1886 First English Edtn STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE By Robert Louis Stevenson

1886 First English Edition
STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE
By Robert Louis Stevenson

KEY DETAILS
Condition: Very Good
Format: Hardcover, Small/Crown octavo (8vo 5 3⁄8 × 8 in 137 × 203 mm )
Note: Binding/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary.
Published By: Longman, Green and Co, London, 1886
Language: English
Collation: Stevenson: [viii], 141 pp.; terminal advertisement leaf lacking.; Stockton: 130 pp.; Combined principal pagination: 271 pp.
SKU: BTETM0002439
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: 12.5, L: 30, W: 25 (Units: cm), W: 2Kg
Tracked Shipping, Insurance Coverage as per Customer Request

DESCRIPTION
STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE
Early Private Binding · Bound with another 1886 Literary Work

A desirable first English edition of one of the defining works of Victorian Gothic literature: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, published at London by Longmans, Green, and Co. in 1886.
Conceived as a compact tale of mystery and horror, Stevenson’s novella rapidly transcended its sensational origins to become one of the most enduring literary treatments of the divided self. The names “Jekyll and Hyde” entered everyday language almost immediately, while the work’s exploration of repression, moral responsibility, addiction, identity and scientific transgression has ensured its continuing importance in literature, psychology and popular culture.
This copy is especially interesting for its early private presentation. The Stevenson is preserved in reddish-brown morocco-grain cloth, the spine lettered in gilt with both titles and a small gilt floral device, and is bound with Frank R. Stockton’s The Casting Away of Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Aleshine, London, Sampson Low, 1886. The ownership inscription of J. G. Gibson appears at the front of the volume and again on the blank preceding the Stockton work, adding a pleasing element of early provenance to this unusual pairing of two works published in the same year.

Publication Note:
The English edition had originally been intended for publication late in 1885, but its appearance was postponed until January 1886. The earliest copies in printed wrappers famously retain the originally printed date “1885”, altered by hand to “1886”. Charles Scribner’s Sons issued the American edition on 5 January 1886, four days before the Longmans edition appeared in England. Since the original publisher’s binding or wrappers of the present copy have not survived, no claim is made as to its original wrapper or cloth issue state.

CONDITION, COLLATION & COPY NOTES
COLLATION
Stevenson: [viii], 141 pp.; terminal advertisement leaf lacking.
Stockton: 130 pp.
Combined principal pagination: 271 pp.

A sound and attractive copy of the first English edition in an early private reddish-brown morocco-grain cloth binding, the spine lettered in gilt with the titles of both works and decorated with a small gilt floral device. Binding with light rubbing and age-related marking, minor wear and bumping to spine ends and corners, and some darkening to the spine. Overall the binding remains handsome and presents well.

The Stevenson retains the half-title, with the list of the author’s other works to verso, followed by the 1886 Longmans title page. The complete text is present through p.141. The terminal advertisement leaf for the second edition of A Child’s Garden of Verses is lacking, and the original publisher’s wrappers or cloth binding are no longer present. Consequently, although this is the first English edition, the precise original issue state of the sheets cannot now be established.
Internally the Stevenson text is generally clean and well preserved, with occasional light spotting and handling marks. Foxing becomes considerably heavier on the blank/intermediate leaf between the Stevenson and Stockton works. Early ownership inscription of J. G. Gibson to the front free endpaper and repeated on the blank preceding the second work.
Bound with Frank R. Stockton, The Casting Away of Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Aleshine, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1886, with separate title page. The pairing is particularly appealing as both works date from 1886 and appear to have been associated in this binding for a considerable period.
A handsome and accessible example of one of the great landmarks of nineteenth-century literature, offering the original 1886 English text in an attractive early binding and with the added bibliographical interest of an unusual contemporary-period bound-with.

Please see Photos as part of condition report.

REFERENCES
Prideaux 17

SYNOPSIS
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde opens as a mystery. London lawyer Gabriel John Utterson becomes increasingly disturbed by the connection between his respectable friend Dr Henry Jekyll and a brutal, repellent figure named Edward Hyde. Jekyll’s unusual will names Hyde as beneficiary, while Hyde himself becomes associated with acts of escalating violence.
As Utterson attempts to understand the relationship between the two men, Jekyll becomes increasingly withdrawn and secretive. The investigation gradually exposes the consequences of an experiment intended to separate the conflicting elements of human personality.
At the heart of the novella lies Jekyll’s attempt to free his socially respectable identity from the impulses he has long suppressed. Hyde initially offers a means of acting without apparent consequence, but the division proves impossible to control. Stevenson thereby transforms the familiar theme of the double into a powerful examination of culpability: Hyde is not merely an external monster but the product of choices deliberately made by Jekyll himself.
The result is simultaneously Gothic horror, detective story, scientific romance and moral fable. Its treatment of repression, transformation, addiction and fractured identity helped make Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde one of the defining works of late-Victorian fiction and created one of the most recognisable metaphors in modern culture.

AUTHOR BIO
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer whose works range from adventure fiction and Gothic literature to essays, poetry and travel writing. Among the most widely read authors of the nineteenth century, he is particularly associated with Treasure Island, Kidnapped, A Child’s Garden of Verses and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Born in Edinburgh into a distinguished family of lighthouse engineers, Stevenson abandoned the engineering profession in favour of literature. Persistent ill health led him to travel extensively through Europe, America and the Pacific, experiences which informed much of his writing. He eventually settled at Vailima in Samoa, where he died in 1894 at the age of forty-four.
Stevenson combined the narrative immediacy of popular fiction with unusual psychological and moral complexity. His reputation, sometimes diminished during the early twentieth century by his popularity as an adventure writer, has since been substantially reassessed, and he is now recognised as one of the major prose stylists of the Victorian period.

Bound-With Author Bio:
Frank R. Stockton (1834–1902) was an American novelist and humorist known for his ingenious plots, understated comic style and fantastic or improbable situations treated with deliberate matter-of-factness. He is now best remembered for the celebrated short story The Lady, or the Tiger?
The Casting Away of Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Aleshine appeared in 1886 and follows the adventures of two formidable and practical middle-aged American women whose common sense repeatedly triumphs over the extraordinary circumstances into which they are thrown. A London edition was published by Sampson Low in the same year.