Mary Reilly

This is a book about addiction and the binding power of abusive relationships. Martin's writing is gothic and atmospheric, but it would be a shame to read this book as a thriller, a romance, or a sermon on the evils of the class system in Victorian England and miss out on the main point of the book. What Martin is saying about substance abuse is that the addiction is not to getting high, or to enjoying the substance itself, the addiction is to letting out the inner beast. Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde are both present in all abusers, who use substances to let out the evil inside their souls (not to get rid of it, to enjoy using it). Mary's father used alcohol to let out his demons, and Dr. Jeckyl used his experiments. Women like Mary are bound to them by loyalty, family ties, and love. This is a very deep book and will make you think!

To really appreciate MARY REILLY, I'd recommend first reading the original THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson (a quick read) and then dive into MARY REILLY. You will really appreciate the way Ms. Martin weaves her story through the original. (I was excited when the film version was released. John Malkovich would make an awesome Jekyll and Hyde. But the star was Julia Roberts and the original story was completely destroyed. DO NOT go by the film. Horrible.)

Valerie Martin may be one of the two or three most accomplished writers of fiction of our time. She may also be the most misunderstood. It's rare that I take exception to other reviews here, but the most recent ones posted about Mary Reilly are so sadly misinformed, they need addressing. To begin with, to the reader who wasn't sure, the book is a NOVEL, not a history. It is a fictional take on another NOVEL, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. To the reader who was confused by the movie: the movie was so egregiously awful I tell everyone never to see it. It helps to have read Stevenson's novel, but not necessary at all. Mary Reilly was out of print for some years, a publishing sin, and it's right and proper it's been returned to the public. The novel is, simply put, perfectly constructed. Read it once for the powerful story of a doomed domestic and her equally doomed employer, then read it again for the poetic spareness and emotional wallop of the language. The opening chapter, a letter Mary writes to Dr. Jekyll about her subjection to one of the most catastrophic cases of child abuse you could imagine, sets up the framework for the novel. Mary's father nearly ruined her because she broke a cup. Much later, Mr. Hyde nearly rapes her--as he's breaking a cup. The duality of the images throughout the book mirrors the duality of Dr. Jekyll's spirit, as well as dualities in life and philosophy multiplying in the Jekyll household. The gardening episodes which so bored one reader are a subtle symbol of the creation theme: so much work to create, so little time to destroy. They also mark the difference between Mary and Jekyll. She creates good, he creates evil, although unwittingly. The plot follows two lines: the unuttered romantic love between Mary and Dr. Jekyll, and the comparison of Hyde, not to Jekyll, but to Mary's father. It's a brilliant device, and works itself out in ever more elegant ways. Mary, the rare Victorian domestic who is literate, seeks in Dr. Jekyll the emotional response of a father and a lover. Dr. Jekyll, in turn, seeks from Mary the emotional and intellectual response of a lover/wife and a best friend. You want it to work for them. Oh, you do so desperately want it to. But you know the ending for Dr. Jekyll, and it remains for Valerie Martin's incredible imagination to weave in Mary's hopeless end according to Stevenson's original plot. I taught this book in the classroom for years, and of the hundreds of students who read it, NOT ONE ever disliked it. Approach Mary Reilly as an unfolding map of literary treasure and you will find more gold than most works of fiction can even hint it. Five stars aren't enough for a horror novel which is a romantic novel which is a suspense novel which is an historical novel. Mary Reilly is unlike anything else you will ever read. I thank Valerie Martin every time I pick up this book for giving us so great a literary gift.

I read this so long after it first came out that it was hard to get the image of Julia Roberts and John Malkovich from the film out of my head (two actors I loathe). But it is a great tribute to Valerie Martin's crisp writing that you soon forget it was ever a film, much less who starred in it, and are caught up in the quietly creepy spell she weaves as a housemaid in Victorian London slowly discovers the truth about her Master, Mr. Jekyll, and his strange, brutish assistant, Mr. Hyde. Martin wisely allows the story to unfold slowly, and she brilliantly ups the ante with the threat of impending violence and its ultimate tragic ending. Her portrait of Mary Reilly, an abused housemaid who finds solace and kinship in her strange master, is poignant, richly detailed, and gorgeously written. Forget the film, read this remarkable book and treat yourself to first-rate story telling and writing.

Valerie Martin works carefully to paint a story around that of Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Written in a journal style, the story takes us into the life of Mary Reilly, a servant in Jekyll's home. Unlike other rewrittings of stories, this one stands on its own legs. The story is not about Jekyll's greed, but of Reilly's tragedies and desires. Though the reader may know the tragic end, one can't help but to hope that all works out. Well written and definately one to put on your "To Read" list