1. STORY OF THE DOOR
MR. UTTERSON the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow lovable.
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MR. UTTERSON the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow lovable.
1/
We'll come to the door later. For now it's time to meet Mr Utterson, the surrogate for the reader, and himself the original reader of the case of J&H.
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2/
That opening sentence forms an almost impenetrable thicket of description from which the reader must hack out an understanding of Utterson and his world.
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3/
In this novel about knowing yourself and your fellow men, the author challenges and teases the reader on page 1-- it seems, for one page, as if the full character of a man can just be laid out completely and neatly. But of course, the novel itself complicates this.
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4/
An experiment you can try with your class. Utterson will be a detective of sorts, so let's try comparing with the introduction of another famous detective, making his debut the following year (1887). Can you guess who?
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5/
Where Conan Doyle paint Holmes as a man of "determination", of "alertness and decision", Utterson in contrast is almost a void of character. Stevenson seems to be at pains to assure he won't be the protagonist in this story.
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6/
Utterson presents an image of stuffy respectability -- for now.
7/7
7/7
