Clearing out my notes! So a quick thread on contextual knowledge for Jekyll & Hyde:
1. When Stevenson first wrote J&H, his wife, Fanny was appalled & he burned the 1st manuscript. He then rewrote it & it was hugely popular. 40k copies sold in the UK & 250k copies sold in the US.
1. When Stevenson first wrote J&H, his wife, Fanny was appalled & he burned the 1st manuscript. He then rewrote it & it was hugely popular. 40k copies sold in the UK & 250k copies sold in the US.
2. The character of Jekyll might be inspired by siblings Thomas & Jean Weir - both devout Christians. Thomas confessed to leading a double life - committing various offences in his spare time including incest and witchcraft. Both were hung. More here: drvitelli.typepad.com/providentia/20…
A line by Thomas Weir: “let me alone. I have lived as a beast. I must die as a beast.”
3. Edinburgh was a divided city of 2 tales: the Old Town and the New Town. The Old Town was characterised by crime and poverty after the wealthy moved to the New Town to avoid their poorer peers.
4. Stevenson himself led a double life - often visiting brothels in the Old Town and participating in activities that would have repulsed his Calvinist parents.
5. Deacon William Brody was a cabinet maker who was tried and hanged for armed robbery. His job gave him access into wealthy houses. Brody made copies of the keys given to him for work and would return at night to steal things. Stevenson had one of these cabinets in his bedroom.
6. Edinburgh was a leading city in the field of medicine thanks to doctors like Prof Robert Knox. However, medicine was closely linked to crime because of body snatchers and grave robbers supplying cadavers for medical experimentation and discovery.
A team would aim for 10 bodies a night. A healthy adult could fetch 15 guineas at the time - approx £1200 today.
The government turned a blind eye to this for years. Burke and Hare were notorious for this particular crime: historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Hist…
The government turned a blind eye to this for years. Burke and Hare were notorious for this particular crime: historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Hist…
7. In London, Dr John Hunter also worked closely with grave robbers. He was known for having a voracious appetite for knowledge and rejected practices of the time (founded on the 4 humours), instead favouring human dissection.
Hunter became known as the “Knife Man” after developing a reputation for experimenting on animals and over 2000 human bodies. He was so celebrated that he became the surgeon for King George III.
Hunter had a residence in Leicester Square where grave robbers were said to drop off cadavers to be used in his medical study. Jekyll’s house - ‘owned by a celebrated surgeon’ - in J&H is a possible nod to this. More here: bl.uk/collection-ite…
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