Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was first published in 1886, and has since been the basis for any number of stage productions, over 120 film adapations, radio plays, television movies and series, and of course, spoofs and parodies. And then there are the spin-offs by other novelists, which leads us to Viola Carr’s The Diabolical Ms. Hyde. Cat Eldridge gives us a look at that one:
My favorite usage is the one by Simon R. Green that shows up in both his Nightside and Secret History series, in which Jacqueline Hyde is two beings consisting of Jacqueline (the woman) who is in love with Hyde (the man) who only meet for brief seconds when one becomes the other.
The relationship in Viola Carr’s The Diabolical Ms. Hyde is similar, but Eliza Hyde is the one in control, a lady forensic scientist and alienist in an England where the Royal Society are witch-hunters that seek out any who don’t follow the accepted orthodoxy that science is everything and that any thoughts of alchemy and the like are grounds for burning. Literally.
And it goes on from there. Read Cat’s review to find out which is the good guy.
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