The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis StevensonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This summer's Adult Summer Reading Theme is Literary Elements. We've taken a science/science fiction approach to the theme. I decided that for July and August my book club would pick two classic science fiction books.
I unfortunately had to cancel our July meeting but I wanted to share some thoughts on the novel. I couldn't remember if I had read the book or not as part of a school assignment, but it's a story most people at least know the basics of, (at least I hope they do!).
The only thing I really disliked about the book was the point of view Stevennson used to tell the story. I would have liked to have been with Dr. Jekyll when he tried his experiments and been there after he had woken up from being Mr. Hyde.
I think the story is a great discussion on the ideas of good and evil in humanity. It was interesting to note that Mr. Hyde was smaller than Dr. Jekyll because Jekyll's evil tendencies were not part of his personality so didn't have the same about of time to grow. I had also wanted to discuss with the group the idea that people are not wholly good or evil, they are a mix of both at varying degrees.
The copy of the ebook I downloaded had a sample from the new book Hyde by Daniel Levine. In Stevenson's work the reader hears from Dr. Jekyll his views on the strange case. In this new book Levine gives us Hyde's view on the situation. It helps if reader is familiar with the original story and not just the basics of the story as Hyde references things from the original work.
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