Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

The story takes place in London at the end of the nineteenth century, a city of serious people, respected surnames, and reputations tended like a family estate. The one guiding the reader's eye is Mr. Utterson, a middle-aged lawyer, thin and dry, who almost never laughs and who denies himself the wine he likes just to practice discipline.

He has two longtime friends: Dr. Henry Jekyll, a wealthy, charming, well-liked physician, and Dr. Lanyon, also a physician, with firm scientific views and conservative opinions. Think of a trio of coworkers at a traditional office, all in pressed shirts, where nobody asks what the others do after hours.

It's in this world of good manners that the book plants its question: what lies behind the well-painted door of a respectable life? The narrative is built like a detective mystery, and the reader discovers the truth along with the lawyer, always one door behind.

On a Sunday walk, Utterson hears a story from his cousin Enfield that troubles him. One early morning, Enfield saw a short, repulsive-looking man bump into a little girl running down the street and simply trample her, without changing his pace, like someone walking over a doormat.

The family, the doctor called in a rush, and the neighbors surrounded the man, and the crowd wanted revenge. To avoid a scandal, he agreed to pay a large settlement. He went through an old door, with no windows, in a building that looked abandoned, and came back with a check signed by a well-known and highly respected name.

Enfield suspected forgery, but the check was good. The most likely explanation was that someone of high standing was being pressured, a case of blackmail. The man's name was Hyde, and he caused a revulsion in everyone that no one could quite explain.

Utterson keeps his friend Jekyll's will, and for a long time one clause has bothered him: if the doctor dies or disappears for more than three months, everything goes to a certain Edward Hyde. No relatives, no charity, just a stranger. When he connects that name to the story of the trampling, the lawyer concludes that his friend is the victim of blackmail.

He goes to Lanyon, who knows nothing and has drifted away from Jekyll over scientific disagreements, which he calls dangerous nonsense. With no answer, Utterson starts lurking around the windowless door and decides to meet this Hyde in person, because he suspects his friend is being squeezed by someone who knows some old secret.

Notice the pattern: the lawyer imagines ordinary scandals, debt, a mistress, a youthful mistake, because that's what the imagination of a decent person can picture. The truth will be stranger than any neighborhood gossip.