Alexander Koryagin:

AK> From the story about dr Jekyll & Hyde:
AK>
AK> ...I was in the mere stupidity of wonder, before terror
AK> woke up in my breast as sudden and startling as the
AK> crash of cymbals, and bounding from my bed, I rushed to
AK> the mirror.
AK>
AK> Why "the crash" not "a crash"?

Stevenson compares Jekyll's (I think) shock to that produced
by a sudden, sharp, and loud sound.  And cymbals, struck
together with great force, make exactly such kind of sound.
He is referring not to *a* specific instance of crashing-
together of *a* specific pair of cymbals (there was none!),
but to a general quality of that action as a rerefence.

P.S.: I don't know why people read J&H as their first (and
      often last) work by Stevenson, who is a great master
      of the short story.

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