It is well known that the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 gothic novella, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, came to the Scottish author in a dream. Less familiar is the part that his American wife, Fanny Stevenson (née Van de Grift), played in juicing up the story’s plot to establish Edward Hyde’s wickedness early on. According to Camille Peri’s riveting biography, A Wilder Shore: The Romantic Odyssey of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson, it was Fanny’s idea to have Hyde trample a little girl, leaving her to die without a backward glance.
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