Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Context, Performance Applications, Criticism: 0 (Norton Critical Editions) - Softcover

Stevenson, Robert Louis; Linehan, Katherine B.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393974650 ISBN 13: 9780393974652

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003

Synopsis

"Backgrounds and Contexts" includes a wealth of materials on the tale's publication history as well as its relevance to Victorian culture. Twelve of Stevenson's letters from the years 1885-87 are excerpted, along with his essay "A Chapter on Dreams," in which he comments on the plot's origin. Ten contemporary responses--including those by Julia Wedgwood, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Henry James--illustrate Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde's initial reception. Stevenson's 1885 tale "Markheim," a precursor to Jekyll and Hyde and a window onto the Victorian sensation market, is reprinted in its entirety in this Norton Critical Edition. Karl Miller, Jenni Calder, and Judith Halberstam discuss literary genres central to Jekyll and Hyde. Four scientific essays--including one by Stephen Jay Gould--elucidate Victorian conceptions of atavism, multiple-personality disorder, narcotics addiction, and sexual aberration. Judith R. Walkowitz and Walter Houghton consider the implications of Victorian moral conformity and political disunity for society at large. "Performance Adaptations" addresses--in writings by C. Alex Pinkston, Jr., Charles King, and Scott Allen Nollen--the many ways in which Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has been dramatized over more than a century and explores its status as a perpetually effective vehicle for changing psychological and social concerns. A checklist of major performance adaptions is provided, along with a sampler of publicity photos. "Criticism" includes essays by G. K. Chesterton, Vladimir Nabokov, Peter K. Garrett, Patrick Brantlinger, and Katherine Linehan that center on the tale's major themes of morality, allegory, and self-alienation. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

About this title

Review

Praise for previous editions:

“Martin Danahay provides an authoritative text, an excellent introductory commentary, an up-to-date bibliography, and a well-chosen set of contextualizing appendices. For an in-depth understanding of Stevenson’s masterpiece of horror, this is the text of choice.” — Patrick Brantlinger, Indiana University

“Martin Danahay’s edition of Jekyll and Hyde is a treasure trove of biographical, cultural, and historical materials. It makes a number of important contexts for interpretation available through its accessible but intriguing assemblage of ancillary documents. It cannot fail to be the inspiration for deeper investigations of a masterpiece that is itself at the crossroads of Victorian anxieties about sex, class, psychology, evolution, and the rise of popular culture.” — John Kucich, University of Michigan

From the Publisher

The Broadview Editions series is an effort to represent the ever-changing canon of literature in English by bringing together texts long regarded as classics with valuable, lesser-known literature. Newly type-set and produced on high-quality paper in trade paperback format, the Broadview Editions series is a delight to handle as well as to read.

Each volume includes a full introduction, chronology, bibliography, and explanatory notes along with a variety of documents from the period, giving readers a rich sense of the world from which the work emerged.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0393974650
• ISBN 13: 9780393974652
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 240