The Nexus Archive
Gothic Fiction
Stevenson
The Anatomist of the Split Self · Victorian Gothic, 1850-1894
Robert Louis Stevenson gives the respectable self a locked door and asks what waits behind it.
- Secrecy
- Reputation
- Duality
- Appetite
- Confession
Life
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, essayist, and travel writer. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde became one of literature's most durable images of divided identity, reputation, addiction, and hidden appetite.
The question
“What happens when a person tries to separate his public self from his hidden desires?”
Argued against
Respectability as proof of goodness, moral compartmentalization, and the fantasy that secrecy has no cost.
Why Stevenson matters
Stevenson gives Nexus a compact gothic anatomy of the divided modern self.
Works
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Novel · Intermediate A compact gothic investigation of secrecy, reputation, duality, appetite, and the hidden self.
- Treasure Island Novel · Intermediate Stevenson's sea-adventure novel of maps, mutiny, greed, courage, and Long John Silver's dangerous charm.
- Kidnapped Novel · Intermediate Stevenson's adventure novel of inheritance, betrayal, shipwreck, Highland flight, and David Balfour's friendship with Alan Breck.