Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Robert Louis Stevenson, who lived from 1850 to 1894, was a Scottish novelist, poet and essayist. He wrote with equal skill for children and adults, and his books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped and A Child's Garden of Verses. He travelled widely in search of better health, and spent his last years in Samoa in the Pacific, where he died at the age of forty-four.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was published in 1886 and was an immediate success. It is a novella, short enough to be read in a single sitting, but its influence has been enormous. The names of its two central characters have entered the language as shorthand for a person who seems to have two natures, and the story has been adapted countless times for stage, screen and radio. Stevenson reportedly came to the idea in a dream, though the details of that account vary.

What gives the book its lasting power is the way the story is told. We follow a respectable London lawyer as he gathers evidence, and we share his bewilderment until the final chapters, which present Jekyll's own account of what happened. The setting, a city of fog, lamplight and closed doors, adds to the sense of something hidden behind a respectable face. It is a story about Victorian anxieties over reputation and repression, but it speaks just as powerfully today.

This recording is a single reader's version in four sections and lasts about three hours. It is an ideal choice for a long evening, and an excellent way to discover why this slim book has frightened and fascinated readers for well over a century.