New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-01-24
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
SOME RECENT FICTION.


Hour seriesl. 16mO PIP. 324 Henry Holt Co.
srRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND Mr., HYDE
BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON Authorized edition
pp. 1873. Charles Scrioners Sons.
TicknOr Co.
SWEET CICELY. OR JOSIAH ALLEN AS POLITE
CLAN. BY MARIETTA HoLLEY. With illustrations
PIP. 3Sl. Funk Wagnails
WAR AND PEACE By COUNT LYON ToLsToI. Trans
lated into French by Russian lady, and from the
French by CLARA BELL Bstore IIISit lSOo-lSO''
TESTERS SECRET A novel BY MARY CECIL HAY.
Harper Brothers.
aUenry Hayes " Is apparently woman, md the
story of Margaret Kent is principally occupied
with the fortunes of a deserted wife who is
tempted by poverty and various eligible sutors, to
try for divorce. She is saved from this error. not
by principle, but by the unweeOme temperance of
the missing husbands and it is not until this per-
sonage has been moved by yellow fever that she is
enabled to pick out the lover destined to make her
happy. The novel contains some sufficiently anus
ing sketches of New-YOrk life, and several we'll
managed situations. It's fault that the writer
exhibits no particular theory of conduct. and her
personages have no distinct traits OF character, all
the actions in the book. even the good ones, being
the result of sentiment and Impulse.
3After HIS Kird" is an interesting story which
lust misses being a good one The scene is laid in
Quiet English village, and ample use is made of
quaint rustic customs and hOmey old songs and
ballads. The apparatus of mystery however is far
too elaborate for the authors powers. John Cow
entry" having considerable ingenuity in presenting
extraordinary things but none at all in accounting
for them. But if the plot is inarcial that is mere
than we can say of the style whose incirectness is
exasperatngly feminine
Mr. Stevenson long ago showed remarkable
fertility Of imagination and tendency toward the
strange and bizarre which welcomed by a
reading public weary of the monotOnOus situations
and conventional forms of ordinary fiction. In his
latest story however he has fairly outdone himself;
his conception has q werdness which would have
delighted Poe or Hoffman,. while its originality is
something more than relative even in a world
which prOfessed, ages ago. to have exhausted the
possibilities in that direction. The Strange Case
of Dr. JekylI and NJ. Hyde" would perhaps never
have been invented but for the appearance of that
strong current of mysticism which marks the latter
end of the nineteenth century, and which has
lately been reelected in fiction much more than in
poetry: a fact which would be strange were it not
explained by the moribund state of modern poetry.
MI Stevenson would be entitled to small credit
for originality had he confined himself to the
material everywhere accessible. He is not a
follower of Marion Crawford or of Mrs. Oliphant;
neither Theosophy Spiritualism has supplied
him with his central idea. Certain aspects of it
NAV perhaps be traced TO occult sources, and
certain Others to daring flights of the scientific
imagination This strange conception is that of the
separation, by means of drugs of the evil from the
good principles of the human being, and the CO.
incidental transformation of the physical form.
man of strong dual character who has fOstered his
lower tendencies by vicious indulgence while living
ostensibly pure and decorOus life. discovers in
the course of analytic research that this change is
possible. The result of experiment is the trans
formation of DR.. JeKyll, the benevo lent, prosper
Gus, thoroughly respectable London physician, into
O shrunk and shrgelled creature so compact of |
evil that all men no meet him revolt instnctively
from q nature which represents the worst side of !
man. The temptation to use this mOnstrous folm
for the safe pursuit of his hidden pleasures is of
course too strong for DR.. Jekyll. and he gives his
wicked double a career of its own and with disas-
trous results The frequent yielding 10 the sinister
promptings of his baser self has consequences he
had not foreseen. Gradually the Hyde side Of him
acquires dangerous strength. In this form at last
he commits wanton murder; and while he almost
reoices the crime because II will nrcessltate
the disappearance of Hyde altogether he little
realizes that he is already dominated by his evil
elements. Then comes a horrible struggle between
the two natures of the The better desperately
resists the animal ferocity of the principle,
but the latter has been fortified by indulgence
that it is too strong to be suppressed. With the
dawning triumph of the evil nature appears a
CHASTITY physical complication. Before this tho
change from JekyIl to Hyde required the admiuis-
tration of q powerful drug Now he finds that
while in his natural Jekyll form, there is a con
stantly increasing tendency to slip over into the
Hyde form He goes to bed Jekyll. and to his
horror awakes Hyde. He dOze5 in his easy chair of
an afternoon and the hdeOus transformation steals
over him. He can only at length hold himself in his
normal state by incessant vigilance, and tine mo-
ment this is relaxed the supremacy of the dlaboic
side Of his nature asserts itself. Add to the
inherent terrors of such situation the cOnsidera
ton that Hyde was a hunted fel0n on whose head a
price had been set, and who would certainly be
delivered to Justice by Dr. Jekylls servants if they
found him, and the intensity OF the climax may bc
conceived.
From day to day the performance of the Hyde
elements increases. The victim rs compelled 10
isolate himself from the members of his own house
hold because lie cannot depend any longer upon his
power to keep back the physical change which IL
discovered means ruin, shame, and even death on
the scafoid. But precautIon is futile. At the same
time that the evil elements have acquired an over
mastering potency. the supply Of the chemicals
required for the transformation process becomes
exhausted Locked up in his laboratory the
wretched doctor in vain sends out order after order
for the drug he needs 1t cannot be procured OF the
exact quality requisite for the success Of the
combination He can therefore interpose no hind
rance to the advance of the destructive process
which is rapidly dssolving tho stability OF his
better nature, and making his concentrated evil
principles the sole remaining expression OF his
personality. In such circumstances the catastrophe
cannot long be deferred. but the manner OF its
arrival need not be described here.
The mystery of the story consists in the confusion
growing out of the dual existenceS of Dr. Jekyll
M for tha Of a Uvda ic n
rate personality disagreeable kind of man. but
still unquestionably human being. The matter
of-fact way in which the story is opened up, the
thornnph realism and practica COMMUNICATING of all