The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: A Critical and Annotated Edition with Comprehensive Academic Commentary (Italian Edition) Paperback – April 15, 2026

The complete, unabridged text of Stevenson's masterpiece — with the most comprehensive academic guide available in a single volume.First published in 1886, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde remains one of the most penetrating explorations of human duality ever written. In this dark tale of a respected London physician who unleashes his most dangerous impulses through a mysterious chemical potion, Robert Louis Stevenson created a myth so powerful that it has transcended literature to become a universal metaphor for the divided self.This edition pairs the complete original text with a thorough, carefully structured academic apparatus — written with scholarly rigour but designed for clarity and accessibility. Whether you are encountering the novella for the first time or returning to it for study, examination, or teaching, this volume provides everything you need in one place.PART I — THE COMPLETE TEXTAll ten chapters, unabridged, from Stevenson's 1886 first edition. Faithfully reproduced without cuts or modernisation.PART II — ACADEMIC GUIDEThe Work in ContextBibliographic card with full publication data. The genesis of the work — Stevenson's nightmare, the burned first draft, the feverish rewriting. A biographical essay on Robert Louis Stevenson, connecting his Edinburgh upbringing, Calvinist education, double life as a student, and chronic illness to the themes of the novella.The TextDetailed chapter-by-chapter summary with notes on narrative function and key turning points. In-depth character analysis — Jekyll, Hyde, Utterson, Lanyon, Enfield, Poole, and every significant figure — covering motivations, relationships, symbolic roles, and key quotations. A complete character relationship map.AnalysisNarrative structure and technique: point of view, the unreliable narrator, the management of mystery, the art of the unsaid. Major themes explored in depth: duality and the divided self, Victorian respectability and hypocrisy, science without moral limits, repression and its consequences, addiction, secrecy, atavism and degeneration. Symbolism and spaces: the door, the mirror, the laboratory, the fog, the potion, the hands. Style and language: the urban Gothic register, the vocabulary of the unspeakable, ellipsis, understatement, irony, syntax and rhythm.Context and ConnectionsHistorical and cultural context: Britain in the 1880s, the crime question, the social question. Scientific and philosophical context: Darwin, degeneration theory, pre-Freudian psychology, Victorian pharmacology. Literary influences: the Gothic tradition, Frankenstein, the Doppelganger, Poe, Faust, James Hogg, Deacon Brodie. Comparative readings: Dorian Gray, Dracula, Heart of Darkness, The Invisible Man, Dostoevsky. Critical reception and adaptations: from the 1886 sensation through Freudian, Marxist, queer, and postcolonial readings, to over 120 film and stage adaptations.Study ToolsKey quotations with commentary — essential passages analysed in depth, ready for essays and examinations. A thematic glossary defining and contextualising key terms: atavism, doppelganger, Gothic, repression, degeneration, fin de siecle, and more. Discussion questions and essay prompts at three levels: short questions for class discussion, topics for short essays, and extended prompts for advanced study.WHO IS THIS EDITION FOR?Students of English literature at every level. Teachers and lecturers seeking a comprehensive, clearly structured teaching resource. Any reader who believes that a great work of literature rewards serious attention. Read more