what Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde tells us about late Victorian Britain.

By ZHANG Wenhui

At 7 p.m. on May 30th, Dr. Phillip Stevenson held a lecture entitled “Hyde-ing the problem: what Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde tells us about late Victorian Britain." in Lize D406. The audiences were the postgraduate students from different schools.

In today’s lecture, Dr. Phillip Stevenson shared one of his most favorite books Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with the students. At first, he briefly introduced the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, whose novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is widely accepted as one of the most important literary works of the nineteenth century. Then he made a simple introduction to the book. In the book Jekyll and Hyde personality, it describes a person who is vastly different in moral character from one situation to another. Dr. Phillip Stevenson analyzed the condition of British society in the late Victorian-era through the book: the feeling of fears and anxieties, the hiding of transgressive acts and impulses, and the unpleasant truths that laid beneath the surface of Victorian civilization, etc.

Finally, Dr. Phillip Stevenson emphasized that it’s very meaningful to read the original version of this book, which could provide a better understand of British society in the late Victorian-era. After the lecture, Dr. Phillip Stevenson stayed in the classroom and had a further discussion with the students.