Book: Dr. Jeyll and Mr. Hyde

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Pages: 114/114

I recently read the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Everybody knows the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll makes a formula that can transform him into an alternate personality, Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde becomes notorious for being mean and people come to fear him. Dr. Jekyll basically loses all contact with the outside world and doesn’t socialize at all because of his alternate personality taking form inside his body. Throughout the book, Mr. Hyde is also gaining more control over the body. Dr. Jekyll becomes frantic to make a cure to the formula he has created. He believes that everybody has a good side and a bad side, and Mr. Hyde is mose definately his bad side. He discovers that the powder used in his experiment was bad and that it was his supplier’s fault. In the end of the book, Dr. Jekyll kills himself and leaves notes to his friends to explain Mr. Hyde. After that, Mr. Hyde takes over the body completely.

I thought this book was really good. At times it was difficult to read because it is an older book, but it was for the most part easy. It was also pretty fun to read this because of all the remakes in cartoons, movies, etc. There were some things that I really didn’t expect to happen, though. I thought that Dr. Jekyll was going to find a cure and return to normal, that it would be a happy ending. But instead he killed himself in his own despair, letting Mr. Hyde take over the body. Something I wonder about is how Dr. Jekyll didn’t kill Mr. Hyde, too, because they share the same body. If you like old horror stories and quick reads, then I would recommend this book to you.