Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
From its startling first scene to the final, provocative paragraph, this highly original view of the Jekyll and Hyde story is a feat of narrative engineering. Mary Reilly is a housemaid in the Victorian London home of Dr. Henry Jekyll, a thoughtful, silver-haired scientist who, in the eyes of his servants, often overexerts himself in his nearby laboratory; nor are these worries assuaged when ``Master'' announces he has hired Edward Hyde as an assistant. Mary's remarkable self-possession and intelligence are matched by a commitment to the duties of her station and her devotion to Master, whose weariness seems to worsen. Drawn to her wit and forthrightness, Jekyll establishes a more personal relationship with Mary. Her growing attachment to Master, her ever-so-slowly dawning realization that something is dreadfully wrong and her determined belief in her own good judgment propel the plot with unobtrusive forcefulness. Spare and atmospheric, this story is a dark, absorbing symphony; Mary Reilly is an unforgettable character. Martin's ( The Consolation of Nature ; A Recent Martyr ) striking imagination grows more powerful with each of her accomplished novels. BOMC featured alternate; QPB selection; film rights to Guber-Peter/Warner Bros. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
This retelling of the enigmatic Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde tale deserves praise for suspense, character creation, and historical verisimilitude. Mary Reilly, a loyal, trusted servant in the household of Dr. Jekyll records in her diary the mysterious circumstances which lead to her Master's tragic fate. The hierarchy of social classes, relationships among servants and domestics, and details of language and dress enhance this marvelous re-creation with the realism of Dickens. Mary represents the apex of devotion, goodness, and honesty, in contrast to the dual nature and complexity of Dr. Jekyll, whose shadow side threatens to destroy all bounds of decency, law, and order. Less convincing is the tinge of romance between Mary and Jekyll. Most compelling is a forceful consciousness about the dual propensity of human nature and the awesome power which is ours. BOMC featured alternate; Quality Paperback Book Club selection. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/89.-- Addie Lee Bracy, Beaver Coll. Lib., Glenside, Pa. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A splendid literary conceit, a psychological thriller of the first rank: the spellbinding journals of an introspective Victorian maid--whose employer is none other than Dr. Henry Jekyll. Martin's (The Consolation of Nature, Alexandra, Love, etc.) triumph here is in making the Jekyll/Hyde melodrama, with all its lure, merely vivid backdrop for the equally alluring psychosexual odyssey of heroine Mary Reilly. Martin pincers the reader into a seductively shadowed world from the start, with Mary's tense account--written at the request of ""Master,"" or Dr. Jekyll--of how she came by the scars that mar her hands and neck: a childhood legacy of being locked by her drunk dad into a closet with a rat. Admiring Mary's ability to write, Master--as we learn from Mary's diary, composed in a carefully pitched Victorian voice (""I could not move though I wanted naught but to be gone from that hateful place,"" etc.)--takes a deep shine to Mary, naming her his emissary to the dismal slums of London--slums re-created here in all their poverty, cold, and filth, and site of Mary's terrifying discovery, in a room drenched in grue, of the character of Jekyll's new ""assistant,"" Edward Hyde. As Mary (and other memorably drawn members of Master's household) observes Jekyll falling ever sicker, and the fearsome Hyde, encountered mostly in fog-wrapped or nighttime forays, growing ever bolder, she--fearful for her Master, and torn between her unassuming, sober persona and her proud, erotic, tempestuous hidden self--begins to step across the class barriers separating herself from Master. Jekyll responds with paternal affection; Hyde with hideous lust, nearly raping Mary and tearing out her throat in the penultimate scene that leads to Mary's realizing all and a final capitulation to her own darkly passionate inner world. Weakened slightly by a Hyde who rampages mostly off-page, lessening his monstrousness--here's a rare novel where a bit more explicit violence might have proved more rather than less artful--but wholly captivating both in its detailed re-creation of Victorian upstairs/downstairs life and the slums beyond, and in its wise measuring of Mary's soul. In all, an enthralling stow: film rights have already been sold. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
