continues, their mutual existence is threatened, not only by the uncertainties of untested science, but also by a mysterious stalker. Hyde is being taunted—possibly framed. Girls have gone missing; someone has been killed. Who stands, watching, from the shadows? In the blur of this shared consciousness, can Hyde ever be confident these crimes were not committed by his hand?
“You may think you know Dr. Jekyll, but this Hyde is a different beast altogether."—Jon Clinch, author of Finn
"Prepare to be seduced by literary devilry! Go back to Victorian times to find a very postmodern whodunit. Visceral prose, atmosphere you could choke on, characters who seem to be at your very shoulder."—Ronald Frame, author of Havisham
"Hyde brings into the light the various horrors still hidden in the dark heart of Stevensons classic tale of monstrosity and addiction. Devious and ingenious, it is a blazing triumph of the gothic imagination."—Patrick McGrath, author of Asylum
Review
"Ingenious revision...the novel is a pleasure...a worthy companion to its predecessor. It’s rich in gloomy, moody atmosphere (Levine’s London has a brutal steampunk quality), and its narrator’s plight is genuinely poignant." -- The New York Times Book Review
“Riveting ‘Hyde’ renders evil in shades of gray…in his spellbinding first novel [Levine] offers many surprises and rich, often intoxicating prose. It’s a fascinating read.” --The Washington Post
"This spellbinding first novel is an ingenious revision of a classic Gothic tale...Narrated by Hyde, the book deliversa new look at this enigmatic character and intriguing possible explanations for Jekyll’s behavior...[Hyde] offers many surprises and rich, often intoxicating prose." --The Washington Post, "The five best thrillers of 2014"
“Levine's account is a masterpiece of hallucination; his narrator is feverish, righteous, intense. The author knows what to invent and what to leave to the master. And about that confession: Hyde doesn't open it, and neither does Levine. He leaves it to Stevenson, to whom he is faithful with his prose. The shockers may be born of this century, but this chilling new version is a remarkably good fit with the original horror classic.” -- The Miami Herald
“Daniel Levine’s intelligent and brutal first novel, Hyde, puts a fresh spin on the well-worn material…It goes beyond a companion piece to an independent novel worth reading in its own right.” - The Columbus Dispatch
"An elegantly woven retelling...The story is deeply psychological and unapologetically dark." -- Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
"Levine’s evocation of Victorian England is marvelously authentic, and his skill at grounding his narrative in arresting descriptive images is masterful (of the haggard, emotionally troubled Jekyll, he writes, 'He looked as if he’d survived an Arctic winter locked within a ship frozen fast in the wastes')." - Publishers Weekly, boxed and starred
"We realize, in the process, how little Stevenson really explored Edward Hyde, how Hyde was a function of the narrative, an idea but not a fleshed-out man. Giving him flesh and humanity, Levine makes him a kind of tragic hero and gives the original version an added dramatic and emotional dimension. A fascinating companion piece to a classic story." - Booklist
"Levine’s masterful in his surrealistic observations of Hyde subsuming Jekyll...Cleverly imagined and sophisticated in execution..." – Kirkus
"Hyde is masterfully told, with plenty of damp and spooky London gothic atmosphere...A haunting yarn with a sumptuous Victorian atmosphere exquisitely re-imagines Stevenson’s ‘monster,’ the maligned Hyde." – Shelf Awareness
"Daniel Levine’s ambitious and imaginative literary debut...Taking the parameters of Stevenson’s story, but deepening and extending the details, Levine allows us to view Hyde not merely as the venal incarnation of Jekyll’s soul, but as a fully fledged character in his own right...Levine answers many questions that Stevenson left unexplored....a visually dark and viscerally brooding tale that avails itself of a cinematic style of storytelling that, of course, Stevenson could never have imagined....an entertaining and intriguing work, as much a meditation on and extrapolation of Stevenson’s original intentions as a freestanding work of popular fiction. With compelling intensity, Levine makes a noteworthy literary debut." - BookPage
“This rich, allusive, erudite novel is a welcome reminder of what a tour de force really is.” – David Leavitt, author of The Indian Clerk and many others
“Daniel Levine locates the strange beneath the familiar in this intricately imagined, meticulously executed debut. You may think you know Dr. Jekyll, but this Hyde is a different beast altogether.” -- Jon Clinch, author of Finn and The Thief of Auschwitz
“Daniel Levine has staked his claim to one of the most compelling stories of all time, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and brilliantly made it his own in this knockout debut novel. The mind of Hyde is as dark and twisted and alluring as the night-cloaked streets of 19th century London, and this book is as much a fascinating psychological query as it is a gripping narrative.”—Benjamin Percy, author of Red Moon, The Wilding, and Refresh, Refresh
"Prepare to be seduced by literary devilry! Go back to Victorian times to find a very postmodern whodunit. Visceral prose, atmosphere you could choke on, characters who seem to be at your very shoulder. My sole regret after spending several hours inside Daniel Levine's highly literate thriller is that I didn't think of Hyde for myself." —Ronald Frame, author of Havisham
"A gloriously disturbing portrait of man’s animal nature ascendant, Hyde brings into the light the various horrors still hidden in the dark heart of Stevenson’s classic tale of monstrosity and addiction. It’s Daniel Levine’s extraordinary achievement to give voice to a creature capable of indulging every impulse of transgression, while driving its higher self to damnation. Devious and ingenious, Hyde is a blazing triumph of the gothic imagination."—Patrick McGrath, author of Asylum, Martha Peake, Spider, and others
Synopsis
His innovative thriller, as shocking now as when it was first published, the Penguin Classics edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales of Terror is edited with an introduction by Robert Mighall.
