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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson
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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson
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Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a gothic novella by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson first published in 1886. The work is also known as The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or simply Jekyll & Hyde. It is about a London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde. The novella's impact is such that it has become a part of the language, with the very phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" coming to mean a person who is vastly different in moral character from one situation to the next.
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ClassiciTHE LAST NIGHT
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MR. UTTERSON WAS SITTING BY his fireside one evening after dinner, when he was surprised to receive a visit from Poole.
āBless me, Poole, what brings you here?ā he cried; and then taking a second look at him, āWhat ails you?ā he added; āis the doctor ill?ā
āMr. Utterson,ā said the man, āthere is something wrong.ā
āTake a seat, and here is a glass of wine for you,ā said the lawyer. āNow, take your time, and tell me plainly what you want.ā
āYou know the doctorās ways, sir,ā replied Poole, āand how he shuts himself up. Well, heās shut up again in the cabinet; and I donāt like it, sirāI wish I may die if I like it. Mr. Utterson, sir, Iām afraid.ā
āNow, my good man,ā said the lawyer, ābe explicit. What are you afraid of?ā
āIāve been afraid for about a week,ā returned Poole, doggedly disregarding the question, āand I can bear it no more.ā
The manās appearance amply bore out his words; his manner was altered for the worse; and except for the moment when he had first announced his terror, he had not once looked the lawyer in the face. Even now, he sat with the glass of wine untasted on his knee, and his eyes directed to a corner of the floor. āI can bear it no more,ā he repeated.
āCome,ā said the lawyer, āI see you have some good reason, Poole; I see there is something seriously amiss. Try to tell me what it is.ā
āI think thereās been foul play,ā said Poole, hoarsely.
āFoul play!ā cried the lawyer, a good deal frightened and rather inclined to be irritated in consequence. āWhat foul play? What does the man mean?ā
āI darenāt say, sir,ā was the answer; ābut will you come along with me and see for yourself?ā
Mr. Uttersonās only answer was to rise and get his hat and great-coat; but he observed with wonder the greatness of the relief that appeared upon the butlerās face, and perhaps with no less, that the wine was still untasted when he set it down to follow.
It was a wild, cold, seasonable night of March, with a pale moon, lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her, and a flying wrack of the most diaphanous and lawny texture. The wind made talking difficult, and flecked the blood into the face. It seemed to have swept the streets unusually bare of passengers, besides; for Mr. Utterson thought he had never seen that part of London so deserted. He could have wished it otherwise; never in his life had he been conscious of so sharp a wish to see and touch his fellow-creatures; for struggle as he might, there was borne in upon his mind a crushing anticipation of calamity. The square, when they got there, was all full of wind and dust, and the thin trees in the garden were lashing themselves along the railing. Poole, who had kept all the way a pace or two ahead, now pulled up in the middle of the pavement, and in spite of the biting weather, took off his hat and mopped his brow with a red pocket-handkerchief. But for all the hurry of his coming, these were not the dews of exertion that he wiped away, but the moisture of some strangling anguish; for his face was white and his voice, when he spoke, harsh and broken.
āWell, sir,ā he said, āhere we are, and God grant there be nothing wrong.ā
āAmen, Poole,ā said the lawyer.
Thereupon the servant knocked in a very guarded manner; the door was opened on the chain; and a voice asked from within, āIs that you, Poole?ā
āItās all right,ā said Poole. āOpen the door.ā The hall, when they entered it, was brightly lighted up; the fire was built high; and about the hearth the whole of the servants, men and women, stood huddled together like a flock of sheep. At the sight of Mr. Utterson, the housemaid broke into hysterical whimpering; and the cook, crying out, āBless God! itās Mr. Utterson,ā ran forward as if to take him in her arms.
āWhat, what? Are you all here?ā said the lawyer peevishly. āVery irregular, very unseemly; your master would be far from pleased.ā
āTheyāre all afraid,ā said Poole.
Blank silence followed, no one protesting; only the maid lifted up her voice and now wept loudly.
