化身博士奇案的导读

A Guide to

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

By杨畅

An Introduction to the Author

Stevenson had long been interested in the idea of the duality of human nature and how to incorporate the interplay of good and evil into a story. While still a teenager, he developed a script for a play on Deacon Brodie, which he later reworked with the help of W. E. Henley and saw produced for the first time in 1882. In early 1884 he wrote the short story "Markheim," which he revised in 1885 for publication in a Christmas annual. One night in late September or early October 1885, possibly while he was still revising "Markheim," Stevenson had a dream, and on wakening had the intuition for two or three scenes that would appear in the story. "In the small hours of one morning," says Mrs. Stevenson, "I was awakened by cries of horror from Louis. Thinking he had a nightmare, I woke him. He said angrily, 'Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale.' I had awakened him at the first transformation scene ..."

Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson's stepson, remembers, "I don't believe that there was ever such a literary feat before as the writing of Dr Jekyll. I remember the first reading as if 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".

As was customary, Mrs. Stevenson would read the draft and offer her criticisms in the margins. Louis was confined to bed at the time from a haemorrhage; therefore she left her comments with the manuscript and Louis in the bedroom. She said that in effect the story was really an allegory, but Louis was writing it as a story. After a while Louis called her back into the bedroom and pointed to a pile of ashes: he had burnt the manuscript in fear that he would try to salvage it, and in the process forcing himself to start over from nothing, writing an allegorical story as she had suggested. Scholars debate whether he really burnt his manuscript. There is no direct factual evidence for the burning, but it remains an integral part of the history of the novella.

Stevenson re-wrote the story in three to six days, allegedly with the assistance of cocaine. According to Osbourne, "The mere physical feat was tremendous; and instead of harming him, it roused and cheered him inexpressibly". He refined and continued to work on it for four to six weeks afterward.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was initially sold as a paperback for one shilling in the UK and one dollar in the U.S. Charles Scribner's Sons, the American publisher, issued the book on 5 January 1886, four days before the first appearance of the UK edition issued by Longmans; Scribner's published 3000 copies, only 1250 of them bound in cloth. Initially stores would not stock it until a review appeared in The Times, on 25 January 1886, giving it a favorable reception. Within the next six months close to forty thousand copies were sold. Its success was probably due more to the "moral instincts of the public" than any perception of its artistic merits; it was widely read by those who never otherwise read fiction, quoted in pulpit sermons and in religious papers.[citation needed] By 1901 it was estimated to have sold over 250,000 copies.

史蒂文森的全名是罗伯特?路易斯?史蒂文森(Robert Louis Stevenson)，于一八五零年十一月十三日出生于苏格兰的爱丁堡。

他的祖父和父亲都是土木工程师，在灯塔建筑方面成绩斐然，十分希望史蒂文森长大后能继承自己的事业。一八六七年，史蒂文森秉承父亲旨意进入爱丁堡大学攻读土木工程。其实他从小就对文学情有独钟。史蒂文森曾回忆道: “我整个儿童时代和青年时代一直在为一个目标忙着，那就是练习写作。我的口袋里总是装着两个本子，一本是阅读的书，一本是写作的本子。”因此入学不久，他便向父亲要求改学文学，结果未获批准。作为折衷，父亲让他改学法律。一八七五年，他通过毕业考试，成为了一名律师。但他对文学的热情没有丝毫减退，即使在受理诉讼案件时，仍抽空从事文学创作。

一八七八年，史蒂文森出版了他的第一本游记《内河航程》。一年后，又出版了《骑驴漫游记》和《人与书散论》。从此，他放弃律师业务，潜心写作，在短短的一生中写下了大量的散文、游记、随笔、小说和诗歌。

