Robert Louis Stevenson
English
The story begins with Mr. Utterson, a lawyer, and his friend Mr. Enfield taking their customary Sunday walk. They pass a peculiar, sinister-looking door in a respectable neighborhood. Enfield recounts a disturbing incident: he witnessed a small, deformed man named Hyde trample a young girl and then, to avoid scandal, extort money from him using a cheque signed by a reputable figure. Utterson, disturbed by the name Hyde and the details of the cheque, becomes suspicious, especially after recalling Dr. Jekyll's will, which leaves his fortune to this same Mr. Hyde. Utterson visits his friend, Dr. Lanyon, another old acquaintance of Jekyll's, to inquire about Hyde. Lanyon claims to know nothing of Hyde and reveals a deep rift between himself and Jekyll over scientific matters, stating he now regards Jekyll as dead. Utterson's suspicions grow when he learns that Hyde has a key to Jekyll's laboratory and is frequently seen entering it, even when Jekyll is not home. He resolves to watch the door, hoping to catch a glimpse of Hyde. One night, he encounters Hyde and confronts him, noting his physically repellent yet undefinable deformity. Hyde gives Utterson his Soho address and an unpleasant encounter ensues. A year passes, marked by the brutal murder of Sir Danvers Carew. The maidservant who witnessed the crime describes Hyde, and the murder weapon is identified as a cane belonging to Dr. Jekyll. Utterson and Inspector Newcomen visit Hyde's rooms, finding evidence of a hurried search and burned papers, but also a cheque book and the other half of the broken cane, confirming Hyde's guilt. Utterson visits Jekyll, finding him deathly ill and deeply distressed by the murder. Jekyll insists he is done with Hyde and gives Utterson a letter from Hyde, assuring Jekyll of his escape. Utterson, examining the letter, notices Hyde's handwriting bears a striking resemblance to Jekyll's. This further fuels his suspicion. Meanwhile, Lanyon falls gravely ill after a mysterious and terrifying experience, which he attributes to Jekyll. He writes to Utterson, asking him to read a narrative he has prepared and destroy it immediately after, forbidding any mention of Jekyll. Lanyon soon dies, leaving Utterson with two sealed documents from Lanyon and Jekyll, both to be opened only in case of Jekyll's death or disappearance. One evening, Jekyll's butler, Poole, visits Utterson in a state of extreme terror. He reports that Jekyll has been locked in his laboratory for a week, crying out for a specific drug and that the voice heard from within is not Jekyll's. Poole believes Jekyll has been murdered, and Hyde is impersonating him. Together, Utterson and Poole break into the laboratory. They find Hyde dead on the floor, having poisoned himself. In the room, they discover Jekyll's final confession, explaining his experiments with a potion that allowed him to transform into the evil Hyde. He reveals that the drug's formula changed, rendering him unable to transform back, and that he, as Hyde, took his own life to escape the consequences of his actions, leaving Utterson to read Lanyon's narrative and his own confession for the full truth.
