The Strange Case of Dr
Jekyll and Mr Hyde was published in 1886 and is one of the best known of
Stevenson?s novels. It concerns the way in which an individual is made up of contrary
emotions and desires: some good and some evil. Through the curiosity of
Utterson, a lawyer, we learn of the ugly and violent Mr Hyde and his odd
connection to the respectable Dr Jekyll who pays out a cheque for Hyde?s
despicable behaviour. A brutal murder follows. The dead man is one of
Utterson?s clients, Sir Danvers Carew. The murder weapon was, unbelievably a
cane Utterson had given to Jekyll. As such, the lawyer becomes entangled in the
strange world of the physician Jekyll who it transpires has created a drug that
separates his good and evil natures - purifying the doctor himself but with the
ghastly side effect of periods spent as the monstrous Hyde. We follow Utterson
as he investigates with Poole, Jekyll?s butler, the seeming contradictions in
the doctor?s actions and his increasingly hermit-like existence in his
laboratory. As the truth is about to surface, tragic events occur that end the
whole affair dramatically and conclusively. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was a great
success and it followed 1883?s fame-bringing Treasure Island (Stevenson?s first
full-length novel).
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Chapter 10
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