Published as a 'shilling shocker', Robert Louis Stevenson's dark psychological fantasy gave birth to the idea of the split personality. The story of respectable Dr Jekyll's strange association with the 'damnable young man' Edward Hyde; the hunt through fog-bound London for a killer; and the final revelation of Hyde's true identity is a chilling exploration of humanity's basest capacity for evil. The other stories in this volume also testify to Stevenson's inventiveness within the Gothic tradition: 'Olalla', a tale of vampirism and tainted family blood, and 'The Body Snatcher', a gruesome fictionalisation of the exploits of the notorious Burke and Hare.
This edition contains a critical introduction by Robert Mighall, which discusses class, criminality and the significance of the story's London setting. It also includes an essay on the scientific contexts of the novel and the development of the idea of the Jekyll-and-Hyde personality.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was born in Edinburgh, the son of a prosperous civil engineer. Although he began his career as an essayist and travel writer, the success of Treasure Island (1883) and Kidnapped (1886) established his reputation as a writer of tales of action and adventure. Stevenson's Calvinist upbringing lent him a preoccupation with predestination and a fascination with the presence of evil, themes he explored in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), and The Master of Ballantrae (1893).
If you enjoyed The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, you might like The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, by James Hogg, also available in Penguin Classics.
'Every bit as claustrophobic, creepy and chilling as when it first saw the light of day over a century ago'
Ian Rankin
Synopsis
"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" Stevenson's famous exploration of humanity's basest capacity for evil, has become synonymous with the idea of a split personality. More than a moral tale, this dark psychological fantasy is also a product of its time, drawing on contemporary theories of class, evolution, criminality, and secret lives. Also in this volume are "The Body Snatcher," which charts the murky underside of Victorian medical practice, and "Olalla," a tale of vampirism and "The Beast Within" which features a beautiful woman at its center.
This new edition features a critical introduction, chronology, suggestions for further reading, explanatory notes, and appendixes, including an abridged extract from "A Chapter on Dreams" and an essay on the scientific context of Jekyll and Hyde.
Synopsis
Stevenson's famous exploration of humanity's basest capacity for evil, "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," has become synonymous with the idea of a split personality. More than a morality tale, this dark psychological fantasy is also a product of its time, drawing on contemporary theories of class, evolution, criminality, and secret lives. Also in this volume are "The Body Snatcher," which charts the murky underside of Victorian medical practice, and "Olalla," a tale of vampirism and "the beast within," with a beautiful woman at its center.
Synopsis
A reimagining of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the monsters perspective, Hyde makes a hero of a villain. As a bonus, Stevensons original novel is included at the back.
About the Author
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was born in Edinburgh. In the brief span of forty-four years, dogged by poor health, he made an enormous contribution to English literature with his novels, poetry, and essays. The son of upper-middle-class parents, he was the victim of lung trouble from birth, and spent a sheltered childhood surrounded by constant care. The balance of his life was taken up with his unremitting devotion to work, and a search for a cure to his illness that took him all over the world. His travel essays were publihsed widely, and his short fiction was gathered in many volumes. His first full-length work of fiction,
Treasure Island, was published in 1883 and brought him great fame, which only increased with the publication of
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). He followed with the Scottish romances
Kidnapped (1886) and
The Master of Ballantrae (1889). In 1888 he set out with his family for the South Seas, traveling to the leper colony at Molokai, and finally settling in Samoa, where he died.
Robert Mighall edited Stevensons Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror for Penguin Classics.
Robert Mighall edited Stevensons Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror for Penguin Classics.
Table of Contents
Hyde
Day 1 morning 3
Day 1 afternoon 32
Day 1 nightfall 42
Day 2 before dawn 63
Day 2 morning 83
Day 2 dusk 104
Day 3 before dawn 136
Day 3 noon 186
Day 3 night 228
Day 4 sunrise 277 Introduction to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 303 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 307