The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (AmazonClassics Edition) recap

Lawyer Gabriel Utterson investigates the link between his respected friend Dr. Henry Jekyll and the violent Edward Hyde, whom Jekyll has made his heir. Hyde murders Sir Danvers Carew and vanishes, while Jekyll briefly resumes a sociable life before isolating himself. Dr. Lanyon dies after a mysterious shock and leaves Utterson a sealed narrative. When Jekyll's butler fears that someone has replaced his master, he and Utterson break into the laboratory and find Hyde dead, with Jekyll missing. Lanyon's account says that Hyde drank a chemical mixture and transformed into Jekyll. Jekyll's confession reveals that he created the drug to divide his respectable and destructive impulses; Hyde was the body of his liberated cruelty. Hyde grew stronger, appeared without warning, and eventually became difficult to reverse. When the original chemical supply could not be duplicated, Jekyll lost the means to remain himself and died as Hyde.

During one of their regular walks, Richard Enfield tells the lawyer Gabriel Utterson about seeing a small, repellent man named Edward Hyde deliberately knock down and trample a child. To avoid a scandal, Hyde paid the family with a cheque bearing the name of the respected Dr. Henry Jekyll and entered through a battered door attached to Jekyll's property. Utterson already holds Jekyll's troubling will, which leaves everything to Hyde and gives Hyde control if Jekyll disappears. Dr. Lanyon, another old friend, knows nothing of Hyde and says he has fallen out with Jekyll over scientific ideas. Utterson watches the door until he meets Hyde, whose presence immediately disturbs him, then confirms with Jekyll's butler Poole that Hyde possesses a key and may enter freely. Utterson fears that Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll and may harm him to inherit sooner.

At a dinner, Jekyll asks Utterson to respect his wishes regarding Hyde and claims he can end the relationship whenever he chooses. Nearly a year later, a maid sees Hyde encounter the elderly Sir Danvers Carew and suddenly beat him to death with a cane. A letter on the victim leads the police to Utterson, who identifies Hyde as the suspect and takes Inspector Newcomen to Hyde's Soho rooms. Hyde is gone, but officers find the broken half of the murder weapon and signs of a hurried departure. Utterson recognizes the cane as one he gave Jekyll. The police cannot trace Hyde through family, friends, or a clear description, and his accounts remain untouched. Jekyll tells Utterson that he has finished with Hyde and presents a letter in which Hyde promises that he has a means of escape. Jekyll appears relieved, but Utterson remains uneasy about the extent of Hyde's influence.

Utterson's clerk, Guest, compares Hyde's supposed farewell letter with a dinner invitation written by Jekyll and finds the handwriting essentially the same apart from its slope. Utterson concludes that Jekyll forged the letter to protect a murderer. For a time after Carew's death, Jekyll returns to friends and charitable activity. He then abruptly refuses visitors. Lanyon also refuses to discuss Jekyll and is visibly dying from a shock he will not explain. After Lanyon's death, Utterson receives a sealed statement that is not to be opened until Jekyll dies or disappears. He visits the laboratory but Poole repeatedly says Jekyll will not see him. Utterson and Enfield later speak to Jekyll through an upstairs window; Jekyll briefly seems pleased by their company, then an expression of terror crosses his face and he shuts the window without explanation.

Poole comes to Utterson in distress, convinced that something is wrong in Jekyll's locked laboratory. The unseen occupant has spent days sending written orders for a particular chemical, rejecting each delivery as impure. The voice and glimpsed figure do not seem to be Jekyll, and Poole fears his master has been killed. Utterson and Poole break down the laboratory door. Inside they find Hyde dying from poison while wearing clothes too large for him; Jekyll is nowhere in the building. A document on the table contains a new will naming Utterson rather than Hyde, a note directing him to read Lanyon's sealed narrative, and Jekyll's confession. Lanyon's account explains that, following precise written instructions from Jekyll, he collected chemicals and a drawer from the laboratory. Hyde arrived to claim them, mixed a potion, drank it, and physically transformed before Lanyon's eyes into Henry Jekyll. The revelation destroyed Lanyon's health and his trust in the natural order.

Jekyll's confession reveals that he believed the virtuous and selfish sides of his nature could be separated. A chemical experiment transformed him into Edward Hyde, a younger and smaller body representing impulses Jekyll had long concealed. Jekyll used Hyde's separate identity and rooms to act without risking his public reputation, and he arranged the will to protect that freedom. Over time Hyde became stronger. Jekyll began changing in his sleep without taking the drug and needed larger doses to return. He tried to abstain, but eventually chose Hyde again and, as Hyde, murdered Carew. Jekyll stopped for a period, only to transform involuntarily while awake. After revealing the truth to Lanyon to obtain his chemicals, he hid in the laboratory. His original chemical stock contained an unknown impurity essential to the potion, and replacements did not work. With his final dose nearly exhausted and Hyde certain to return permanently, Jekyll finished his account. The dead Hyde found by Utterson and Poole is therefore Jekyll's final transformed body; both identities die together.

Jekyll's written confession explains that he developed a drug to separate the opposing impulses within himself. Taking it transformed him into Edward Hyde, a younger body through which he could pursue forbidden desires while protecting Jekyll's name. Repetition strengthened Hyde until transformations began occurring without the drug. After Hyde murdered Carew, Jekyll temporarily stopped, but temptation brought Hyde back and left him increasingly dominant. Jekyll's supplies then failed because a new batch of the chemical lacked an unknown impurity present in the original. Confined to the laboratory and unable to remain Jekyll, he completed his account as his last dose wore off. When Utterson and Poole broke in, they found Hyde dead from poison; Jekyll had disappeared because Hyde was his transformed body. Lanyon's death followed the shock of witnessing that transformation, and Jekyll's own death ends both identities.