Article

Visualising the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

By Simon Cooke

31st May, 2026

FROM THE CURRENT ISSUE: Robert Louis Stevenson is best remembered for his Gothic novella, the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). First published by Longman as a ‘shilling shocker’ bound in limp covers and designed for the lower end of the Christmas market of 1885, Stevenson projected his text as a thriller in which he reflects on the late Victorian fear of ‘Degeneracy’ – of Darwinian evolution being reversed or overthrown. Though offered as a cheap and insignificant imprint, his tale of a highly civilised man who releases a bestial inner self had significant resonance, and at the time of publication critics immediately recognised its cultural currency as a ‘marvellous exploration of the recesses of human nature’ which, according to Andrew Lang writing in The Saturday Review, showed how ‘every Jekyll among us is haunted by his own Hyde’.

Click below to read Simon Cooke’s full article from our current issue, Summer 2026.

Subscribe Today