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Jekyll And Hyde Weekly - Blog Posts
Some more artwork of Henry Jekyll, wearing a corset based on this advertisement for men's corsets circa 1880 as I quite like the more natural shape of it:
Little drawing of what I imagine Dr Henry Jekyll would wear when out and about on the streets of London.
Featuring very important plot relevant cane that was canonically a gift from Utterson.
Edward no! Put that conical flask down right now or so help me!
Another sketch of Dr. Henry Jekyll.
Every time I draw my design for him he seems to become more of a "tall, fine build of a man" and I think Robert Louis Stevenson would be proud XD
Let's see how many people I can get to join me in the "Henry Jekyll is a strawberry blonde" club.
Mr. Utterson the lawyer.
So what I do is I read books that came out this year exclusively in print and I read decades-old classic literature in my emails.
Mainly I do this in order to defy god’s will.
Henry Jekyll, M.D., D.C.L., L.L.D., F.R.S., etc.,
Abraham Van Helsing, M. D., D. Ph., D. Lit., etc., etc.,
Patrick Hennessey, M. D., M. R. C. S. L. K. Q. C. P. I., etc., etc.,
Slowly amassing a collection.
One reading of what Mr. Utterson suspects the possible relationship between Jekyll and Hyde, and the 'ghost of some old sin', might be is that Hyde is his illegitimate son, but between Hyde entering through Jekyll's back door (literally and metaphorically), Utterson having a nightmare of Hyde breaking into Jekyll's bedroom while he's sleeping and forcing him to do his bidding in the middle of the night, and thinking of shenanigans around Jekyll's bed a second time, another theory he might have is that Hyde is Jekyll's secret lover, either estranged or ongoing, and between those two possibilities, the latter would be far more dangerous to Jekyll in social and legal terms if it were to be discovered or used to blackmail him.
For historical context, the novella was published in 1886, though as we will later find out, the only information we are given about the temporal setting is that the story is set in the 19th century, though it can't be any earlier than 1850, if you do the math based on Jekyll's age. Homosexuality between men in the UK in the form of sodomy was punishable by death until 1861, during which the Offences Against the Person Act was passed to amend the penalty for sodomy from death to a minimum of ten years in prison; later, and just prior to the novella's publication, the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 criminalized any and all acts of homosexuality between men (not just sodomy), including those done in private with no witnesses — even a mere affectionate letter would suffice as evidence for prosecution — to the point where it became known as the Blackmailer's Charter (source); this would later be the act under which Oscar Wilde would be found guilty of 'gross indecency' in 1895 and sentenced to prison.
Meanwhile, it wasn't uncommon for upper-class men to have illegitimate children, and while potentially scandalous, it would not necessarily be life-ruining — though of course, the concern in that case could be that Hyde has other information he is holding over Jekyll's head as blackmail, including possible relationships with other men that would be both scandalous and illegal during this time period.
the unexpected comedy in these nineteenth century novels always take me by (delighted) surprise
Looks like a cinnamon roll, is a cinnamon roll: Lanyon
Looks like a cinnamon roll, but could kill you: Jekyll
Looks like they could kill you, is actually a cinnamon roll: Utterson
Looks like they could kill you, could actually kill you: Hyde
a quick lil sketch of the dusty, dreary, and yet somehow loveable lawyer we all know and love since j&h weekly motivated me to actually bang out a (somewhat) acceptable reference image for ol johnny boy
