The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The lawyer Utterson has a puzzle he can't leave alone. Why has his old friend, the respectable Dr. Jekyll, written a will leaving everything to a Mr. Edward Hyde, a violent, repellent stranger who seems to come and go through Jekyll's back door? As Hyde's crimes escalate and Jekyll swings between gaiety and terrified seclusion, Utterson digs toward a truth stranger than blackmail.

Everyone knows the phrase "Jekyll and Hyde," and almost nobody remembers that Stevenson built the book as a detective story, with the revelation held back until the final documents. Heard fresh, the mounting wrongness of foggy, gaslit London is genuinely eerie. At roughly three hours, it's one of the most efficient nightmares in English literature.

At roughly 27,200 words, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde runs about 3 hours at 1x narration speed. That figure is an estimate based on a typical narration pace. The exact length depends on the voice and the playback speed you choose.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is in the public domain, so the complete text is free on Project Gutenberg and LoudReader has the entire Project Gutenberg catalog built in. To listen:

1. Download LoudReader for Mac or iPhone (free, no account).
2. Search for “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” in the built-in catalog and add it to your library.
3. Press play. A natural offline voice reads the book while each word highlights on screen, and your place is saved between sessions.

LoudReader reads with natural offline voices, so the whole book works on a plane or underground. It is fully on-device and private, your library never leaves your device. Listening is unlimited on the free tier.