Странная история доктора Джекила и мистера Хайда

УДК 
372.8
ББК 
81.2 Англ-93
С80

ISBN 978-5-9925-0919-9

Стивенсон, Роберт Луис.
С80 
Странная история доктора Джекила и мистера Хайда : книга для чтения на английском 
языке. — Санкт-Петербург : КАРО, 2016. — 
128 с. — (Classical litera ture).

ISBN 978-5-9925-0919-9.

Предлагаем вниманию читателей повесть знаменитого 
английского писателя-романтика Р. Л. Стивенсона «Странная история доктора Джекила и мистера Хайда».
Неадаптированный текст повести снабжен комментариями и словарем. Книга предназначена для студентов языковых вузов и всех любителей английской литературы.

УДК 372.8
ББК 81.2 Англ-93

© КАРО, 2014

ОБ АВТОРЕ

Знаменитый английский писатель шотландского происхождения Роберт Льюис Стивенсон (1850–1894) родился 
13 ноября 1850 года в Эдинбурге, в семье инженера. При крещении получил имя Роберт Льюис Бэлфур, но в возрасте 
18 лет сменил фамилию на Стивенсон, а написание второго 
имени — с Lewis на Louis (без изменения произношения).
После окончания школы молодой человек поступил в 
Эдинбургский университет на юридический факультет, но 
адвокатской деятельностью практически не занимался — 
этому помешало состояние здоровья, с одной стороны, и 
первые успехи на литературном поприще, с другой. В результате он стал писателем. В 1870-х годах Стивенсон жил 
преимущественно во Франции на скромные заработки подающего надежды литератора и редкие денежные переводы из дома, подружился со многими французскими художниками. В эти же годы он много путешествовал по Франции, 
Германии и родной Шотландии. Итогом этих путешествий 
Стивенсона стали первые две книги, путевые впечатления — 
«Поездка внутрь страны» (An Inland Voyage, 1878) и «Путешест вия с ослом» (Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, 
1879). «Эссе», написанные в этот период, были им собраны в книге «Virginibus Puerisque» (1881).
Во французской деревушке Грез, известной своими собраниями и встречами художников, Роберт Льюис встретил свою будущую жену Франсес Матильду Осборн. Это 
была увлеченная живописью американка. Разъехавшись с 
мужем, она жила с детьми в Европе. Стивенсон горячо полюбил ее, и 19 мая 1880 года, как только развод был получен, влюбленные сочетались браком в Сан-Франциско. Их 
совместная жизнь была отмечена неусыпной заботой Фанни 
о болезненном муже. Роберт Льюис подружился с детьми 
своей жены, а впоследствии его пасынок Сэмюэл Ллойд 
Осборн стал соавтором трех книг Стивенсона: «Не су свет

ОБ АВТОРЕ

ный багаж» (1889), «Отлив» (1894) и «Потерпевшие кораблекрушение» (1892).
В 1880 году у Стивенсона был обнаружен туберкулез. 
В поисках целительного климата он посетил Швейцарию, 
юг Франции, в 1887–1888 годах — Саранак-Лейк в штате 
Нью-Йорк. Отчасти из-за плохого здоровья, отчасти чтобы собрать материал для очерков, Стивенсон с женой, матерью и пасынком отправился на яхте в южные области 
Тихого океана. Они посетили Маркизские острова, Туамоту, 
Таити, Гавайи, Микронезию и Австралию и приобрели участок земли на Самоа.
Климат острова пошел ему на пользу: в просторном 
плантаторском доме в Вайлиме — так Стивенсон назвал 
свое владение — были написаны некоторые из лучших его 
произведений. Здесь же 3 декабря 1894 года он скоропостижно скончался, оставшись в истории английской литературы замечательным писателем-романтиком, автором 
приключенческих романов, которыми до сих пор зачитываются подростки во всем мире, — «Черная Стрела», 
«Владелец Баллантре» и, конечно же, «Остров сокровищ».

