50 Fun Facts About Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Which name does Mr. Utterson jokingly give himself while lying in wait for Mr. Hyde?

Mr. Seek is his pun on the quarry's name: 'If he be Mr. Hyde, I shall be Mr. Seek,' he thinks, haunting the by-street at all hours until a frosty night rewards him.

In which city did Edinburgh-born Robert Louis Stevenson set the events of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

London is the setting, though some critics see the author's birthplace in it: Edinburgh also had a respectable new quarter beside dark, crowded slums rife with crime.

What was Robert Louis Stevenson doing when key scenes of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde first came to him?

Dreaming gave him the story, and he was cross to be woken: 'I was dreaming a fine bogey tale,' he told his wife Fanny, who had heard him cry out in horror.

Which Marvel hero did Stan Lee say borrowed from both Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

The Hulk was built to change 'from his normal identity to his superhuman alter ego and back again', as Lee put it, while keeping a misunderstood monster's heart.

Which real killer was the star of a Jekyll and Hyde play accused of being after terrifying audiences?

Jack the Ripper was at large in 1888 while Richard Mansfield's on-stage transformation horrified theatregoers, and one of them wrote to the police accusing the actor.

How does Dr. Jekyll turn himself into Mr. Hyde in Robert Louis Stevenson's original story?

Drinking a potion does it, and the first dose brings 'a grinding in the bones' and deadly nausea before the pain gives way to a heady recklessness.

What is the profession of Mr. Utterson, who investigates Dr. Jekyll's strange bond with Mr. Hyde?

Lawyer is how the opening line introduces him, as a man 'of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile', yet somehow lovable.

Which Jerry Lewis comedy parodies Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with a suave alter ego called Buddy Love?

The Nutty Professor swaps the monster for Buddy Love, a smooth, narcissistic ladies' man unleashed whenever weak-willed chemist Julius Kelp swallows his serum.

In which Netflix series is small-town barista Tyler Galpin revealed to be a monster called a Hyde?

Wednesday borrows the name for its outcast monster and adds a rule of its own, found in a diary: a Hyde must always have a master.

What is Robert Louis Stevenson said to have done with his first draft of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

Burned it, the story goes, after his wife Fanny said he had missed the allegory; he then rewrote the whole tale in three to six days.

Which Batman villain did Bob Kane base on the 1931 film of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

Two-Face, the acid-scarred Harvey Dent, grew out of what Kane called a 'classic story of the good and evil sides of human nature'.

Which TV star took over the lead in Broadway's Jekyll & Hyde from rock singer Sebastian Bach?

David Hasselhoff, then known for Baywatch, stepped in during October 2000 and stayed to the final night of what was then the longest-running show in the Plymouth Theatre's history.

Which Hollywood star played the title role, a servant of Dr. Jekyll, in the 1996 film Mary Reilly?

Julia Roberts played Mary opposite John Malkovich's doctor, in a retelling from below stairs that earned back less than a third of its budget.

What first name does Robert Louis Stevenson give Mr. Hyde, the evil half of Dr. Jekyll?

Edward is the evil half's name, while the respectable doctor is Henry, or 'my poor old Harry Jekyll' to his worried friend Mr. Utterson.

In which district does Mr. Hyde keep the rooms that Mr. Utterson searches with Inspector Newcomen?

Soho appears through swirling fog as a 'dismal quarter' of muddy ways and slatternly passers-by, 'like a district of some city in a nightmare'.

What public position does Sir Danvers Carew hold before Mr. Hyde kills him in a moonlit lane?

Member of Parliament: newsboys are soon crying 'Shocking murder of an M.P.', and the victim's high position makes the crime all the more notorious.

What weapon does Mr. Hyde use to beat the elderly Sir Danvers Carew to death in the street?

A heavy cane of rare, tough wood, which snaps in the middle under the blows. Utterson recognises the broken stick as one he gave Henry Jekyll many years before.

What position does Poole hold in Dr. Jekyll's household in Robert Louis Stevenson's novella?

Butler for decades, he refuses to be fooled by the changed voice behind the cabinet: 'Have I been twenty years in this man's house, to be deceived about his voice?'

What does Richard Enfield see Mr. Hyde do to a young girl at a street corner one winter night?

Tramples over her and leaves her screaming, 'like some damned Juggernaut'; the furious bystanders then squeeze a hundred pounds out of him for her family.

Which document of Dr. Jekyll's, kept in Mr. Utterson's safe, first makes him wary of Mr. Hyde?

His will leaves everything to Hyde if the doctor dies or simply vanishes for three months, a clause that makes Utterson fear the ghost of some old sin has caught up with his friend.

Which old friend of Dr. Jekyll watches Mr. Hyde transform and dies within weeks from the shock?

Hastie Lanyon, a doctor who had dismissed his friend's ideas as 'unscientific balderdash', sees the change at midnight and writes: 'My life is shaken to its roots.'

Which detail in notes from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde does the clerk Mr. Guest find almost identical?

The handwriting matches in many points and is 'only differently sloped', so a horrified Utterson concludes that Henry Jekyll has forged a note for a murderer.

Why can Dr. Jekyll no longer make the drug that turns him back from Mr. Hyde?

His first salt was impure, he concludes, and that unknown flaw was what gave the mixture its power, so every fresh supply his servants fetch proves useless.

What does Poole use to break into the cabinet where Mr. Hyde is hiding on the last night?

An axe, dug out from under a stack of packing straw; the tough wood takes five blows before the lock bursts, while Utterson stands by with a kitchen poker.

