The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde - a book review

 I'm going to focus on reviewing more books this year. Of the books in the 2025 reading year, I'm starting with a classic. I give you my review of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This is a spoiler-heavy review. 

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The book I'm reviewing is a classic—a horror classic. I know the end (at least the movie's end), so it isn't a real surprise to learn that Jekyll is Hyde. I think almost everyone who took a literature class knows that. In basic overview, a man plays with the idea of his good side and bad side and gets himself into a horrible situation. He gets to a point where he can no longer control "Mr. Hyde", whom he says he can get rid of at any time. 

Book Events

We start with a lawyer (Utterson), reading a clause in the will of Dr. Jekyll, a dear friend. Dr. Jekyll's leaving Mr. Hyde all his money and property if he disappears or dies. The lawyer thinks Hyde is a horrible man and has a conversation with Hyde. Hyde is rude to him. He speaks with Jekyll later, and Jekyll is annoyed that he's questioning his will contents. Not long after, we see Hyde kill someone with Jekyll's cane, the very cane the lawyer gifted to Jekyll. He now has to tell his dear friend what happened and what Hyde has done. When he does Jekyll acts strange again, looking sickly and devastated, saying Hyde won't come back. He produces a letter he received (a letter Jekyll could have written himself) saying Hyde has safely escaped. The lawyer assumes Hyde dropped it by the lab. The butler had no knowledge of the letter. The lawyer takes the note to someone, who compares the handwriting with an invitation from Jekyll. It is almost the same with a slight slant. 

Hyde then disappears while Jekyll becomes the social butterfly he used to be - until two months later, when Utterson is not admitted into Jekyll's parlor with no explanation. Utterson is upset since he'd been visiting for weeks with no issue. He has the handwriting man (Guest) over because he's feeling lonely. He also speaks with his other best friend, Dr. Lanyon. Lanyon is ill and will not speak of Jekyll. He dies soon after. Utterson sends a note complaining about why he can't come over (because of course, it's all about you, Mr. Utterson) and gets a response that's a bit dramatic. Jekyll intends to live a life of seclusion for some unknown reason. He won't explain, just says that he did this to himself. I made note in my ebook here ("drama queen") because it was so melodramatic in wording. 

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After Lanyon's funeral, Utterson reads a letter his (now dead) friend wrote to him. In it was another letter, one to be read after the disappearance or death of Jekyll. Utterson restrained his curiosity and put it in his safe. This didn't stop Utterson from coming to Jekyll's house anyway. Clearly, he didn't listen to the contents of that letter. After hearing the troubled state of Jekyll over and over again while talking to Poole, he eventually stopped coming. Jekyll had taken to living in the cabinet room over the lab. He was silent and not himself. Poole's report rarely varied.  On a walk, he sees Jekyll through a window and speaks with him. Jekyll is depressed and Utterson invites him on a walk since he's already out with his cousin. The conversation abruptly ended when Jekyll's face changed and he slammed the window shut as it did. Utterson and his cousin were almost speechless upon seeing the change. 

One evening Poole comes by to say something is terribly wrong. He can't clearly explain what is going on, but he wants Utterson to come with him and see for himself. Utterson gets his coat and hat immediately, braving the wind and weather with Poole. It turns out all the servants are terribly afraid and huddling together by the fire. Poole knocks on the door to illustrate the fact Jekyll's voice has changed, then explains that 8 days ago the voice changed. He had even warned Utterson not to go in if invited. Poole goes on to say that their orders were from papers thrown on the stairs and Jekyll was begging for some sort of medicine. When he got it and brought it back, Jekyll would say it wasn't pure. They didn't see him, just read notes. One note goes from one tone to another. Poole explains he got a glimpse of Jekyll.  Utterson hears Poole out and comes to the conclusion his friend has a deforming illness, since he's now wearing a mask and hiding. Poole says that isn't it, insisting that the man was shorter than Jekyll and Jekyll might be dead. 

