Mary Reilly (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Valerie Martin
- First Published: 1990
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The 1880’s
- Setting: London
- Principal Characters: Mary Reilly, Dr. Henry Jekyll, Edward Hyde, Poole, Mrs. Kent, Mr. Utrerson, Bradslaw, Annie, Mrs. Farraday, Dr. Lanyon
- Genres: Long fiction, Suspense
- Subjects: Good and evil, London, Servants, Aristocracy or aristocrats, Horror, Victorian era or Victorianism, Erotica
- Locales: London, England
Mary Reilly is a variation on Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), a classic study of good and evil. Born and reared in Calvinist Edinburgh, Stevenson rebelled against his Puritan upbringing and, as a young man, led a Bohemian life, sometimes consorting with harlots. Dr. Jekyll is a handsome, “large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty,” but like Stevenson, he was “wild when he was young,” indulging in irregular pleasures, suffering a “perennial war among my members.” Thus, Dr. Jekyll “stood already committed to a...
[The entire page is 2380 words long]
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