82. DR. JEKYLL and MR. HYDE

Robert Louis Stevenson 1886

Who has not heard of this novella? A classic mystery science fiction, it is a very intriguing and candid rendition of the battle between one's own good and evil side, said to have been written by the author while sick in bed in 1885. There are three main narratives from three close friends (Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Utterson and Dr. Lanyon) that essentially comprise this short book. It starts with Lawyer Mr Utterson wondering about the mysterious relationship between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as he witnesses the horrid Mr. Hyde and later receives Dr. Jekyll's last will wherein he leaves all his property to Mr. Hyde. He gets more confused after a close friend Dr. Lanyon abruptly dissociates and detests Dr. Jekyll. The last narrative is in the form of a letter of explanation from Dr. Jekyll of the disastrous events after his discovery of the transforming potion.

'Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable.'(opening line)

'But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove."I incline to Cain's heresy," he used to say quaintly: "I let my brother go to the devil in his own way."(37)

'It is the mark of a modest man to accept his friendly circle ready-made from the hands of opportunity; and that was the lawyer's way. His friends were those of his own blood or those of whom he had known the longest; his affections, like ivy, were the growth of time, they implied no aptness in the object.'(38)

'He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something down-right detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn't specify the point. He's an extraordinary looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way. No, sir, I can make no hand of it; I can't describe him. And it's not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment.'(43)

'The will was holograph... it provided not only that, in case of the decease of Henry Jekyll, M.D... all his possessions were to pass into the hands of his "friend and benefactor Edward Hyde," but that in case of Dr. Jekyll's "disappearance or unexplained absence for any period exceeding three calendar months," the said Edward Hyde should step into the said Henry Jekyll's shoes without further delay and free from any burthen or obligation, beyond the payment of a few small sums to the members of the doctor's household.' (45)

'The death of Sir Danvers was, to his way of thinking, more than paid for by the disappearance of Mr. Hyde. Now that the evil influence had been withdrawn, a new life began for Dr. Jekyll. He came out of his seclusion, renewed relations with his friends, became once more their familiar guest and entertainer; and whilst he had always been known for charities, he was no less distinguished for religion. He was busy, he was much in the open air, he did good; his face seemed to open and brighten, as if with an inward consciousness of service; and for more than two months, the doctor was at peace.'(71)

'On the 8th of January Utterson had dined at the doctor's with a small party; Lanyon had been there; and the face of the host had looked from one to other as in the old days when the trio were inseparable friends. On the 12th, and again on the 14th, the door was shut against the lawyer. "The doctor was confined to the house," Poole said, "and saw no one." On the 15th, he tried again, and was again refused; and having now been used for the last two months to see his friend almost daily, he found this return of solitude to weigh upon his spirits. The fifth night he had in Guest to dine with him, and the sixth he betook himself to Dr. Lanyon's.'(72)

'It was sometimes his way-- the master's, that is -- to write his orders on a sheet of paper and throw it on the stair. We've had nothing else this week back; nothing but papers, and a closed door, and the very meals left there to be smuggled in when nobody was looking. Well, sir, everyday, ay, and twice and thrice in the same day, there had been orders and complaints, and I have been sent flying to all the wholesale chemists in town. Every time I brought the stuff back, there would be another paper telling me to return it, because it was not pure, and another order to a different firm. This drug is wanted bitter bad, sir, whatever for.'(83)

'What he told me in the next hour, I cannot bring my mind to set on paper. I saw what I saw, I heard what I heard, and my soul sickened at it; and yet now when that sight has faded from my eyes, I ask myself if I believe it, and I cannot answer.'(102)

'It was thus rather the exacting nature of my aspirations than any particular degradation in my fault, that made me what I was, and with even a deeper trench than in the majority of men, severed in me those provinces of good and ill which divide and compound man's dual nature.'(103)

'It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both; and from an early date, even before the course of my scientific discoveries had begun to suggest most naked possibility of such a miracle, I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of these daydreams, on the thought of the separation of these elements.'(104)
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First Signet Classic Printing, December 1978
124 pages
Book borrowed from the library
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Personal note: This edition has an awesome introduction by Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita). For a great review, check this one from The Books of My Life.