I wished this book would have had a longer chapter analyzing the natures of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and the impact this short book has had on culture and society. The lists of movies and theatre plays are good, but there are some faults. (Wrong production year of Fredric March movie, storylines of some of the movies are not entirely correct.) A few times, I wondered whether the authors really had seen the movie or not. When you publish a book like this, you must look up your facts closely! The Stevenson biography was interesting and exactly the right length, though the Deacon Brodie chapter could have been considerably shorter. All in all, a good lexicon for Jekyll & Hyde-fans.

Saw Dr. McNally on TV discussing society's fascination with the "evil within". Great book, well-paced yet in-depth enough to satisfy the thoughtful reader. The chapters tracing the common theme of the two sides of humanity through the movies and media were particularly eye-opening for me. Also, the exploration of Robert Louis Stevenson's evolution of the story was fascinating. Great writer- will have to pick up the Dracula books now!!

This book is a great companion piece to the author's earlier studies of the historical Dracula. For anyone who is a student of literature or of Stevenson in particlar, this is a great resource. I had the good fortune to take one of Prof. McNally's classes, and thus be exposed to his work. They provide a well-researched historical context and examination of the origins of these Victorian classics.

If you haven't read any of McNally/Florescu's previous works on Dracula, do so now and pick this one up while you are at it. For anyone who is fan of Dracula or Jeckyll/Hyde, the two Dracula books and the Stevenson study are "must haves". Stop reading my review, and go buy the damn books!

Treasure Island

Treasure island is a good book and well written one at that. When Robert Louis Stevenson wrote this book, I think he had the theme be careful who you trust in mind. When the main character Jim Hawkins finds a map and forms a crew. But a few in particular are captain long john silver, captain Smollett. He had to be a ware for at any second long john Smollett or the crew could turn against him. Along the hunt for treasure many problems may accrue not be fixable but the pure fear that he may never see his mom again...
I only recommend this book to people with high thinking levels.

It is a very adventurous book. It takes a long time to get to know the characters but you will like it. Read Treasure Island.

It is a very nice book. I like it because there is a lot of fighting going on. It is amazing how people do not die. It is also fun because they travel on water a lot. It is interesting because I kept wondering if they are going to find the treasure or not!!! If you like adventure read this book.

I don't know why Robert Louis Stevenson has been so long classified as a writer for teenagers. The stories included in this long forgotten collection are very entretaining and varied, and not at all for children. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Nearly as interesting as Kidnapped, but with quite a bit more romance

This sequel to _Kidnapped_ does not start out as well as _Kidnapped_; however it soon makes up for it. _Catriona_ takes up the story of David Balfour only one or two days after _Kidnapped_. He must now try to clear his name and the name of James Stewart of the Appin murder. This will not be easy because the Campells want James Stewart to hang.

I was excited to read this book for soley one purpose... to read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Once I was done that, I moved on to good and bad stories.

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE:

This story was actually very good and was the reason I read it. I was satisfied with this story, though the person who needs constant action to keep their attention shouldn't read this as much of it is Utterson investigating.

THE BODY SNATCHER:

This book started out shaky and was at first hard to follow, but once you get some pages behind you, you'll understand it well enough. The ending (I won't give it away) is also VERY strange and it is hard to understand.

MARKHEIM:

Ah! Markheim! One of the better written of these tales. It is easy to understand and is cleverly written, and does not drag on and on like some other tales in this book. It is a VERY GOOD story.

OLALLA:

This was one of those books that you couldn't wait to find out what happens and then it suddenly just lets you down. It leads up to so much and then doesn't deliver!

THE EBB TIDE:

The longest of the tales in this book...which makes you wonder...why wasn't the book named: The Ebb Tide and Other Stories? (Because Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde was best known of course!) The first few chapters in this tale make you wonder whether this story will turn out to be good, but then as the story progresses you realise that the tale is getting better and better (this is probably due to fact that Stevenson worked on this with another author and the more chapters written became more and more Stevenson, the first few chapters being the other author, and the end being all Stevenson.)

So your question now is: Do I buy? Don't get me wrong, some stories in this book are good, but others dragged on. If you are interested in the following:

-Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde
-Markheim
-Ebb Tide (Last few chapters are best)

...then by all means get this book! If you are just getting it because you need something to read, sleep on it, then make your desicion! Hope I helped!

Excellent book! Easy to read and index of terms in the back make for easy reference for Old English terms. Other stories are worth a look as well. I never realized the author had written so many macabre stories. It was fun and interesting.

This book was well written and it was realistic. In the sense that this fiction book with it several stories could have happened in real life. I expecially liked the story of 'Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'. It showed that everyone could have a dark side waiting to come out if given the chance. I give it 5 stars out of 5 for originality and for the joy of having read it.