他的最著名的作品有：《诱拐》、《金银岛》和《化身博士》。

一八九四年，年仅四十四岁的史蒂文森突患中风，病逝在太平洋南部的西萨摩亚的首都阿皮亚并葬在当地一座能俯瞰太平洋的高山上。他的墓碑上铭刻着他亲自撰写于多病之秋的一八七九年的一首著名《挽歌》。

资料来源：https://www.sodocs.net/doc/b617386958.html,/view/652363.htm

Analysis of the Story

This story represents a concept in Western culture, that of the inner conflict of humanity's sense of good and evil. The novella has been interpreted as an examination of the duality of human nature (that good and evil exists in all) and that the failure to accept this tension (to accept the evil or shadow side) results in the evil being projected onto others. Paradoxically in this argument, evil is actually committed in an effort to extinguish the perceived evil that has been projected onto the innocent victims. In Freudian Theory the thoughts and desires banished to the unconscious mind motivate the behavior of the conscious mind. If someone banishes all evil to the unconscious mind in an attempt to be wholly and completely good, it can result in the development of a Mr Hyde-type aspect to that person's character. This failure to accept the tension of duality is related to Christian theology where Satan's fall from Heaven is due to his refusal to accept that he is a created being (that he has a dual nature) and is not God. This is why in Christianity pride (to consider oneself as without sin or without evil) is the greatest sin as it is the precursor to evil itself, it also explains the Christian concept

of evil hiding in the light. The novella has also been noted as "one of the best guidebooks of the Victorian era" because of its piercing description of the fundamental dichotomy of the 19th century "outward respectability and inward lust" as this period had a tendency for social hypocrisy.

Various direct influences have been suggested for Stevenson's interest in the mental condition that separates the sinful from moral self. Among them are the Biblical text of Romans (7:20 "Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it."); the split life in the 1780s of Edinburgh city councilor Deacon William Brodie, master craftsman by day, burglar by night; and James Hogg's novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), in which a young man falls under the spell of the devil.

Literary genres which critics have applied as a framework for interpreting the novel include religious allegory, fable, detective story, sensation fiction, doppelg?nger literature, Scottish devil tales and gothic novel. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has been the influence for The Hulk, Two-Face and the general superhero genre for the story's ties to a double life.

The duality in the novella has led to a variety of different interpretations. These include readings which see the work as being a Victorian morality tale of unleashed sexual depravity, or an allegory for the necessarily double life of the Victorian homose xual. A common interpretation sees the novella's duality as representative of Scotland and the Scottish character. On this reading the duality represents the national and linguistic dualities inherent in Scotland's relationship with the wider Britain and the English language respectively, and also the repressive effects of the Calvinistic church on the Scottish character. A further parallel is also drawn with the city of Edinburgh itself, Stevenson's birthplace, which consists of two distinct parts: the old medieval section historically inhabited by the city's poor, where the dark crowded slums were rife with all types of crime, and the modern Georgian area of wide spacious streets representing respectability.

阅读方法建议：

本书后附有1-3，4-6，7-10章的读前和读后练习题。读前练习主要是帮助大家作好重要词汇的准备，以及训练自己的预测能力；读后练习主要帮助大家回忆所读章节的一些重要细节。建议大家在阅读时稍稍停顿，花少量的时间浏览一下这些练习题。也许可以帮助你更深入地理解小说。

你是不是把这本小说当作悬疑故事在读？故事的结局是不是如你所料？

另外，最后的写作题目提供了你写作读书笔记的思路，同时也是小组讨论时可供探讨的话题。

主题探讨：

“双重人格”（The Duality of Human Nature）是心理学术语。由于Stevenson 的精彩叙述，杰奇和海德善恶截然不同的性格让人印象深刻，现在“Jekyll and Hyde”一词已经成为心理学“双重人格”的代称。

如果说Mr Hyde 是一个彻彻底底的邪恶的化身，那么你对Dr Jekyll 这个人物的理解是什么？

你相信人有双重人格吗？

你相信“人之初，性本善”还是“人性本恶”？

推荐观赏：

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