Novel · A way to begin
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson · 1886
Opening lines
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.
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
A London solicitor hears a distant relative tell how a repulsive little man trampled a little girl at a street corner and then, threatened with scandal, had to pay a hundred pounds, in part by a cheque signed with a respected name. That name is the name of an old friend of the solicitor, a esteemed doctor, whose will, deposited with him, leaves all his property to this stranger in the event of death or disappearance. The solicitor begins to keep watch before a door with no window. Almost a year later, a Member of Parliament is beaten to death with a cane in a moonlit lane, before the eyes of a maidservant.
Context
According to his family, the tale was written in three days after a nightmare, burned after his wife's criticisms, then rewritten at once, its author being bedridden and ill in the chest. The form is that of an inquiry: the reader follows the lawyer, and the key arrives only at the end, in the form of two documents. It appeared in January 1886 as a one-shilling pamphlet, sold forty thousand copies in six months and was cited from the pulpit. In November 1887, its author replied in a letter to those who saw in the book only a matter of morals.
Who it is for
A short tale of about a hundred pages. The final revelation, known to everyone today, came as a surprise to the first readers.
Prizes and reception
The title has become a common expression, and the story has been adapted dozens of times for the stage and the cinema.
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