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Jekyll and Hyde is a great story, at once a classic of the horror genre and also a thriller. The story of the apparently respectable doctor and his alter ego tells us something about our inner nature. Naturally, the story is only a work of fiction, but it is rooted in historical fact. Stevenson was clearly influenced by the emerging science of psychiatry and especially the case of Vivat. Then he had a life-long obsession with the life and crimes of Deacon Brodie. He was a perfect example of the duality of the human condition, at one respectable and moral, at other times , malign and dark. The double life of the Edinburgh cabinet maker, undoubtedly, influenced the Scottish author, in the creation of both Hyde and Jekyll. Stevenson appears to have been profoundly shaken by the discovery that his friend, Chantrelle, was a murderer. The French killer was probably the model for Dr. Jekyll.