Miserable Life

MARY REILLY

by Valerie Martin

Doubleday; 263 pages; $18.95

After a grim childhood and some harsh early jobs, a young servant named Mary Reilly finds employment in a comfortable London house. Mary's literacy -- unusual among 19th century domestics -- enables her to keep a diary. In it she jots down the details of her work and notes the kind attentions of her master, a gentle, reclusive physician who spends a lot of time in his laboratory. Her narrative is well under way before she happens to drop his name, which is, of course, Dr. Jekyll.

Valerie Martin's grafting of a new novel onto Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) is cleverly done. But the best part of this engaging novel is the diarist herself. Spunky, passionate within the grinding limitations imposed by her station in life, Mary observes her employer's deterioration with a mixture of bafflement and good common sense. Why is this privileged gent making his life so miserable? If Dr. Jekyll had simply listened to Mary, unpleasant Mr. Hyde would have been cajoled right out of existence.