This weekend - in 1885 - marks the end of the frenzied week of writing that Robert Louis Stevenson undertook following a dream he’d had which gave him the story of Jekyll and Hyde.

'In the small hours of one morning' said his wife 'I was awakened by cries of horror from Louis. Thinking he had a nightmare, I woke him'. He said angrily, 'Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale!!'

In the following 6 days and nights he completed the first version of the book - fuelled by cocaine to keep him going.. 'That an invalid in my husband's condition of health should have been able to perform the manual labour alone of putting 60,000 words on paper in six days, seems almost incredible' said his astonished wife, Fanny. But she was scathing about the first draft, most likely about what she thought was the inappropriate sexual content, so it is said that he ceremoniously burnt it.

But all was not lost - he refined and continued to work on the story for 4 to 6 weeks, producing the work that lives on today, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. As an unabridged audio book the novel is truly gripping, Alan Howard brings out all the horror of the dual personality of the upright and moral Dr Jekyll and his horrific and uncontrollable other within - the wild Mr Hyde.

Download Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and receive A Lodging for the Night, also by Robert Louis Stevenson, FREE!

Two great unabridged audiobooks for the price of one from Silksoundbooks - forget the drugs, where's my iPod ??

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