This book is an overview of what is needed to create video productions using a computer system. The authors discuss each component needed to create a video as well as the different types of videos that can be produced. There is information for the amateur and the professional. There is a very helpful appendix listing software and hardware products and a glossary of desktop video production terms. I found it easy to read and understand. Now I am eager to try out PC video production.

A wonderful muscial play about the life of Robert Louis Stevenson. Great for a school musical play.

This book is not very long, and probably not the most comprehensive text on the subject, but as an introduction to the Victorian Quest Romance it works really well. The book is divided into chapters dealing with each of the authors as well as a chapter on the history of the romance itself. People can read it without reading the books mentioned but to get the full affect I'd recommend picking up at least Lost World and King Solomon's Mines. One thing in particular I enjoyed about the book was the way it addressed other critics in the field like Said. If you've read any of these other critics -- or any criticism on Imperialism at all -- I'd recommend also reading this book for a slightly different take on the same subject matter. This book seems to adopt a historical analysis of the genre, something along the lines of cultural materialism. I give it four stars only because it may not provide as much analysis as some people may be looking for.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is an easy read. Robert Louis Stevenson has his characters remain flat throughout the story. The events are told at face value and details are limited throughout this book. Stevenson starts the book out as a mystery, leading one to wonder who this hideous and purely evil Hyde truly is and what he wants. Throughout the story it looks like he is holding something over Dr. Jekyll by means of blackmail. The two main characters are introduced through a rather unimportant character, Enfield, telling of his first encounter with Hyde.
The story line was phenomenal and unique at the time it was written. Unfortunately, because it is a classic, most people start reading the book already knowing the outcome. The mysterious atmosphere of the story is ruined as the majority of readers have a good idea of who this Hyde character really is.
My feelings on this book are neutral. I definitely would not consider it one of the best books I have ever read, but it isn't the worst either. It tells the message for which it was created, but there is not much more than that. It is the classic story of the duality of man, good and evil, which, again, was a unique story line at the time it was written, but too common of a theme today.

The tale of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde has been quite familiar to me for as long as I can remember, but only now have I read the original short novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is unfortunate that familiarity has robbed modern readers of the suspense that almost certainly was engendered in Stevenson's contemporary audience. Nor can I attribute a strong hint of terror in these pages, partly because of the plot structure. This is not a straightforward story; we don't follow Dr. Jeckyll in his experimentation. Rather, we are introduced to Jeckyll and Hyde through Jeckyll's lawyer Mr. Utterson. Having drawn up Jeckyll's will to leave everything to Hyde should he disappear, he is most concerned for his client and friend upon learning that Mr. Hyde is a misshapen monster of a man responsible for trampling a young girl in the street. The first half of the book follows Utterson's attempts to discover this Mr. Hyde for himself. The final half of the book contains the story of Jeckyll and Hide, told first in the words of a mutual friend and doctor and ultimately in an account of events penned by the unfortunate Dr. Jeckyll.

It goes without saying that the heart of the story revolves around the duality of the human mind. Each of us has a dark side as well as a good side, and the majority of individuals attempt to disguise any bad, uncontrollable aspects of their natures from the public. Dr. Jeckyll had a predilection for thoughts and acts which he and society frowned upon (although what these acts were is never revealed); as he neared middle age, his life became defined by a continuous inner struggle to keep on the straight and narrow path. He often failed, so he came up with the idea of totally separating his evil nature from his good one. Through the use of chemistry, he developed a solution that, when ingested, transformed him into a different persona in both body and mind, one which had free reign to indulge anonymously in those worldly delights Dr. Jeckyll secretly lusted after. He thought that his original persona would then be freed of the guilt of his desires, while his Mr. Hyde persona could satiate himself in performing guilty actions without any moral restraint. As is only natural, the dark side grew stronger as time passed, and the person of Dr. Jeckyll found himself in more of a quandary than he ever dreamed of before giving birth to Mr. Hyde.

Inner conflict between the good and bad in ourselves is something every reader can easily understand, and it is this psychological aspect of Stevenson's famous short novel that accounts for the tale's continuing popularity. It is a quick and absorbing read, but the method of the tale's presentation is a slight weakness in my opinion. We can only watch the human drama from a third person perspective, and I would like to have gotten more deeply inside the mind of Jeckyll and Hyde. Still, this is a classic of literature that will retain its place in popular culture for untold years to come. As for the afterword by Jerome Charyn in the Bantam edition of the book, I must say I could have done without it. It does provide some interesting background on Stevenson, but its psychological assumptions and surmises struck me as overdramatic and groundless. The story of Jeckyll and Hyde stands strongly on its own merits and does not need to be accompanied by psychobabble.

