Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson

I brought this copy of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson at The Writer’s Museum in Edinburgh. The free museum is dedicated to lives of Edinburgh’s literary greats, Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns. You can find it after hefty walk up the Mound Steps, just to the right of St Giles’ Cathedral, tucked away in Markars’ Court. The courtyard’s flagstones are forever marked with the words of Edinburgh’s writers, and perhaps on a more seasonal basis, dotted with leftover bottles of wine from Fringe Festival revellers.

I was surprised to learn about the life of the author of one of my all time favourites, Treasure Island. The exhibition displayed photographs of Stevenson lounging in his final home in Samoa in camel coloured trousers and long riding boots, twirling his very impression moustache. After reading a timeline of his exploits in Europe, New York, San Francisco and New Zealand – to name a few – I hope one day to add his biography to my ever increasing home library.

This edition of the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is accompanied by stories which reflect the life of the globe-trotting author. If you want to read a gothic tale set in every Victorian metropolis, London, Edinburgh and Paris, this version is for you. While the witchy tale of Thrawn Jane  is written in a such strong Scottish dialect, I must plead ignorance of what actually happened – donning an appalling Frankie Boyle/ Billy Connery impression didn’t help in the slightest – the ghoulish tales of Burke and Hare in The Body Snatchers  gave me a full blown case of holiday blues and promise myself I would one day go back to "Auld Reekie”.