First published in 1886 as a “shilling shocker,”
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
takes the basic struggle between good and evil and adds to the mix bourgeois respectability, urban violence, and class conflict. The result is a tale that has taken on the force of myth in the popular imagination. This Broadview edition provides a fascinating selection of contextual material, including contemporary reviews of the novel, Stevenson’s essay “A Chapter on Dreams,” and excerpts from the 1887 stage version of
. Also included are historical documents on criminality and degeneracy, the “Jack the Ripper” murders, the “double brain,” and London in the 1880s.
New to this third edition are an appendix on the figure of the Victorian gentleman and an expanded selection of letters related to the novel; the introduction and bibliography have also been updated to reflect recent criticism.