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A review by vita_zeta
Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin
4.0
The movie Mary Reilly came out in the year I turned 11, and I remember my powerful need to see it. As you can imagine, this was not remotely appropriate for an 11-year-old, but the gothic tapestry and suggestions of erotically-charged violence were exactly what I was craving back then. I was a weird kid. And it must be that somehow I did see this movie, though not in its entirety because as I read this book particular scenes came back to me. The ones that stood out were of course the most garish - Mary being forced to look at the gory aftermath of one of Edward Hyde's early crimes, Hyde smearing his own blood over Mary's face, and of course the final scene where Hyde and Jekyll battle over the body they share and until finally they both fall dead.
That part doesn't actually happen in the book, which didn't really surprise me.
The novel Mary Reilly has two ambitions - one to illuminate the text of the original [b:The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde|51496|The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde|Robert Louis Stevenson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1318116526s/51496.jpg|3164921] while adhering to it faithfully, and creating something faithful to the gothic romance style. When I told a friend recently that I was craving gothic romance, she laughed and said something a long the lines of "Good luck with that." Which is understandable, they just don't exist anymore. Any modern publications that come even close are the much maligned YA paranormal romances. But Mary Reilly adheres to both the voice of the period and the gothic romance tradition, with Mary's thoughtful but devoted love to her tortured master, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the delicate way their relationship unfolds. In some ways, the narrative arc of this book is held down by the original story - which doesn't really have much of an arc at all - but what the story lacks a bit in climax and action, it makes up for with an eerie atmosphere and a young but wise main character.
There is much here that contributed to the original story that I appreciated. For one, it calls out Jekyll on his shit, repeatedly. Putting the story from the perspective of someone lower in station from Jekyll creates dissonance and perspective that the original just doesn't have. What do I care what Jekyll's lawyer thinks of him? They're the same status and thus have much the same concerns - reputation. Mary, however, cares for her master's soul, and isn't so naive to not realize that its going astray. Her angrier thoughts she keeps to herself (understandable, she does need to keep her job), but what Jekyll comes to appreciate about her is her blunt and thoughtful manner of speech, which I appreciated as well.
Valerie Martin is very artful with the way she portrays Mary. As the story is told in the form of Mary's journals, she's faithful to the manner of speech and education level of housemaid who happens to know how to read and write. Mary is a survivor of childhood abuse, studious enough to pick up reading even in a difficult school environment, and dedicated enough to maintain a good job in a good house. She has to be both proud in her work, but humble in her person. Firm in her beliefs, wise in the way she views the world, but gray enough that love might sway her to do foolish or bold things. Martin keeps Mary's darker attributes at arm's length until the end - even going so far as extrapolating on them in an afterword, which I found fascinating -, so that while you may get a little bored of her detailed accounts of how she cleaned her master's rooms, you never really get tired of or upset with her.
Martin also thankfully blurs the line further between Hyde and Jekyll. We get to see moments where Mary sees Hyde through Jekyll's eyes, though she doesn't realize it at the time. It suggests what the movie leaned into - that because Jekyll is gently and gentlemanly falling in the love with Mary, Hyde wants her viciously and violently. Mary never knows the true nature of her master's experiments, so unfortunately she doesn't get the opportunity to question the ethics of what he's done. She understands early on that Jekyll is Hyde's enabler, a fact that disturbs her considering the evidence of his evil that she's seen, but as her love for her master grows, her sympathy for his situation only strengthens. She views him as a victim only, which while a tad frustrating (as I just want to scream about this so-called philanthropist who just doesn't want to get caught raping and killing people) I suppose that's what makes it a gothic romance. It's also the reason why the story ends the way it does - in a similar quiet way that in the original story felt mostly unextraordinary, in this feels creepily satisfying. Mary is not a scientist, she's a servant, she cares little how Jekyll did what he did. There's no big battle for the body and soul of Henry Jekyll, just a broken down door a man left with his a shame, and a woman who is willing to accept him and darkness, because it mirrors her own.
