Carolyn Kunin [to Jansy] "I'm surprised to read of Nabokov's criticism of Jekyll & Hyde since he himself posited the probable cause. We know that RLS awoke in terror from a terrifying nightmare and immediately wrote down the essence of what would turn out to be the famous story.[  ]  Nabokov believed [  ] Hyde's  vices were  not only sexual in nature but homosexual. So I am confused as to why he would have criticized RLS.  Do you have a reference you can cite?[  ]. "

 

Jansy Mello: Are you referring to my recent posting mentioning Sandy Drescher's article  "A Reading of Nabokov's "That in Aleppo Once..." where he writes: "Nabokov further emphasizes that Dr. Jekyll's character is complex, human, a compound of good and bad; while Mr. Hyde is a pure distillation, the outwardly projected essence of Jekyll's evil fraction...." ?  ( cf. http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/dresch3.htm )

I know that the "google seach machine" at the VN-L can be very frustrating, at least it's disheartening to me for I seldom manage to obtain the year of the posting or the name of its author, besides other fundamental information.  What I did find were (at the least) twenty entries by Carolyn Kunin discussing J&H and raising similar issues.It's about time that Ms.C.Kunin sets down her original theories about RLS & PF in an article or a book, so that even more readers can enjoy them in the future.

 

A very recent posting (November 2013?) bears a link to the text by Greg Buzzwell   [http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/english-and-drama/2013/07/the-mystery-of-the-neglected-vampire.html ]  and provides further entries related to homosexuality and even the kinbote. See  "The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll & Mr Hyde", written by Robert Mighall in which the author details RLS's subtle allusions to homosexual issues [indicating  William Veeder, "Children of the Night: Stevenson and Patriarchy", Hirsch and Veeder (1988), pp. 107-60; Rictor Norton, "A (longish) pre-Victorian digression on blackmail", sent to the Victoria Web (http://www.listserv.indiana.edu);    Robert Louis Stevenson: The Critical Heritage,  Paul Maixner ed. (1981), p. 229. ]