The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

There’s an age-old saying about both people and places having two sides to them. In Edinburgh, as in other major cities, you can see that in the differences between the haves and have-nots, the public, tourist face of the city and the side that natives see and in many other aspects of city life; however, in Edinburgh that dichotomy is also carved in stone, the city centre itself offering two very different aspects to even the most casual visitor, the Old Town and the New. The 18th century New Town (that’s new as we reckon history), laid out to the ideals of the Englightenment in broad avenues and geometric lines, the Old Town clustered with tall, thin old buildings along Castle Ridge, the two joined by North Bridge the way the two hemispheres of the brain are joined by the Corpus Callosum. And like the hemispheres of the brain sometimes they interact and sometimes they can act very, very differently, inhabiting the same body but with often different characteristics.

(Mr Hyde by Cam Kennedy from the forthcoming Waverley Books graphic novel adaptation)

This duality in the fabric of the city – in the very stonework and streets as well as the society of the people who inhabit it – influenced the great Robert Louis Stevenson enormously when he came to write The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Of course there are other inspirations – James Hogg’s earlier Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner is a prime example – but this strange city of elegant Georgian town houses and twisting, dark alleys (also known as closes or wynds) leeched into the imagination of its young son and, even although the narrative ostensibly takes place in London, the atmosphere comes straight from Edinburgh, from a Stevenson who lived in the elegant New Town but spent many evenings in his trademark velvet coat walking the cobbled streets of the Old, drinking in darkened bars and talking with ladies of questionable virtue, the Victorian British life in miniature, outwardly educated, respectable, upstanding, secretly enjoying a nice sleazy bit of slumming and vice.

For me what makes the story stand out after more than a century is that Stevenson draws on this experience and blends both sides of that existence. It is not, as too many film and stage adaptations have made it, a simple tale of morality, of right and wrong; it is not a straight battle between ’saintly’ Jekyll and ‘brutish’ Mr Hyde. That would be the simple and more comfortable story. Stevenson is making clear, however, that is isn’t that simple – Jekyll and Hyde are two in appearance, but one in reality, the one is the other, drawn from the same psyche, Hyde a way for Jekyll to indulge in tastes that would endanger the social position of such a respected man if they became known. Part of him wants to be Hyde, wants that freedom to indulge without fear of exposure. The story carries other elements – class, race, Darwinistic evolution, psychology, morality – but it is this intermixing of what we would deem good and bad, right and wrong, rather than making a stark black and white distinction which makes this such a powerful story which continues to be relevant to modern readers.

(Cam Kennedy’s cover to The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, published February 2008 by Waverley Books)

As you can probably gather from the above, this is a tale I deeply admire; in fact it is my favourite tale by an author who has been a favourite since boyhood. People who have never read it assume they know the story, have picked it up from films or TV, but really, if you’ve never read it then you don’t know it; the story itself is a much different, more complex creature, painting in oils drawn from the wells of human desires and fears. You’ll understand then why I was so delighted when I bumped into Ron Grossett from Waverley Books at the Edinburgh Book Festival this summer and he told me that Jekyll and Hyde would be the subject of a second graphic novel by Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy, a follow-up to the great success last February of their adaptation of Kidnapped. Once more the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust are promoting the graphic novel – and the original text – as part of the One Edinburgh, One Book campaign to encourage literacy and promote awareness of our rich cultural heritage. As with Kidnapped there will be some free copies available in city libraries with more sent out to schools, as well as being put on general sale, along with a number of events in February to promote the book, Stevenson and the joy of reading.

“We are delighted to be running a second citywide reading campaign following the success of Kidnapped in 2007. This is a really dark, gothic tale, from a wonderful Edinburgh author who was heavily influenced by the duality of our city. Everybody thinks they know the story – but how many people have actually read it? Next February will be the time to reacquaint yourself with this short, but powerful book, ” Ali Bowden, Manager of the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust.

If the February 2008 campaign generates as much awareness as Kidnapped did this year then it can only be good for anyone who loves books – more people, especially younger readers, picking up both prose and the graphic novels versions can surely only be a good thing. And how nice is it to see a graphic novel at the core of this campaign?

Related posts:

1. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Adapted and illustrated by Andrzej...
2. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – so good we reviewed it twice…. Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde by Stevenson, Klimowski and Schejbal...
3. Evolving comics You may recall a couple of weeks ago I...
4. Moore and Reppion taking part in Dublin’s One City, One Book Leah Moore and John Reppion will be taking part in...
5. The Lost World Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is, of course, best known for...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.