Valerie Martin adds a sprinkle of ambiguity and color to the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with this story, using a compelling and well-drawn character. The movie added a lot of sex appeal (which I am pretty cool with) and more drama (also very cool with), but this novel provides plenty of rich, spooky atmosphere and dark psychology, so much that I think it actually surpasses the original story in many ways. It gives you more violence, more scares than original story while still staying to true to a literary style that is all about suggestion, never the obvious.
That part doesn't actually happen in the book, which didn't really surprise me.
The novel Mary Reilly has two ambitions - one to illuminate the text of the original [b:The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde|51496|The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde|Robert Louis Stevenson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1318116526s/51496.jpg|3164921] while adhering to it faithfully, and creating something faithful to the gothic romance style. When I told a friend recently that I was craving gothic romance, she laughed and said something a long the lines of "Good luck with that." Which is understandable, they just don't exist anymore. Any modern publications that come even close are the much maligned YA paranormal romances. But Mary Reilly adheres to both the voice of the period and the gothic romance tradition, with Mary's thoughtful but devoted love to her tortured master, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the delicate way their relationship unfolds. In some ways, the narrative arc of this book is held down by the original story - which doesn't really have much of an arc at all - but what the story lacks a bit in climax and action, it makes up for with an eerie atmosphere and a young but wise main character.
There is much here that contributed to the original story that I appreciated. For one, it calls out Jekyll on his shit, repeatedly. Putting the story from the perspective of someone lower in station from Jekyll creates dissonance and perspective that the original just doesn't have. What do I care what Jekyll's lawyer thinks of him? They're the same status and thus have much the same concerns - reputation. Mary, however, cares for her master's soul, and isn't so naive to not realize that its going astray. Her angrier thoughts she keeps to herself (understandable, she does need to keep her job), but what Jekyll comes to appreciate about her is her blunt and thoughtful manner of speech, which I appreciated as well.
Valerie Martin is very artful with the way she portrays Mary. As the story is told in the form of Mary's journals, she's faithful to the manner of speech and education level of housemaid who happens to know how to read and write. Mary is a survivor of childhood abuse, studious enough to pick up reading even in a difficult school environment, and dedicated enough to maintain a good job in a good house. She has to be both proud in her work, but humble in her person. Firm in her beliefs, wise in the way she views the world, but gray enough that love might sway her to do foolish or bold things. Martin keeps Mary's darker attributes at arm's length until the end - even going so far as extrapolating on them in an afterword, which I found fascinating -, so that while you may get a little bored of her detailed accounts of how she cleaned her master's rooms, you never really get tired of or upset with her.
Martin also thankfully blurs the line further between Hyde and Jekyll. We get to see moments where Mary sees Hyde through Jekyll's eyes, though she doesn't realize it at the time. It suggests what the movie leaned into - that because Jekyll is gently and gentlemanly falling in the love with Mary, Hyde wants her viciously and violently. Mary never knows the true nature of her master's experiments, so unfortunately she doesn't get the opportunity to question the ethics of what he's done. She understands early on that Jekyll is Hyde's enabler, a fact that disturbs her considering the evidence of his evil that she's seen, but as her love for her master grows, her sympathy for his situation only strengthens. She views him as a victim only, which while a tad frustrating (as I just want to scream about this so-called philanthropist who just doesn't want to get caught raping and killing people) I suppose that's what makes it a gothic romance. It's also the reason why the story ends the way it does - in a similar quiet way that in the original story felt mostly unextraordinary, in this feels creepily satisfying. Mary is not a scientist, she's a servant, she cares little how Jekyll did what he did. There's no big battle for the body and soul of Henry Jekyll, just a broken down door a man left with his a shame, and a woman who is willing to accept him and darkness, because it mirrors her own.
Valerie Martin adds a sprinkle of ambiguity and color to the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with this story, using a compelling and well-drawn character. The movie added a lot of sex appeal (which I am pretty cool with) and more drama (also very cool with), but this novel provides plenty of rich, spooky atmosphere and dark psychology, so much that I think it actually surpasses the original story in many ways. It gives you more violence, more scares than original story while still staying to true to a literary style that is all about suggestion, never the obvious.