How does Mr. Hyde die just before Mr. Utterson breaks into Dr. Jekyll's cabinet?

He takes poison: the body is still twitching when they reach it, a crushed phial in its grip and a strong smell of kernels hanging in the air.

How does Mr. Hyde's body compare with Dr. Jekyll's in Robert Louis Stevenson's original novella?

Smaller and younger, because the evil side had been 'much less exercised' in a life of effort and virtue, so the doctor's clothes hang absurdly loose on him.

How is the secret linking Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde finally revealed to Mr. Utterson?

In letters read afterwards: one left by a dying friend and a full confession found in the cabinet, which Utterson carries back to his office to open alone.

Which chapter opens Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with Richard Enfield recalling a strange encounter?

Story of the Door begins with a Sunday walk past a blistered entrance with neither bell nor knocker, the sight that prompts Enfield's tale.

Which adventure novel did Robert Louis Stevenson publish three years before Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

Treasure Island gave the world Long John Silver; the tale of the divided doctor then carried its author's name well beyond adventure fiction.

Which Victorian scientist's ideas fed the fear of 'degeneration' that critics see in Mr. Hyde?

Charles Darwin was widely misunderstood, and many Victorians feared that if humans could evolve they could also slide back into something more primitive.

Who is the only witness when Mr. Hyde attacks Sir Danvers Carew late on an October night?

A maidservant watches from her room upstairs, recognises a man who once visited her master, and faints at the sound of breaking bones.

Where is Dr. Jekyll sitting when Mr. Utterson and Richard Enfield see him for the last time?

At a window above the courtyard, 'like some disconsolate prisoner'; mid-conversation a look of abject terror crosses his features and the sash is thrust down.

What does Dr. Jekyll most want to protect by letting Mr. Hyde carry out his secret pleasures?

His reputation meant so much that he hid even ordinary pleasures with 'an almost morbid sense of shame'; a second self let him indulge and still hold his head high.

What does Dr. Jekyll notice on waking that shows he has become Mr. Hyde in his sleep?

His hairy hand gives it away: lying on the bedclothes it is lean, corded and dusky, nothing like the large, white, shapely one the doctor went to sleep with.

Which animal's fury does Robert Louis Stevenson invoke when Mr. Hyde attacks Sir Danvers Carew?

An ape is the recurring image: he kills with 'ape-like fury', plays 'ape-like tricks' on the doctor, and Poole sees him jump 'like a monkey'.

Whose 'signature' does Mr. Utterson say he can read upon the features of Mr. Hyde?

Satan's signature, he mutters as he walks away: 'O my poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan's signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend.'

In Freudian readings of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which part of the mind does Hyde stand for?

The id fits because he acts on primal urges and instant gratification, with society's rules as the superego. Freud set out the model decades after the book.

Which Stevenson novel about David Balfour came out in the same year as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

Kidnapped sends a 17-year-old orphan among Highland Jacobites after his miserly uncle turns on him, a world away from the foggy horror its author published that year.

In which South Pacific country did the author of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde spend his last years?

Samoa became his home in 1890, and there he took the name Tusitala, 'Teller of Tales', trading his own stories for local ones.

Which comedy duo faced Boris Karloff as Dr. Jekyll in a 1953 horror spoof film?

Abbott and Costello play a pair of American policemen on the trail of a monster behind a string of killings, with the horror veteran as the sinister doctor.

In which English seaside town did Robert Louis Stevenson write Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

Bournemouth drew him for its sea air, and he named his house there Skerryvore, after a Scottish lighthouse built by his uncle.

Which Edinburgh cabinet-maker and night-time burglar helped inspire Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

Deacon Brodie had made furniture owned by Stevenson's father, and the writer first told his story in an unsuccessful play subtitled 'The Double Life'.

What were cheap British paperback thrillers like the first Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde nicknamed?

Shilling shockers sold in paper covers; shops only began stocking this one after a favourable review in The Times, and close to 40,000 copies went within six months.

Which actor won an Oscar for both title roles in the 1931 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

Fredric March shared the Best Actor prize with Wallace Beery of The Champ, and the film was a critical and commercial hit with three nominations.

Which star played the barmaid Ivy opposite Spencer Tracy in the 1941 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

Ingrid Bergman was first cast as the virtuous fiancée, but, tired of saintly parts, she pleaded with director Victor Fleming to swap roles with Lana Turner.

Which song does Henry Jekyll sing before testing his formula in the musical Jekyll & Hyde?

This Is the Moment comes as he heads to the laboratory alone to mix his formula, HJ7, and log the experiment in his journal, set to music by Frank Wildhorn.

How did the surgeon who once owned Dr. Jekyll's house use the block that became his laboratory?

As a dissecting room it was once crowded with eager students; the new owner's tastes being 'rather chemical than anatomical', the old theatre now lies gaunt and silent.

Which word does Mr. Utterson reach for to describe Mr. Hyde after first meeting him face to face?

Troglodytic, meaning like a cave-dweller, is his best attempt: 'God bless me, the man seems hardly human! Something troglodytic, shall we say?'

What nickname does Richard Enfield give the shabby building where Mr. Hyde went to fetch a cheque?

Black Mail House is his name for it, because he assumes an honest man is 'paying through the nose for some of the capers of his youth'.

In which American city did the first stage version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde open in 1887?

Boston saw it first, at the Boston Museum, where the lighting and make-up for the transformation drew horrified reactions before the play crossed the Atlantic.