1 Jekyll And Hyde Read By Stephanie Poppins

In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson writes about the duality of human nature – the idea that every single human being has good and evil within them. Stevenson describes how there is a good and an evil side to everyone's personality, but what is important is how you behave and the decisions you make.

In this episode we meet Mr Utterson - an eminent lawyer - who talks a walk with his friend Mr Enfield, only to hear a most unusual tale...

Transcript

Welcome to Sleep Stories with Steph,

Your go-to podcast that guarantees you a calm and relaxing transition into a great night's sleep.

Today's story is called Dr.

Jekyll and Mr.

Hyde.

First published in 1886,

This story explores the duality of human nature and suggests that within each and every one of us lies both good and evil.

But before we begin,

Let's take a moment to focus on where we are now.

It is time to relax and fully let go.

There is nothing you need to be doing now and nowhere you need to go.

Take a deep breath in through your nose.

Then let it out on a long sigh.

Chapter One Story of the Door Mr.

Utterson the lawyer was a man of 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.

At friendly meetings and when the wine was to his taste,

Something eminently human beaconed from his eye,

Something indeed which never found its way into his talk but which spoke not only in the silent symbols of the after-dinner face but more often and loudly in the acts of his life.

He was austere with himself,

Drank gin when he was alone,

To mortify a taste for vintages and though he enjoyed the theatre he had not crossed the doors of one for over twenty years.

But he had an improved tolerance for others,

Sometimes wandering,

Almost with envy,

At the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove.

I inclined to Cain's heresy,

He used to say quaintly.

I let my brother go to the devil in his own way.

In this character it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good influence in the lives of down-going men,

And to such as these,

As long as they came about his chambers,

He never marked a shade of change in his demeanour.

No doubt the feat was easy to Mr Utterson,

For he was undemonstrative at the best,

And even his friendship seemed to be founded in a similar catholicity of good nature.

It is the mark of a modest man to accept his friendly circle ready-made from the hands of opportunity,

And that was the lawyer's way.

His friends were those of his own blood,

Or those whom he'd known the longest.

His affections,

Like Ivy,

Were the growth of time.

They implied no aptness in the object.

Hence,

No doubt,

The bond that united him to Mr Richard Enfield,

His distant kinsman,

The well-known man about town.

It was a nut to crack for many,

What these two could see in each other,

Or what subject they could find in common.

It was reported by those who encountered them in their Sunday walks,

That they said nothing,

Looked singularly dull,

And would hail with obvious relief the appearance of a friend.

For all that,

The two men put the greatest store by these excursions,

Counted them the chief jewel of each week,

And not only set aside occasions of pleasure,

But even resisted the calls of business that they might enjoy them uninterrupted.

It chanced on one of these rambles that their way led them down a by-street in a busy quarter of London.

The street was small and what is called quiet,

But it drove a thriving trade on the weekdays.

The inhabitants were all doing well,

It seemed,

And all emulously hoping to do better still,

And laying out the surplus of their gains in coquetry,

So that the shop-front stood along that thoroughfare with an air of invitation like rows of smiling saleswomen.

Even on Sunday,

When it veiled its more florid charms and lay comparatively empty of passage,

The street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood,

Like a fire in a forest,

And with its freshly painted shutters,

Well-polished brasses,

And general cleanliness and gaiety of note,

Instantly caught and pleased the eye of the passenger.

Two doors from one corner,

On the left hand going east,

The line was broken by the entry of a court,

And just at that point a certain sinister block of building thrust forward its gable on the street.

It was two storeys high,

Showed no window,

Nothing but a door on the lower storey,

And a blind forehead of discoloured wall on the upper,

And bore in every feature the marks of prolonged and sordid negligence.

The door,

Which was equipped with neither bell nor knocker,

Was blistered and disdained.

Tramps slouched into the recess and struck matches on the panels.

Children kept shop upon the steps.

The schoolboy had tried his knife on the mouldings,

And for close on a generation no one had appeared to drive away these random visitors or repair their savages.

