Boethius Book Club, Episode 9: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
This month’s selection is The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Often misunderstood as a horror novel, Stevenson’s strange tale is a brilliant and prophetic exploration of modern man and his lust for the primitive. The 20th century has played out Stevenson’s allegory in movement after movement—from the rage for going back to nature to the so-called paleo diet. We have become as morally repulsive and lust-obsessed as the alter-ego Dr. Jekyll called into being.
Recorded: June 23, 2016
Original Air Date: September 3, 2016
Show Run Time: 1 hour 17 minutes
Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming
Show Host(s): James Easton
Boethius Book Club℗ is a Production of the Fleming Foundation. Copyright 2016. All Rights are Reserved.
As coincidence would have it, a couple weeks ago I dug out of storage a small collection of Dover thrift editions of classic literature which I bought about twenty years ago but had never read. One was of these Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde, and it so happened that I read it last night, unaware that this episode had been posted two days ago. So for the first time I have read the book before listening to the podcast, as one should do. If only I could do that every time, and by design instead of chance!
Some of those who attended the discussion mentioned similarities between Jekyl-Hyde and characters in other novels. There is also a similarity with the two characters who share the same name in Edgar Allen Poe’s story “William Wilson”, the difference being that the first William Wilson, who narrates the story, meets his downfall after murdering the other William Wilson, who acts as the first one’s conscience.