āHold your tongue!ā Poole said to her, with a ferocity of accent that testified to his own jangled nerves; and indeed, when the girl had so suddenly raised the note of her lamentation, they had all started and turned toward the inner door with faces of dreadful expectation. āAnd now,ā continued the butler, addressing the knife-boy, āreach me a candle, and weāll get this through hands at once.ā And then he begged Mr. Utterson to follow him, and led the way to the back-garden.
āNow, sir,ā said he, āyou come as gently as you can. I want you to hear, and I donāt want you to be heard. And see here, sir, if by any chance he was to ask you in, donāt go.ā
Mr. Uttersonās nerves, at this unlooked-for termination, gave a jerk that nearly threw him from his balance; but he re-collected his courage and followed the butler into the laboratory building and through the surgical theatre, with its lumber of crates and bottles, to the foot of the stair. Here Poole motioned him to stand on one side and listen; while he himself, setting down the candle and making a great and obvious call on his resolution, mounted the steps and knocked with a somewhat uncertain hand on the red baize of the cabinet door.
āMr. Utterson, sir, asking to see you,ā he called; and even as he did so, once more violently signed to the lawyer to give ear.
A voice answered from within: āTell him I cannot see any one,ā it said complainingly.
āThank you, sir,ā said Poole, with a note of something like triumph in his voice; and taking up his candle, he led Mr. Utterson back across the yard and into the great kitchen, where the fire was out and the beetles were leaping on the floor.
āSir,ā he said, looking Mr. Utterson in the eyes, āwas that my masterās voice?ā
āIt seems much changed,ā replied the lawyer, very pale, but giving look for look.
āChanged? Well, yes, I think so,ā said the butler. āHave I been twenty years in this manās house, to be deceived about his voice? No, sir; masterās made away with; he was made, away with eight days ago, when we heard him cry out upon the name of God; and whoās in there instead of him, and why it stays there, is a thing that cries to Heaven, Mr. Utterson!ā
āThis is a very strange tale, Poole; this is rather a wild tale, my man,ā said Mr. Utterson, biting his finger. āSuppose it were as you suppose, supposing Dr. Jekyll to have beenāwell, murdered, what could induce the murderer to stay? That wonāt hold water; it doesnāt commend itself to reason.ā
āWell, Mr. Utterson, you are a hard man to satisfy, but Iāll do it yet,ā said Poole. āAll this last week (you must know) him, or it, or whatever it is that lives in that cabinet, has been crying night and day for some sort of medicine and cannot get it to his mind. It was sometimes his wayāthe masterās, that isāto write his orders on a sheet of paper and throw it on the stair. Weāve 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, every day, ay, and twice and thrice in the same day, there have 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.ā
āHave you any of these papers?ā asked Mr. Utterson.
Poole felt in his pocket and handed out a crumpled note, which the lawyer, bending nearer to the candle, carefully examined. Its contents ran thus: āDr. Jekyll presents his compliments to Messrs. Maw. He assures them that their last sample is impure and quite useless for his present purpose. In the year 18ā-, Dr. J. purchased a somewhat large quantity from Messrs. M. He now begs them to search with the most sedulous care, and should any of the same quality be left, to forward it to him at once. Expense is no consideration. The importance of this to Dr. J. can hardly be exaggerated.ā So far the letter had run composedly enough, but here with a sudden splutter of the pen, the writerās emotion had broken loose. āFor Godās sake,ā he had added, āfind me some of the old.ā
āThis is a strange note,ā said Mr. Utterson; and then sharply,
āHow do you come to have it open?ā
āThe man at Mawās was main angry, sir, and he threw it back to me like so much dirt,ā returned Poole.
āThis is unquestionably the doctorās hand, do you know?ā resumed the lawyer.
