:: "I could not think that this earth contained a place for sufferings and terrors so unmanning..."

[delphipsmith]

Finally got around to a classic I'd never read before: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I didn't know it was only a novella, nor did I realize it was by the same author as Treasure Island! Seems an odd pair of books to have written. Enjoyed the Victorian-era ambience: oozing yellow fog, empty anatomical theatres, gaslights, flickering candles, footsteps on the flagstones. Having only the Broadway musical to compare it to, I didn't know what to expect, but as is so often the case the written word was a good bit creepier, especially as the slowly mounting creepiness was unlightened by the musical Jekyll's desire to do good in the world and the love story subplot. Hyde's black glee in his own vileness and Jekyll's narration at the end detailing his terror, disgust, and horror as Hyde starts to "depose" him without the drug, are nicely gruesome.

Interestingly, the story (again the Victorian-era sensibility?) leaves vague the precise nature of Hyde's "degradations" -- does he gamble? drink? take drugs? frolic with French whores, or beat them up? torture puppies? We'll never know. Other than trampling over the small child (who isn't really hurt, just scared) and the admittedly vicious murder of Sir Danvers Carew, we are left to our own imaginations.

Mine is pretty vivid.