Mr Enfield and the lawyer were on the other side of the by-street,

But when they came abreast of the entry,

The former lifted up his cane and pointed.

"'Did you ever remark that door?

' he asked,

And when his companion had replied in the affirmative,

"'It is connected in my mind,

' added he,

With a very odd story.

"'Indeed?

' said Mr Utterson,

With a slight change of voice.

"'And what was that?

' "'Well,

It was this way,

' returned Mr Enfield.

"'I was coming home from some place at the end of the world about three o'clock for black winter morning,

And my way lay through a part of the town where there was literally nothing to be seen but lamps,

Street after street and all the folks asleep,

Street after street all lighted up as if for a procession and all as empty as a church,

Till at last I got into that state of mind when a man listens and listens and begins to long for the sight of a policeman.

"'All at once I saw two figures,

One a little man who was stepping along eastward at a good walk,

And another a girl of maybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was able down a cross street.

"'Well,

Sir,

The two ran into one another naturally enough at the corner,

And then came the horrible part of the thing,

For the man trampled calmly over the child's body and left her screaming on the ground.

"'It sounds nothing to hear,

But it was hellish to see.

"'It wasn't like a man.

"'It was like some damned juggernaut.

"'I gave a few hello,

Talked to my heels,

Collared my gentleman,

And brought him back to where there were already quite a group about the screaming child.

"'He was perfectly cool and made no resistance,

But gave me one look so ugly it brought out the sweat on me like running.

"'The people who turned out were the girl's own family,

And pretty soon the doctor,

From whom she'd been sent,

Put in his appearance.

"'Well,

The child was not much the worse,

More frightened according to the sore bones than they might be supposed would be an end to it.

"'But there was one curious circumstance.

"'I had taken loathing to my gentleman at first sight,

So had the child's family which was only natural,

But the doctor's case was what struck me.

"'He was the usual cut-and-dry apothecary of no particular age and colour,

With a strong Edinburgh accent and about as emotional as a bagpipe.

"'Well,

Sir,

He was just like the rest of us.

"'Every time he looked at my prisoner,

I saw Soburns turn sick and white with a desire to kill him.

"'I knew what was in his mind,

Just as he knew what was in mine,

And killing being out of the question,

We did the next best thing.

"'We told the man we could and would make such a scandal out of this,

As should make his name stink from one end of the London to the other.

"'If he had any friends or any credit,

We understood he should lose them.

"'And all the time,

As we were pitching it in red-hot,

We were keeping the women off him as best as we could,

For they were as wild as harpies.

"'I never saw a circle of such hateful faces.

"'And there was the man in the middle,

With a kind of black sneer and coolness.

"'Frightened,

Too,

I could see that,

But carrying it off so really like Satan.

"'If you choose to make capital out of this accident,

' said he,

"'I'm naturally helpless,

No gentleman but wishes to avoid a scene.

"'Name your figure.

' "'Well,

Sir,

We screwed him up to a hundred pounds for the Charles family.

"'He would clearly have liked to stick out,

But there was something about the lot of us that meant mischief.

"'At last he struck.

"'The next thing was to get the money.

"'And where do you think he carried us but to that place with the door?

"'He whipped out a key,

He went in,

And presently came back with a matter of ten pounds in gold and a cheque for the balance on coots,

Drawn payable to bearer and signed with a name I can't mention,

Though it's one of the points of my story,

But it was a name at least very well known and often printed.

"'The figure was stiff,

But the signature was good for more than that,

If it was only genuine.

"'I took the liberty of pointing out to my gentleman the whole business looked apocryphal and that a man does not in real life walk into a cellar door at four in the morning and come out of it with another man's cheque for close upon a hundred pounds,

But he was quite easy and sneering.

"'Set your mind at rest,

' says he.

"'I will stay with you till the bank's open and cash the cheque myself.

' "'So we all set off,

The doctor,

The child's father,

And our friend and myself,

And passed the rest of the night in my chambers,

And next day when we breakfasted we went in a body to the bank.

"'I gave him the cheque myself.