At this point, Utterson insists on breaking in to see if Jekyll is alive. They yell out a warning. After a refusal to come out, they burst in with an axe and fire poker to find Hyde had drunk something poisonous. They search fruitlessly for the body of Jekyll and return to Hyde's body with nothing to show for their search. They start looking around and find blasphemies written all over Jekyl's open books and an unfinished chemistry experiment. An envelope is addressed to Utterson, containing a will where Utterson gets everything instead of Hyde. It also says to read what Lanyon wrote to him, that the end was near when he wrote the letter that morning. 

As for what Lanyon wrote, it starts with a letter from Jekyll, begging for a specific, shady errand that will save him. If not done, he is doomed, it explains. It then goes on to (dramatically) explain how Lanyon saw Hyde transform back into Jekyll, then say that after what he saw he would certainly die. He did, as it were, but it sounds so ridiculously dramatic when you read the letter. A couple of the sentences require dictionary help, but we'll talk about it later. 

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Jekyll's letter explains that he was trying to split his evil and good nature up. It seems that he does remember what he does in Hyde's body, if I understand correctly. Hyde's form delights in evil. He observed that human nature is grey, not black and white, and that Hyde's form repulsed everyone. Being Jekyll again didn't make him all good, though, just the morally grey man he'd always been. His experiment was not fully successful. He liked that he could be free of his disciplined nature, but still be seen with respect. He was using it to misbehave and have an alibi. He was slowly killing his conscience. He was not taking responsibility for anything he did, instead he hid behind his respectable doctor cutout while "Hyde" did all the evil he wanted to do. This was only a problem when Hyde came out without the concoction. This was when he seemed to forget what he did in Hyde's body. He had to choose his conscience or Hyde, but by indulging his evil alter ego so often he'd already practically made the choice. It was too late. He was the good doctor for two months, then fell back to old habits. He then repented on his knees in tears and screaming and never purposely revived Hyde again. He had to make Lanyon help him get to his medicine when he transformed and couldn't get back to the lab (he broke his own key). Now he could no longer control Hyde and Hyde came out anyway. He had to be near his medicine or he'd never be Jekyll again. Hyde became his own man, scrawling on his books, burning letters and the portrait of his father. The only thing Hyde feared was Jekyll's possible suicide. This letter was the last letter that Jekyll would ever write because the medicine was impure and running out fast. Hyde would soon take over his mind. At the time Poole grabbed Utterson, Jekyll was already permanently gone. 

Overall Thoughts

Now that all you students have cliffnotes on the book, let's talk about what I think. I'm glad I read this on my ereader (a Christmas/Birthday gift - thanks Grandma!) because this book had large words and many sentences I had to dissect to understand. I have notes that say "what?" all over the book. The other thing about this book that stands out is how dramatic the language is. I did mark "drama queen" somewhere and "dramatic, but okay" on Lanyon's last letter. All this said, it's worth the time. 

The idea that Jekyll never suicided himself to kill Hyde due to pity almost sounds like Gollum to me. I know that's not quite a direct line, but it reminds me of Gollum. Pity stayed Bilbo's hand and pity stayed Jekyll's desire to end Hyde by killing himself. At the end Hyde did kill himself, but Hyde was only Hyde by the end. Jekyll had been overtaken by his own experiment and his own mistake of indulging that experiment. It comes to the idea of indulging sin/evil; evil gets easier and good gets harder. Do you feed evil or good? It's a real question. We are all morally grey, as Jekyll notes, and giving into the evil side of yourself leads to utter ruin and disaster. Jekyll destroyed himself by creating Hyde. He was already a bad guy before he created Hyde, though. Some of this book could have been based on the author realizing his close friend (one like Dr. Jekyl) had been assaulting and murdering women the whole time he knew him. Utterson could very well have been a reflection of the author. 

This is horror that makes you think. Many phrases are highlighted in my ebook copy because they are thought-provoking. Jekyll plays with the idea of being the upright, good doctor while secretly doing evil. It doesn't work that way. You can't do evil and not expect it to overtake you. This is something we all need to remember. Read this book. Use your dictionary to get past the language. It's worth your time. 

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