Along with "Dracula" and "Frankenstein," Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is a part of that great immortal triad of gothic terrors from the 19th century from which a seemingly endless stream of fans, imitators, critics, and dreamers continue to derive unmitigated inspiration. But despite its classic status, and the fact that virtually everyone in the English-speaking world can instantly recognize the story's title, few have ever actually read Stevenson's little nightmare (the Bantam edition runs to no more than 114 pages, including Jerome Charyn's afterword)or even seen one of its many cinematic incarnations. Of the aforementioned trio, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" certainly appears the most neglected. This, despite the fact that it is certainly the most accessible. It is indeed much shorter than either "Dracula" or "Frankenstein," and anyone with good eyes can read it in a day. Even the visually challenged amongst us can do so in two. More importantly, this book is certainly the best written of the three (in)famous works, as Stevenson was by far the most proficient and thoroughly accomplished wordsmith of the authors who gave us these benighted classics. Moreover, despite its reputation as a horror story, it is in fact more of a Victorian mystery, and for those who do not much care for horror is surely a more palatable selection than either of its brothers.

That last point is perhaps part of the problem. Readers who come to Stevenson's novella expecting to find a giant Hyde rampaging through London like Godzilla in Tokyo, or even doing his best Hannibal Lecter imitation, will be sadly disappointed. "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is not about blood and thunder, however valuable those elements undeniably are in their proper place. Rather, it is a story of philosophy, soul-searching, sin and redemption. It is a subtle, scholarly tale in which much is implied but little shown, and where the goblins which haunt the London fog are only rarely permitted to stumble out to us. The modern reader, particular one weaned on such drivel as the "Scream" movies or "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," will have to unlearn much he may have come to believe about effective fantasy in order to savor Stevenson's masterpiece.

Beyond that, the story's classic status and innumerable adaptations and parodies in the cinema and pop culture (particularly in the classic Bugs Bunny episode) have vampirized the tale of much of its major element--mystery. Nobody today opens this book with any doubt as to the true relationship between Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde. However bowlderized our modern perceptions of this story have become, we nonetheless all know from the outside where Hyde really comes from. So the mystery that must have been so opaque, so innovative and exciting to the original audience that had nothing but Stevenson's own story to go by, is denied us. To some, that makes reading this book little more than a minor chore.

And that's a shame, because no matter how familiar this tale of the duality of Man and his eternal struggle between his Dark and Light sides may have become to us, it remains one of the most readable and thoroughly pleasurable books of its era. Stevenson's prose is precise, and with short, sure strokes he paints a tapestry of the human psyche and its unhallowed depths the like of which no modern slasher film has ever approached. Granted, the story may have been better served to give Hyde a bit more time on-stage. Perhaps some of the characters could have used some more fleshing-out. An epilogue might have served to tie the narrative up more securely...

...may, perhaps, might...ultimately those words do not matter, for whatever "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" might not be is irrelevant compared to what it is: the penultimate masterpiece of gothic mystery, and a classic that will endure long after that very genre has itself otherwise disappeared. Read it for what it is, and enjoy.

If you want to discover a beautiful and wild French region through the eyes of a Scottish writer, read Travels with a donkey. Stevenson, before he became famous, depicted his journey in the cevennes, with his donkey "Modestine". Rediscover the excellent style of a young writer about to become world-wide-known.

R.L. Stevenson writes here the first account of a touristic journey in France. He is the first modern tourist. He penetrates and discovers the country and the people of what he calls the Lozère, this mountain range in the south of The Central mountains in France, a range of mountains that was the locale of a protestant rebellion at the very beginning of the eighteenth century, severely repressed by Louis XIV. These protestant insurgers are known as the Camisards. Stevenson tries to discover the landscape, the natural setting of this insurrection and tries to show how the insurrection was connected to the very nature of these mountains. He also shows how no repression can change a person or a population. These old Camisards are still alive in the memory and the customs and ways of the protestant population of this region. It is the survival of this faith that interests and fascinates Stevenson. He also notices that the catholics and the protestants, at the time of his travels, lived in harmony but with an absolute divide between the two communities. A young catholic man who married a protestant girl and changed his faith in the process was unanimously condemned for this breach of loyalty. This book is also a perfect example of what tourism can and must be : the discovery of the visited people's mentality, culture, way of life, and the connection of these with the surrounding nature, and not only a quick look at monuments and other (un)perishable. One has to live with the people, no matter how little, to eat the people's food and to be in contact with the people in order to discuss general and particular subjects and to understand their way of thinking and behaving. Thus tourism becomes an adventure even in the heart of the most civilized country and only a couple of miles away from a railroad.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU