An Extraordinary Gentleman

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson
Premier Classics -- Knopf

A few weeks ago, I had one of those nights where no matter what I did, sleep would not come.  Usually when I find myself in that situation, I turn on the radio and listen to whatever programming happens to be on the CBC.  Unfortunately, that didn't work, so I got up, went downstairs, and randomly pulled out a movie.  My pick was The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  If you haven't seen it, it is a wonderfully crappy movie based on a comic that takes characters from Victorian literature and makes then into a sort of Justice League of the World.

My plan worked in that I was asleep about thirty minutes in, but it did get me to thinking.  Of all the characters profiled in that movie, I had never read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.  I figured they must be classics for a reason, so I set about remedying the situation.  

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is probably best known to modern-day readers for its interesting portrayal of a dual/split personality.  Dr. Jekyll develops a potion that brings out his dark side and comments that it is only when he is Mr. Hyde, that he feels entirely free.  His moral self is quite restricted and he slowly, almost inexorably, loses control to his baser side. 

It is worth nothing that the other stories included with this novella were equally well-written and were as gripping as Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde.  In fact, I enjoyed the stories so much, that I might actually go back and dig out a copy of Treasure Island.  I haven't read that since I was a child and I have a feeling that I probably missed the boat.  Pun intended.  Three dastardly villains out of five.