āI thought it looked like it,ā said the servant rather sulkily; and then, with another voice, āBut what matters hand-of-write?ā he said. āIāve seen him!ā
āSeen him?ā repeated Mr. Utterson. āWell?ā
āThatās it!ā said Poole. āIt was this way. I came suddenly into the theatre from the garden. It seems he had slipped out to look for this drug or whatever it is; for the cabinet door was open, and there he was at the far end of the room digging among the crates. He looked up when I came in, gave a kind of cry, and whipped up-stairs into the cabinet. It was but for one minute that I saw him, but the hair stood upon my head like quills. Sir, if that was my master, why had he a mask upon his face? If it was my master, why did he cry out like a rat, and run from me? I have served him long enough. And thenā¦ā The man paused and passed his hand over his face.
āThese are all very strange circumstances,ā said Mr. Utterson, ābut I think I begin to see daylight. Your master, Poole, is plainly seized with one of those maladies that both torture and deform the sufferer; hence, for aught I know, the alteration of his voice; hence the mask and the avoidance of his friends; hence his eagerness to find this drug, by means of which the poor soul retains some hope of ultimate recoveryāGod grant that he be not deceived! There is my explanation; it is sad enough, Poole, ay, and appalling to consider; but it is plain and natural, hangs well together, and delivers us from all exorbitant alarms.ā
āSir,ā said the butler, turning to a sort of mottled pallor, āthat thing was not my master, and thereās the truth. My masterā here he looked round him and began to whisperā"is a tall, fine build of a man, and this was more of a dwarf.ā Utterson attempted to protest. āO, sir,ā cried Poole, ādo you think I do not know my master after twenty years? Do you think I do not know where his head comes to in the cabinet door, where I saw him every morning of my life? No, Sir, that thing in the mask was never Dr. JekyllāGod knows what it was, but it was never Dr. Jekyll; and it is the belief of my heart that there was murder done.ā
āPoole,ā replied the lawyer, āif you say that, it will become my duty to make certain. Much as I desire to spare your masterās feelings, much as I am puzzled by this note which seems to prove him to be still alive, I shall consider it my duty to break in that door.ā
āAh Mr. Utterson, thatās talking!ā cried the butler.
āAnd now comes the second question,ā resumed Utterson: āWho is going to do it?ā
āWhy, you and me,ā was the undaunted reply.
āThatās very well said,ā returned the lawyer; āand whatever comes of it, I shall make it my business to see you are no loser.ā
āThere is an axe in the theatre,ā continued Poole; āand you might take the kitchen poker for yourself.ā
The lawyer took that rude but weighty instrument into his hand, and balanced it. āDo you know, Poole,ā he said, looking up, āthat you and I are about to place ourselves in a position of some peril?ā
āYou may say so, sir, indeed,ā returned the butler.
āIt is well, then, that we should be frank,ā said the other. āWe both think more than we have said; let us make a clean breast. This masked figure that you saw, did you recognise it?ā
āWell, sir, it went so quick, and the creature was so doubled up, that I could hardly swear to that,ā was the answer. āBut if you mean, was it Mr. Hyde?āwhy, yes, I think it was! You see, it was much of the same bigness; and it had the same quick, light way with it; and then who else could have got in by the laboratory door? You have not forgot, sir that at the time of the murder he had still the key with him? But thatās not all. I donāt know, Mr. Utterson, if ever you met this Mr. Hyde?ā
āYes,ā said the lawyer, āI once spoke with him.ā
āThen you must know as well as the rest of us that there was something queer about that gentlemanāsomething that gave a man a turnāI donāt know rightly how to say it, sir, beyond this: that you felt it in your marrow kind of cold and thin.ā
āI own I felt something of what you describe,ā said Mr. Utterson.
āQuite so, sir,ā returned Poole. āWell, when that masked thing like a monkey jumped from among the chemicals and whipped into the cabinet, it went down my spine like ice. Oh, I know itās not evidence, Mr. Utterson. Iām book-learned enough for that; but a man has his feelings, and I give you my Bible-word it was Mr. Hyde!ā
āAy, ay,ā said the lawyer. āMy fears incline to the same point. Evil, I fear, foundedāevil was sure to comeāof that connection. Ay, truly, I believe you; I believe poor Harry is killed;...