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Title: The veil of self-indulgence
Review: It's always interesting to see how a classic like this differs from its many Hollywood adaptations. In this case, the book is very little like the lurid depictions of Mr. Hyde and his doings. In the book, Hyde's depravities are mostly offstage, and the reader learns about them through Jekyll's elegant euphemisms. In fact, the last half of the book is entirely Jekyll's narration of events through the means of a letter he leaves for his friend Utterson. It's a device that probably wouldn't fly today, but was possibly necessary in RLS's day, to avoid detailing just what Hyde had been up to. Some of the language in this book is a bit turgid and I occasionally had to re-read passages to get the gist of them, but I still enjoyed reading it. It's an interesting look at the duality of human nature and what happens to those who give in to the dark side.
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