Two-Faced: The BEASTLY and THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE Conversation

Oh, we do love beastly boys in our fiction! The character Kyle Kingsbury is beast on the inside while popular, rich, and gorgeous on the outside. In the BEASTLY comeuppance, a witch turns Kyle into a beast (on the outside) there to remain until he can find a bit more beauty (on the inside). Catching the fairy tale reference here?

One of the original beastly fictional characters, Dr. Jekyll thought he could tuck his beastliness away in a convenient chemical induced transformation called Mr. Hyde. That was all well and good until Mr. Hyde started popping up a bit too often. No fairy tale ending for dear Dr. Jekyll, no redeeming true love's kiss.

So listeners, what do you make of our beastly selections?
Do you feel sympathy for these characters?
Do the narrators delight in the beastliness?
Could either story have been made without the traditional tale of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST?

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BEASTLY

By Alex Flinn
Read by Chris Patton
Published by Brilliance Audio

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

By Robert Louis Stevenson
Read by Scott Brick
Published by Tantor Media

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sync Head on August 16, 2010 at 3:01pm

A quote from Robert Louis Stevenson's wife about the origins of THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE that I quite like:

"In the small hours of one afternoon, 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.'"

Permalink Reply by Scott Brick on August 19, 2010 at 3:18am

Well, since I'm biased I'll leave it to others to decide how beastly I was with Jekyll/Hyde, or whether I reveled in it, but FYI, just in general, I enjoy it quite a bit. ;)

This title has always fascinated me, and I don't know why. Perhaps because I grew up reading comic books, where millionaire playboy inventors always became superheroes -- Batman, Sandman, Starman, etc. -- whereas Dr. Jekyll was anything but heroic.

Odd side note: anyone ever seen the original British film adaptation? Fredric March played him in 1931 and it's really an amazing achievement, but more than that, they pronounce the name so oddly. JEEK-ul, with the last syllable almost swallowed. Very odd! I would ordinarily defer to the Brits in anything that deals with pronunciation, but this was just plain weird.

Best,

Scott Brick

Permalink Reply by Paul Johnson on August 19, 2010 at 11:25am

I wonder how Simon Vance would pronounce it. I think the movie was probably "over colloquializing" the acting. I would think that an educated doctor's voice would be quite different.

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