Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) wrote essays, stories, novels, poems, plays, and biographies during a prolific 20-year literary career. In the absence of evidence supporting a relationship between the behavior exhibited by Wells during his final days and any inspiration that Stevenson might have derived from it, we conclude that there is insufficient evidence to suggest any relationship between them. All claims to any relationship between Wells and the novel come from the United States, and none of them are backed by evidence. There is evidence that Stevenson dreamt about episodes similar to those depicted in his novel. On the other hand, novelists of the period, psychologists, and the lay public were quite interested in the concept of split personalities and the dual nature of man, so these may have been natural substrates for the novel. Wells' life and death received widespread coverage in the northeastern United States, but there is no evidence that it was printed in newspapers or periodicals in England or Scotland. Stevenson was born in Scotland, several years after Wells had committed suicide in New York. We examined Stevenson's letters, biographies, and other references in the literature, press, and online to determine whether any factual basis exists for Stevenson to be aware of Wells' life, and also if it played any role in creating the novel's plot. Hyde derived inspiration from the real-life tragedy of the final days of Connecticut dentist Horace Wells, innovator of the clinical use of the anesthetic properties of nitrous oxide. Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd ISBN: 9780141389509 Number of pages: 128 Weight: 100 g Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 7 mm You may also be interested in.It has been suggested that Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece Strange Case of Dr. The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War. This edition also includes Stevenson's chilling story 'The Bottle Imp'. The story of respectable Dr Jekyll's strange association with '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. Published as a 'shilling shocker', Robert Louis Stevenson's dark psychological fantasy gave birth to the idea of the split personality. The Penguin English Library Edition of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis StevensonĪll human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.