A creepy collection

Still on my Stevenson kick, I moved on to another great classic which I discovered can be attributed to Stevenson. From patriotic Scottish adventures, to pirate treasure, we now move on to Stevenson's darker side in a collection of creepy stories. Here are the stats:

Title: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Stories
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Year Published: 1886 (for the main novella, the other stories were published variously)
My start date: 9/28/10
My finish date: 10/1/10
Book count: 54

I will start by pointing out my previously mentioned addiction to classics as published through the Barnes and Noble classics collection. Thus, do note that the link below is obviously not to the one I read, as Amazon does not sell Barnes and Noble specials, but rather just a representation of the main novella. The B&N Classics collection featured the famous novella of duel personalities alongside five or six other short stories of a similarly creepy nature, such as "The Suicide Club".

This collection really drove home to me how diverse Stevenson was. The two previous works of his that I read were adventurous, true, but in an optimistic and childish way. You would hardly guess from those pages that the same hand could explore such dark topics as the duality of good and evil and the desire for suicide as an adventure. Reading this collection was a great way to see the author in a more rounded fashion. Granted, none of the works would be considered girly, but on the adventure side of things his work was quite varied.

I am especially glad to have read the title novella. Most of us, I would imagine, are familiar with the concept behind Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It is one of those stories that everyone would say that they know. But I realized as I started to open this book that I really had very little idea of what to expect, outside of one person morphing between personalities unbeknownst to those around him. I was, of course, familiar with the popular spin offs attributed to this work. My favorite is the film from the 90s involving a Dr Jekyll and MRS Hyde. However, until this reading, I never made the connection between Stevenson's novella and the hugely popular Nutty Professor films. In retrospect, I don't know how I could miss it, but having read the text now it is quite obvious.

Reading the well known Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was an obvious move for this project, but I am especially pleased with the inclusion of the other short stories, which I otherwise would not have noticed. These short works are surprisingly good and Stevenson manages to pack a ton of thought into a small amount of words. The series surrounding The Suicide Club is particularly worth reading.

Well, that will have to do it for this newly added to my favorites list author. I will be putting Stevenson aside now for a very different project. Check back to see what it is!

In the meantime, keep reading!
Sarah