* * *
Повесть «Странная история доктора Джекила и мистера Хайда», которая предлагается вниманию любителей английской литературы, увидела свет в Лондоне в 1886 году. 
По жанру это переосмысление традиционной для романтизма темы двойничества под углом зарождающейся научной фантастики. Обеспеченный, приятный во всех отношениях доктор Джекил задумывается о двойственности человеческой натуры: как в одном человеке могут уживаться 
добро и зло? И в своей домашней лаборатории начинает 
ставить опыты на себе,чтобы выяснить, можно ли разделить в душе добро и зло и что из этого получится. Сам того не желая, он выпускает на волю чудовище — все темные 
стороны своей натуры. Результат ужасает не только его. Но 
как все это прекратить, остановить? Оказывается, процесс 
стал неуправляемым…

STORY OF THE DOOR

MR. UTTERSON the lawyer was a man of a rugged 
countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, 
scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in 
sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow 
lovable. At friendly meetings, and when the wine was 
to his taste, something eminently human beaconed 
from his eye; something indeed which never found 
its way into his talk, but which spoke not only in these 
silent symbols of the aft er-dinner face, but more oft en 
and loudly in the acts of his life. He was austere with 
himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a 
taste for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theatre, 
had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years. 
But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high 
pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and 
in any extremity inclined to help rather than to 
reprove.
‘I incline to Cain’s heresy,’ he used to say. ‘I let my 
brother go to the devil in his quaintly own way.’ In this 

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

6

character, it was frequently his fortune to be the last 
reputable acquaintance and the last good infl uence in 
the lives of down-going men. And to such as these, so 
long as they came about his chambers, he never marked 
a shade of change in his demeanour.
No doubt the feat was easy to Mr. Utterson; for he 
was undemonstrative at the best, and even his 
friendship seemed to be founded in a similar catholicity of good-nature. It is the mark of a modest man 
to accept his friendly circle ready-made from the 
hands of opportunity; and that was the lawyer’s way. 
His friends were those of his own blood or those 
whom he had known the longest; his aff ections, like 
ivy, were the growth of time, they implied no aptness 
in the object. Hence, no doubt, the bond that united 
him to Mr. Richard Enfi eld, his distant kinsman, the 
well-known man about town1. It was a nut to crack2 
for many, what these two could see in each other, or 
what subject they could fi nd in common. It was 
reported by those who encountered them in their 
Sunday walks, that they said nothing, looked 
singularly dull, and would hail with obvious relief the 
appearance of a friend. For all that, the two men put 
the greatest store3 by these excursions, counted them 

1 man about town — (разг.) денди; прожигатель 
жизни
2 a nut to crack — (разг.) загадка; необъяснимое 
явление
3 put the greatest store — (разг.) высоко ценили

STORY OF THE DOOR

7

the chief jewel of each week, and not only set aside 
occasions of pleasure, but even resisted the calls 
of business, that they might enjoy them uninterrupted.
It chanced on one of these rambles that their way 
led them down a by-street in a busy quarter of 
London. Th e street was small and what is called quiet, 
but it drove a thriving trade on the week-days1. Th e 
inhabitants were all doing well, it seemed, and all 
emulously hoping to do better still, and laying out 
the surplus of their gains in coquetry; so that the shop 
fronts stood along that thoroughfare with an air of 
invitation, like rows of smiling saleswomen. Even on 
Sunday, when it veiled its more fl orid charms and lay 
comparatively empty of passage, the street shone out 
in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fi re in 
a forest; and with its freshly painted shutters, wellpolished brasses, and general cleanliness and gaiety 
of note, instantly caught and pleased the eye of the 
passenger.
Two doors from one corner, on the left  hand going 
east, the line was broken by the entry of a court; and 
just at that point, a certain sinister block of building 
thrust forward its gable on the street. It was two 
stories high; showed no window, nothing but a door 
on the lower story and a blind forehead of discoloured 

1 it drove a thriving trade on the week-days — (разг.) 
по будням здесь процветала торговля

