Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

Publication: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1886, New York

First edition, first printing. Original green cloth, titles stamped in gilt on the front cover and spine, [8], 138 pp., [blank] plus 4 pages of Scribner publications. Preceding the U. K. edition by four days earlier in the same year. A fine, bright, square copy of a book that seldom appears on the market. A classic of English literature and one of the greatest of all masterpieces of psychological and moral horror. The good doctor makes out his mysterious will advising his lawyer that in the event of his death all his possessions should pass into the hands of his "friend and benefactor Edward Hyde." Clute and Nicholls eds., THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION, page 1165 say, ".... a Faustian moral fable which takes the form of a tale of mystery and horror. It precedes Oscar Wilde's THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1891), which in some respects resembles it, by five years, and is the prototype of all stories of multiple personality, transformation and possession; in some respects it is also a tale of drug dependency." First three leaves (endpaper, blank, and half-title) darkened from acidic offset caused by old newspaper clippings, else a fine, bright, clean copy. Housed in a green quarter leather and cloth clamshell case with raised bands on the spine and titles stamped in gold gilt. A Haycraft/Queen Cornerstone mystery. An exceptional copy.

Inventory Number: 51925