化身博士奇案的导读.docVIP

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, Stevensons stepson, remembers, I dont 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. Schol