Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Very entertaining - I wish I could have read it without knowing the spoilers, since it's basically presented as a creepy mystery story, with us only getting Dr. Jekyll's point of view at the end.

In reading this, I unlearned a lot of things I thought I knew. I discovered:

- Jekyll rhymes with treacle. This is the normal Scottish pronunciation, and probably ties into the punnish names (Hyde-hide; Jekyll-seek all).

- Dr. Jekyll isn't the good and pure half of the duo. He's just the normal guy, with both good and bad characteristics. But actually he's pretty evil when you think about it, since he decides it's no fun indulging in baser instincts when you have that pesky conscience, and thus creates an utterly selfish version of himself so he can be a bastard without feeling bad or tarnishing his reputation. So weirdly, of all my pop culture brushes with the story, the time when Ren is split into Evil Ren and Indifferent Ren may actually be the most faithful to the source material!

- Hyde isn't a giant Hulk-style monster. He's short and little, and appears younger than Jekyll. He's also not physically ugly or deformed in any way - he just gives an impression that something Is Very Wrong with him in an indescribable way.

Anyway, I was impressed by Stevenson's artful depiction of evil, from its most banal to full-on murderous violence. I'm sure Hyde is salacious too, but his evil is represented in a much more effective way.

When we first hear a story of him, it's about him bumping into a little girl on the street. She's thrown to the ground and he calmly walks on, stepping on her without a thought. With the difference in mores between Stevenson's culture and ours, he might have chosen a vice that seems quite silly and tame to us, but this account is still chilling, even in 2018.

In fact, I couldn't help draw a connection between Stevenson's idea of anonymous indulgence in baser instincts, and the modern-day internet troll. This story is absolutely fresh and applicable in an age when we have “normal” good citizens going to work, hanging out with friends, parenting their children, volunteering for charities, and then sitting down at the computer and sending people messages like “You deserve to be raped to death, but you're too ugly” behind the safe concealment of their Internet avatars.

All in all, this was a great story - a quick read that retains its creepiness even when you know what's going on from page one. It also provokes thought about what it means to be a good person, how addiction can destroy people, and the usefulness of societal restrictions like reputation and criminal punishment.