"'I said I had every reason to believe it was a forgery,

But not a bit of it.

"'The cheque was genuine.

' "'Tut,

Tut,

' said Mr.

Utterson.

"'I can see you feel as I do,

' said Mr.

Enfield.

"'Yes,

It's a bad story,

For my man was a fellow nobody could have to do with,

A real damnable man,

And the person that drew the cheque is the very pink of the properties,

Celebrated too,

And what makes it worse,

One of your fellows who do what they call good.

' "'Black man,

I suppose,

An honest man paying through the nose for some of the keepers of his youth.

"'Black male house' is what I call that place with the door,

In consequence,

Though even that,

You know,

Is far from explaining all.

' "'From this,

' he was recalled by Miss Rutterson,

Asking rather suddenly,

"'And you don't know if the drawer of the cheque lives there?

' "'Likely place,

Isn't it?

' returned Mr.

Enfield.

"'But I happen to have noticed his address.

He lives in some square or another.

' "'And you never asked about the place with the door?

' said Mr.

Utterson.

"'No,

Sir,

I had a delicacy,

' was the reply.

"'I feel very strongly about putting questions.

It partakes too much of the style of judgment.

"'You start a question,

It's like starting a stone.

"'You sit quietly on the top of the hill,

And away the stone goes,

Starting others.

"'And presently some bland old bird is knocked on the head in his own back garden,

"'and the family have to change their name.

"'No,

Sir,

I make it a rule of mine.

"'The more it looks like Queer Street,

The less I ask.

' "'A very good rule too.

"'But I have studied the place for myself,

' continued Mr.

Enfield.

"'It seems scarcely a house.

"'There is no other door,

And nobody goes in or out of that one.

"'But once in a great while,

The gentleman of my adventure.

' "'The pair walked on again for a while in silence,

And then.

.

.

"'Enfield?

' said Mr.

Utterson.

"'That's a good rule of yours.

' "'Yes,

I think it is,

' returned Enfield.

"'But for all that,

' continued the lawyer,

"'there's one point I want to ask.

"'The name of the man who walked over the child.

' "'Well,

' said Mr.

Enfield,

"'I can't see what harm it would do.

"'It was a man of the name of Hyde.

' "'Hmm,

' said Mr.

Utterson.

"'What sort of man is he to see?

' "'He is not easy to describe.

"'There is something wrong with his appearance,

"'something displeasing,

Something downright detestable.

"'I never saw a man I so disliked,

And yet I scarce know why.

"'He must be deformed somewhere.

"'He gives a strong feeling of deformity,

"'although I couldn't specify the point.

"'He's an extraordinary-looking man,

"'and yet I really can name nothing out of the way.

"'No,

Sir,

I can make no hand of it.

"'I can't describe him.

"'And it's not for want of memory,

"'for I declare I can see him this moment.

' "'Mr.

Utterson again walked some way in silence,

"'and obviously under a weight of consideration.

"'You are sure he used a key?

' "'He inquired at last.

"'My dear sir,

' began Enfield,

Surprised out of himself.

"'Yes,

I know,

' said Utterson.

"'I know it must seem strange.

"'The fact is,

If I do not ask you the name of the other party,

"'it's because I know it already.

"'You see,

Richard,

Your tale has gone home.

"'If you have been inexact at any point,

"'you'd better correct it.

' "'I think you might have warned me,

' "'returned the other with a touch of sullenness.

"'But I have been pedantically exact,

As you call it.

"'The fellow had a key,

And what's more,

He has it still.

"'I saw him use it not a week ago.

' "'Mr.

Utterson sighed deeply,

But never said a word,

"'and the young man presently resumed.

"'Here's another lesson to say nothing.

"'I'm ashamed of my long tongue.

"'Let us make a bargain never to refer to this again.

' "'With all my heart,

' said Utterson.

"'I will shake hands on that,

Richard.

'"

Reviews

Oooooh, moving from the Georgian era writers into Victorian era. Takes a moment to get used to the prose. Intriguing first chapter! Thank you, a nice surprise.