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

8

wall on the upper; and bore in every feature, the 
marks of prolonged and sordid negligence. Th e door, 
which was equipped with neither bell nor knocker, 
was blistered and distained. Tramps slouched into 
the recess and struck matches on the panels; children 
kept shop upon the steps1; the schoolboy had tried 
his knife on the mouldings; and for close on a generation, no one had appeared to drive away these random 
visitors or to repair their ravages.
Mr. Enfi eld and the lawyer were on the other side 
of the by-street; but when they came abreast of the 
entry, the former lift ed up his cane and pointed.
‘Did you ever remark that door?’ he asked; and 
when his companion had replied in the affi  rmative, 
‘It is connected in my mind,’ added he, ‘with a very 
odd story.’
‘Indeed?’ said Mr. Utterson, with a slight change 
of voice, ‘and what was that?’
‘Well, it was this way,’ returned Mr. Enfi eld: ‘I was 
coming home from some place at the end of the 
world, about three o’clock of a black winter morning, 
and my way lay through a part of town where there 
was literally nothing to be seen but lamps. Street aft er 
street, and all the folks asleep — street aft er street, all 
lighted up as if for a procession and all as empty as a 
church — till at last I got into that state of mind when 

1 kept shop upon the steps — (разг.) оставляли заказанные товары на ступеньках

STORY OF THE DOOR

9

a man listens and listens and begins to long for the 
sight of a policeman. All at once, I saw two fi gures: 
one a little man who was stumping along eastward at 
a good walk, and the other a girl of maybe eight or 
ten who was running as hard as she was able down a 
cross street. Well, sir, the two ran into one another 
naturally enough at the corner; and then came the 
horrible part of the thing; for the man trampled 
calmly over the child’s body and left  her screaming 
on the ground. It sounds nothing to hear1, but it was 
hellish to see. It wasn’t like a man; it was like some 
damned Juggernaut2. I gave a view-halloa, took to my 
heels, collared my gentleman, and brought him back 
to where there was already quite a group about the 
screaming child. He was perfectly cool and made no 
resistance, but gave me one look, so ugly that it 
brought out the sweat on me like running. Th e people 
who had turned out were the girl’s own family; and 
pretty soon, the doctor, for whom she had been sent, 
put in his appearance. Well, the child was not much 
the worse, more frightened, according to the Sawbones; and there you might have supposed would be 
an end to it. But there was one curious circumstance. 

1 It sounds nothing to hear — Услышишь об этом — 
вроде ничего особенного
2 Juggernaut — (инд. миф.) одно из воплощений 
бога Вишну; неумолимая безжалостная сила, уничтожающая все на своем пути

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

10

I had taken a loathing to my gentleman at fi rst sight. 
So had the child’s family, which was only natural. But 
the doctor’s case was what struck me. He was the 
usual cut-and-dry apothecary, of no particular age 
and colour, with a strong Edinburgh accent, and 
about as emotional as a bagpipe. Well, sir, he was like 
the rest of us; every time he looked at my prisoner, I 
saw that Sawbones turn sick and white with the desire 
to kill him. I knew what was in his mind, just as he 
knew what was in mine; and killing being out of the 
question, we did the next best. We told the man we 
could and would make such a scandal out of this, as 
should make his name stink from one end of London 
to the other. If he had any friends or any credit, we 
undertook that he should lose them. And all the time, 
as we were pitching it in red hot, we were keeping the 
women off  him as best we could, for they were as wild 
as harpies. I never saw a circle of such hateful faces; 
and there was the man in the middle, with a kind of 
black, sneering coolness — frightened too, I could 
see that — but carrying it off , sir, really like Satan. ‘If 
you choose to make capital out of this accident1,’ said 
he, ‘I am naturally helpless. No gentleman but wishes 
to avoid a scene,’ says he. ‘Name your fi gure.2’ Well, 

1 If you choose to make capital out of this accident — 
(разг.) Раз уж вы собираетесь раздуть это дело
2 Name your fi gure. — (разг.) Назовите вашу цену 
(отступные).