The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: a gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson first published in 1886. The work is also ... Jekyll and Mr Hyde or simply Jekyll & Hyde.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde By Robert Louis StevensonStrange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson first published in 1886. The work is also known as The Strange Case of Jekyll Hyde Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde or simply Jekyll & Hyde. It is about a London legal practitioner named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend Dr Henry Jekyll and the evil Edward Hyde. The novellas impact is such that it has become a part of the language with the phrase Jekyll and Hyde entering the vernacular to refer to people with an unpredictably dual nature: usually very good but sometimes shockingly evil.Stevenson had long been intrigued by the idea of how human personalities can affect how to incorporate the interplay of good and evil into a story. While still a teenager he developed a script for a play about Deacon Brodie which he later reworked with the help of W. E.Henley and which was produced for the first time in 1882. In early 1884 he wrote the short story Markheim which he revised in 1884 for publication in a Christmas annual. According to his essay A Chapter on Dreams (Scribners Jan. 1888) he racked his brains for an idea for a story and had a dream and upon wakening had the intuition for two or three scenes that would appear in the story Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Biographer Graham Balfour quoted Stevensons wife Fanny Stevenson: In the small hours of one morning [...] I was awakened by cries of horror from Louis. Thinking he had a nightmare I awakened him. He said angrily: Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale. I had awakened him at the first transformation sceneLloyd Osbourne Stevensons stepson wrote: I dont believe that there was ever such a literary feat before as the writing of Dr Jekyll. I remember the first reading as though it were yesterday. Louis came downstairs in a fever read nearly half the book aloud and then while we were still gasping he was away again and busy writing. I doubt if the first draft took so long as three days.Inspiration may also have come from the writers friendship with Edinburgh-based French teacher Eugene Chantrelle who was convicted and executed for the murder of his wife in May 1878.Chantrelle who had appeared to lead a normal life in the city poisoned his wife with opium. According to author Jeremy Hodges Stevenson was present throughout the trial and as the evidence unfolded he found himself like Dr Jekyll aghast before the acts of Edward Hyde. Moreover it was believed that the teacher had committed other murders both in France and Britain by poisoning his victims at supper parties with a favourite dish of toasted cheese and opium.