Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1886. First Edition. First printing. Octavo. 18cm. Contemporary or near contemporary blue cloth binding titled in gilt to spine. 141pp. [3pp] ads to rear, including recto/verso of original wrap. The binding is tight, clean, and handsome, showing only trifling wear to spine ends and extremities. Internally clean, coated black endpapers, some light soiling to half title, probably caused by the absence of the front wrap.
This is clearly a Longmans paper wraps edition, published simultaneously with the salmon pink hardcover, and then placed in this slightly strange binding, with the rear wrap complete with advertisments, retained at the rear.
It's extremely professional, blind ruled to the boards and with slim gilt ruling to the spine, it doesn't show the hallmarks of a library binding, but looks more like an in house job, although it lacks an imprint to the base of the spine and there's some slight misalignment of the title stamping. The endpapers in particular are indicative of an accomplished mechanised bindery, and it feels very late 19th century. It remains something of a mystery, but is nevertheless a very good looking first edition copy of one of the most important and influential weird novels of the nineteenth century, spawning a slew of homages and imitators, and yet to lose its stranglehold upon the popular imagination.