San Antonio College Library

Maya Witherspoon sets herself up in self-imposed exile in London after her physician father is killed by the bite of a poisonous snake in India just after her sorceress mother had died, warning Maya to beware the serpent's shadow.

"This story of a double-life in which the protagonist by day worked as a respectable doctor and by night roamed the back alleys of old-town London, was first published as a 'shilling shocker' in 1886 and became an instant classic. In the first six months of publication 40,000 copies were sold, and it remains one of the best tales ever written about the divided self." "The story opens with Mr Utterson the lawyer learning of an inexplicable attack on...