Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
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About this story
A door with no bell on a quiet London by-street; a small man who tramples a child and buys the family's silence with a cheque signed by a respected doctor. The lawyer Utterson knows the signature. It belongs to his friend Henry Jekyll, whose will leaves everything to a Mr Edward Hyde no one has met — and Utterson, being a lawyer, begins to look for him.
Stevenson wrote the first draft in three days in 1885, burned it after his wife's criticism, and rewrote it in another three. The result is the rare thriller whose twist has become an idiom — "Jekyll and Hyde" — while the book itself stays stranger than its reputation: told mostly at one remove through Utterson, ending with two confessions read after the fact, and far more interested in shame than in monsters.
This edition is the complete 1886 text, about three hours, directed for a cast of twenty-three inside a noir-city sound environment — fog, footsteps, gaslight, a hansom on wet stone. Utterson, Enfield, Poole, Lanyon, Jekyll and Hyde each have a voice of their own, and the words are on screen as they are spoken for readers following the text.
The cast
- Narrator
- Mr Utterson
- Dr Henry Jekyll
- Edward Hyde
- Dr Lanyon
- Richard Enfield
- Poole
- Inspector Newcomen
- Sir Danvers Carew
How this was made
This is a full-cast production, not a single narrator reading a book. Each character has its own voice, the lines are directed for pace and emotion, and the story plays inside a live sound environment — fog, gaslight and footsteps on wet pavement — that shifts as the scenes change. The voices are synthetic (high-quality text-to-speech, directed by people), and the words appear on screen as they are spoken, so you can read along or follow in a second language.
Questions
Is this the complete novella?
Yes, all ten chapters including Dr Lanyon's narrative and Henry Jekyll's full statement of the case. About three hours.
Is it suitable for teenagers?
Rated 13+. The violence is brief and reported rather than shown; the book is a staple of secondary-school reading lists.
How much does it cost?
The opening is free to hear right now, no account needed. The full story is $9.99, a one-time purchase with a free account that stays in your library. Several stories on this site are free in full.
Do I need to install anything?
No. Press Play and it opens in your browser. It works on iPhone, iPad, Android and desktop.
Can I read along?
Yes. The text is highlighted word by word as it is spoken, and you can switch the on-screen text to Spanish while listening in English (or the other way round).
Source and rights
"Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published by Longmans, Green & Co. in January 1886. Public domain. Complete text from Project Gutenberg, directed by ImmersivePage. Cover and chapter art created for this edition.
