Home Literary Studies 25. Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)
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25. Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)

  • Doris Feldmann
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Handbook of the English Novel, 1830–1900
This chapter is in the book Handbook of the English Novel, 1830–1900

Abstract

This chapter explores how Stevenson’s novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde negotiates both generic traditions, such as urban Gothic or detective fiction, and some of the most pressing late-Victorian concerns, such as fragmented and dissociated forms of identity, contemporary fears of biological and social degeneration, and more modernist preoccupations with the unconscious and repressed parts of the human psyche. These issues also help explain some of the aesthetic strategies of the novella - its plurality and disappearance of narrators, its deconstruction of characters as allegedly self-conscious subjects in a knowable community, and its gradual dissolution of a coherent storyline. Strange Case also already enacts modernist notions of textuality, including the uncertainty of authorship and of cultural authority in general. A final section presents modern readings that situate Stevenson’s text in an urban popular culture: by linking visual spectacles to consumer culture, the novella highlights new modes of consumption and perception. The text’s implicit parody of scientific discourses, but also its sensational subtexts of sexual transgression and addiction, account for the unbroken appeal of Strange Case and its status as a cultural myth.

Abstract

This chapter explores how Stevenson’s novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde negotiates both generic traditions, such as urban Gothic or detective fiction, and some of the most pressing late-Victorian concerns, such as fragmented and dissociated forms of identity, contemporary fears of biological and social degeneration, and more modernist preoccupations with the unconscious and repressed parts of the human psyche. These issues also help explain some of the aesthetic strategies of the novella - its plurality and disappearance of narrators, its deconstruction of characters as allegedly self-conscious subjects in a knowable community, and its gradual dissolution of a coherent storyline. Strange Case also already enacts modernist notions of textuality, including the uncertainty of authorship and of cultural authority in general. A final section presents modern readings that situate Stevenson’s text in an urban popular culture: by linking visual spectacles to consumer culture, the novella highlights new modes of consumption and perception. The text’s implicit parody of scientific discourses, but also its sensational subtexts of sexual transgression and addiction, account for the unbroken appeal of Strange Case and its status as a cultural myth.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Editors’ Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. 0. Metamorphoses in English Culture and the Novel, 1830–1900: An Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Systematic Questions
  6. 1. Science and the Victorian Novel 23
  7. 2. Remediating Nineteenth-Century Narrative 51
  8. 3. God on the Wane? The Victorian Novel and Religion 71
  9. 4. Genres and Poetology: The Novel and the Way towards Aesthetic Self-Consciousness 87
  10. 5. The Art of Novel Writing: Victorian Theories 107
  11. 6. Victorian Gender Relations and the Novel 121
  12. 7. Empire – Economy – Materiality 149
  13. Part II: Close Readings
  14. 8. Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus (1833–1834) 173
  15. 9. Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil, or The Two Nations (1845) 189
  16. 10. Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847) 205
  17. 11. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847) 221
  18. 12. Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey (1847) 237
  19. 13. William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1847–1848) 253
  20. 14. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Mary Barton (1848) 273
  21. 15. Charles Kingsley, Yeast: A Problem (1851) 289
  22. 16. Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1853) 305
  23. 17. Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne (1858) 321
  24. 18. Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) 337
  25. 19. Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) 351
  26. 20. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868) 367
  27. 21. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Coming Race (1871) 381
  28. 22. George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871–1872; 1874) 397
  29. 23. George Meredith, The Egoist (1879) 415
  30. 24. Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean (1885) 431
  31. 25. Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) 445
  32. 26. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) 461
  33. 27. Sarah Grand, The Heavenly Twins (1893) 479
  34. 28. George Moore, Esther Waters (1894) 495
  35. 29. Mona Caird, The Daughters of Danaus (1894) 511
  36. 30. Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure (1895) 529
  37. 31. H. G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895) 547
  38. 32. Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897) 565
  39. 33. Henry James, What Maisie Knew (1897) 581
  40. 34. Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900) 597
  41. 35. Rudyard Kipling, Kim (1900–1901) 613
  42. 36. Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh (1903) 629
  43. Index of Subjects 645
  44. Index of Names 659
  45. List of Contributors 675
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110376715-026

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Editors’ Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. 0. Metamorphoses in English Culture and the Novel, 1830–1900: An Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Systematic Questions
  6. 1. Science and the Victorian Novel 23
  7. 2. Remediating Nineteenth-Century Narrative 51
  8. 3. God on the Wane? The Victorian Novel and Religion 71
  9. 4. Genres and Poetology: The Novel and the Way towards Aesthetic Self-Consciousness 87
  10. 5. The Art of Novel Writing: Victorian Theories 107
  11. 6. Victorian Gender Relations and the Novel 121
  12. 7. Empire – Economy – Materiality 149
  13. Part II: Close Readings
  14. 8. Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus (1833–1834) 173
  15. 9. Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil, or The Two Nations (1845) 189
  16. 10. Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847) 205
  17. 11. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847) 221
  18. 12. Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey (1847) 237
  19. 13. William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1847–1848) 253
  20. 14. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Mary Barton (1848) 273
  21. 15. Charles Kingsley, Yeast: A Problem (1851) 289
  22. 16. Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1853) 305
  23. 17. Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne (1858) 321
  24. 18. Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) 337
  25. 19. Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) 351
  26. 20. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868) 367
  27. 21. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Coming Race (1871) 381
  28. 22. George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871–1872; 1874) 397
  29. 23. George Meredith, The Egoist (1879) 415
  30. 24. Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean (1885) 431
  31. 25. Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) 445
  32. 26. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) 461
  33. 27. Sarah Grand, The Heavenly Twins (1893) 479
  34. 28. George Moore, Esther Waters (1894) 495
  35. 29. Mona Caird, The Daughters of Danaus (1894) 511
  36. 30. Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure (1895) 529
  37. 31. H. G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895) 547
  38. 32. Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897) 565
  39. 33. Henry James, What Maisie Knew (1897) 581
  40. 34. Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900) 597
  41. 35. Rudyard Kipling, Kim (1900–1901) 613
  42. 36. Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh (1903) 629
  43. Index of Subjects 645
  44. Index of Names 659
  45. List of Contributors 675
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