Xanadu’s Reviews > Mary Reilly > Status Update

The curious psychological relationship of Dr. Jekyll to Edward Hyde might be best explained by...untangling the complex threads that so loosely knit the conscious to the unconscious. It is a mysterious connection and one that would surely repay study, for who among us has not felt...the press of an unconscious desire to create havoc? Is it not the fear of this impulse that drives us to insist upon social order?

That this involved losing a foot or so in height a total change of features and coloring as well as a stripping away of the effects of age...strains credulity, but surely Jekyll would have found...moving pictures...equally as incredible. Theexperiment...must then gradually have gotten out of control requiring more and more of the chemical to effect the transformation back into Jekyll, until at last no amount would do

She rarely used punctuation at all and her method of capitalizing proper names was erratic, though it is interesting to note that she always failed to capitalize the word “i” and never failed to capitalize the word “Master.”

Are we seriously not going to find out about the possible botched abortion, the murder, or the poison? Interesting note from the author to the audience that they'll publish the prequel [if this book sells well enough, nudge nudge].

All the time the truth was right before my eyes and especially that last night when I held Master up in the yard and saw the change come upon his face, and those other eyes looking out at me for a moment, but I would not understand, as if I was too stubborn to know it.
How many times did he tell me?

I could almost feel pity for him in that moment, as one feels pity for some dangerous animal what has caught his leg in a trap, so I did not want to help him for fear of my life, still it were no pleasure to see him struggle.

“Ever the serious moralist, aren’t you Mary,” he said. “And no pity in that hard heart for anyone who strays from your narrow little system of just deserts.”

"I wish I was one who could find solace in prayer, but I am not. To put things down, that is my way, but I fear this time nothing will help me and I wonder is it safe even to write what I now know?"

In the Victorian Gothic tradition, there's something of the epistolary style here, the enlightenment psychology that suffuses stories like Dracula and Frankenstein. But less imagination.

“Perhaps he is working at something to make himself well.” We was at dinner and all of us, even Mr. Poole, fell silent and looked at Mr. Bradshaw with surprise, for first none of us has ever gone so far as to say Master is ill, and second it seemed that this was a very good explanation for the strangeness we all feel. After a moment Mr. Poole said, “Mr. Bradshaw, I think you may be right.”...88% of the story done...

“So,” Master said, seeming to talk to himself, for he did not look at me, “the final act will be played out in this poor theatre.” Then he sighed and turned his attention to me.

As with so many other scenes in this book, it's entirely unclear how Jekyll comes to this insight, much less what the act in question will be, yet Martin still manages to increase our anticipation yet again, despite very little drama.