This Robert Louis Stevenson novella is told largely from the point of view of Jekyll’s friend and colleague Utterson, who slowly and painstakingly uncovers the twist that every modern reader already knows. So with the plot pre-spoiled, most of what the story has to offer is moody Victorian atmosphere. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s only about a hundred pages of it. Many of the adaptations expand the original story or tell it from Jekyll’s perspective instead. It’s a good candidate for that sort of treatment because much of the exciting stuff is discreetly glossed-over or told in letters rather than “real time.”
This only took me a few T trips to read, which is good because I’m scrambling to finish the last three books before the end of the year. I liked the pseudo-Freudianism and the addiction metaphors and the author’s prissy reluctance to describe Hyde’s actual deviant behavior, but that’s about all that’s to be had here. Oh, and the Wikipedia article is pretty interesting.