In the waiting room of a local doctor's office there is a small cabinet filled with books supplied by a local book club. A sign encourages people to take, exchange, or donate books so others can read and enjoy them. As I was waiting a classic book I never read caught my eye: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. I flipped to the beginning of the story and was greeted by a gem of a simile on the first page: " His friends were those of his own blood, or those whom he had known the longest; his affections, like ivy, were the growth of time, they implied no aptness in the object ." (Stevenson, Robert Louis, and Jenni Calder. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: and Other Stories . Penguin Books, 1979, page 29.) Comparing the affections of Mr. Utterson to the growth of ivy provides great insight into the man. Ivy does not discriminate: it will climb on a brick wall, a fence, or up the trunk of great trees to soak up as much ...
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