Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

Extract: 1) STORY OF THE DOOR MR. UTTERSON the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow lovable.

At friendly meetings, and when the wine was to his taste, something eminently human beaconed from his eye; something indeed which never found its way into his talk, but which spoke not only in these silent symbols of the after-dinner face, but more often and loudly in the acts of his life.

He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years.

But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove. 2) "I incline to Cain's heresy," he used to say quaintly: "I let my brother go to the devil in his own way." In this character, it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good influence in the lives of down-going men.

And to such as these, so long as they came about his chambers, he never marked a shade of change in his demeanour.

Robert Louis Stevenson, né le 13 novembre 1850 à Édimbourg et mort le 3 décembre 1894 à Vailima (Samoa), est un écrivain écossais et un grand voyageur, célèbre pour son roman L'Île au trésor (1883), pour sa nouvelle L'Étrange Cas du docteur Jekyll et de M. Hyde (1886) et pour son récit Voyage avec un âne dans les Cévennes (1879).

Stevenson est parfois considéré comme un auteur de romans d'aventure ou de récits fantastiques pour adolescents, mais son oeuvre a une tout autre dimension: il a d'ailleurs été salué avec enthousiasme par les plus grands de ses contemporains et de ses successeurs.

Ses nouvelles et romans manifestent en effet une profonde intelligence de la narration, de ses moyens et de ses effe