The Beetle Paperback – January 1, 2004

Eerie mystery about a dark cult of Isis from pre-history roaming Victorian London, mind control via mesmerism, and a monstrous scarab beetle with intense powers that’s presented obliquely, indirectly, and to great effect. Mysterious goings-on, dark figures, villains and victims who vanish inexplicably, chases, encounters, conflicts — despite prose too flowery or dense at times, the story keeps moving.Told in four voices, each distinct, a couple overwrought, the story unfolds with surreal incidents of horror and baffling motives. It explores several interesting Victorian concerns, from hypnotism and Ancient Egypt, to poverty and politics, along with a worry that the New Woman, independent and outspoken, might be the ruination of society.Published the same time as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Beetle by Richard Marsh out-sold its now more famous rival for a year. It deserves to be remembered better and read more widely. There’s room for both.The Beetle is a bravura performance by a writer at the peak of his abilities.The Wordsworth trade paperback edition I read was impeccably printed, with an embossed cover, and includes an informative introduction. Being in public domain, it’s also available in several Kindle editions, etc. This review is attached to the Kindle version I read in tandem. Or tag team, I guess.Marsh’s two volumes of collected, eerie short fiction, The Seen and The Unseen, and Both Sides of the Veil, are also recommended. His style is surprisingly modern in how it goes for the jugular. Vivid, vicious imagery abounds in his work, defining a precursor to modern horror’s cinematic approach.The Beetle provides street-level adventure as its four narrators combine to delve into a mystery that’s tearing some of them apart, wasting them into cadavers, and promoting an agenda none can quite delineate. If you like a rousing, rollicking, headlong rush through high and low Victorian society, complete with gaslit shadows and hidden threats everywhere, not to mention an appalling … thing … this novel’s for you.Great for Samhain season, for Sherlockians, or anyone who likes the good old stuff from the top shelf./ Gene Stewart

The cover is gorgeous, I admit. The print, however, is tiny, closely-set, and the margins small. It took me twice as long to read as I struggled with the print. Another challenge of narrow margins is that the print is tucked so tightly into the binding that I had to fight with the book to see all the text. There's no lounging while reading this book! My final complaint is that since it's an independent--read: private person?-- publisher, there is no bibliographical information in the text. As a graduate student of English literature, this text is not amenable to citation. Publisher? Dates? Not to be found.My advice: if it's worth it to you to struggle with the text in order to save a couple of bucks, go ahead and purchase this version; however, if you appreciate notes and an otherwise physically accessible text, and you need citational information, buy a different version.

The Beetle is one of those rare books that positively throb with symbolism and significance - while gripping you by the throat with a terrific tale. In 1897 it was a popular sensation outselling Dracula, which was published the same year.The characters are well drawn: Paul Lessingham, a budding cabinet minister with an ominous gap in his past; lovely Marjorie Linton, a witty New Woman caught between her Radical lover (Paul) and her Tory father; madcap young scientist Sydney Atherton who also adores Miss Linton and is meanwhile working on weapons of mass destruction for the glory of the British Empire; Robert Holt, down-and-out clerk who falls into the clutches of the Beetle.As for the Beetle, this amorphous, androgynous nightmare transmigrates at will between a barely human form and a sadistic Egyptian scarab. An accomplished mesmerist, the Beetle can make a slave of almost anyone (including the reader). Why is it hiding out in civilized London instead of pursuing its hideous prehistoric rituals back in Egypt? Paul Lessingham, to his horror, is the unwilling magnet drawing the vengeful Beetle ever closer.The plot offers a steady stream of dramas and crises peppered by exciting chases on foot, by cab and by rail. There are quite a few comic moments, despite the heavy nature of the threat to everyone's life and sanity. That, in fact, is one of the most remarkable aspects of the book. It's both a Kafkaesque plunge into paranoia and a Shakespearean comedy of errors, a confrontation with unsavory eroticism and a pure love story.I'd recommend the Broadview edition above all others because of its readable format and thought-provoking scholarly content.But don't read the introduction before the book. Save those insightful interpretations of The Beetle for dessert! Approach The Beetle without preconceptions and have your own visceral experience of the Uncanny, just as readers did in 1897.

