The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is an 1886 Gothic horror novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and a murderous criminal named Edward Hyde.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is about the complexities of science and the duplicity of human nature. Dr Jekyll is a well-respected and intelligent scientist who meddles with the darker side of science.
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is one of the most famous pieces of English literature, and is considered to be a defining book of the gothic horror genre. The novella has also had a sizeable impact on popular culture, with the phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" being used in vernacular to refer to people with an outwardly good but sometimes shockingly evil nature. The two alter egos of the main character, have become shorthand for the exhibition of wildly contradictory behaviour, especially between private and public selves.