Richard Bernard Heldmann aka Richard Marsh, was born in 1857 and died in 1915 of heart disease. Marsh lived in North London.When Marsh wrote The Beetle in 1897, it outsold Bram Stokers’s Dracula six times over. The book stayed in publication until the 1960’s.Marsh used multiple narration to tell the story of the beetle and this helped make the story seem more interesting and more realistic.The story opens with a young man who is down on his luck, we don’t discover that his name is Robert Holt until the middle of the story, looking for shelter.He wanders into a neighborhood where he comes upon a house that looks empty, so he climbs through an open window to get out of the rain. What he climbs into is a terror so thick and paralyzing that it leads to the path of a powerful world of fear.Marsh, of course, lives during a time when racial bigotry and class snobbery is common, so expect some views of that in this story. However, it is a story of horrific horror and mystery that prevails you to suspend your disbelief and invite you in to enjoy yourself.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affects my opinion.So, you’re probably wondering why Netgalley are offering ARCs for a book that was first published over 100 years ago. Well, you won’t find the answer here. But now, in the 21st century, The Beetle is more of a niche horror, while Dracula is, well, mildly popular. Anyway, despite owning a copy of the Beetle (it’s free, people) for who knows how long, funnily enough, I didn’t realise this until I actually got my copy from Netgalley. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I read the book.The story tells of a politician who is being pursued by a ne’er do well for reasons not evident from the start, and the story unfolds as we progress. The tale is told from the perspective of different characters, with varying degrees of success. Here’s my thoughts on the story.I must be honest, I really struggled with the first half of the book and almost quit a couple of times (something I really hate to do). The first couple of characters, homeless guy Robert Holt and borderline psychopathic scientist Sidney Atherton failed to impress, and Sidney in particular was like a lovesick puppy who happened to be working on making a gas that would change the face of war. Nice idea for a character, but he didn’t really come into his own until later onMarjorie Lyndon, betrothed to the beleaguered politician Paul Lessingham, adds some spice to the second half of the story, Her fire and desire to help her husband with his mystical problems will lead her into trouble, both at home and with the mystic who is hunting him. Marjorie also gives Sidney’s character a shot in the arm, as he is envious of her relationship, but sticks around to help out because of his crushThe final character is Augustus Champnell, a detective who tries to bring rationale to the whole mystical caper. We also see more of Lessingham, as the quartet go to track down their foe. The final quarter is pretty exciting, as the stakes are raised and we realise what we are actually up against. At this stage we start to realise that no one will escape unscathedSo final thoughts - the story gets to be fun in a 1950s B-Movie kind of way, but the whole horror aspect seems kind of silly compared to some of the slick stuff we get today. The language is very accessible, which isn’t always the case with some of those older novels, and it can be pretty funny at times, with some good banter between the different characters. I think the biggest selling point for the novel is that it never takes itself seriously, something too many novels seem to do.VerdictA fun oldie but somewhat goodie.

Old school horror - and thus largely psychological (think Poe). Interesting, and appreciate the shift in perspectives offered through the different characters, but found it almost excessively complex and suffering from a lack motivating force.Worth it if you want an example from this era outside what might be considered more standard. Something like Frankenstein might be more accessible (and profound).

Wonderful classic.Very quick delivery.Very happy.

I loved this Victorian mystery story from virtually the same time of publication as Stoker's Dracula. In fact, The Beetle apparently outsold Dracula initially, but Stoker's work won in the overall popularity contest and The Beetle fell largely from sight. I had never heard of Marsh's work before but apparently he was a prolific author and there are lots and lots of free kindle works of his out there - some of which I have downloaded and shall be reading.This book tells the story of a mysterious man/woman/being who is living in a down at heel rented villa in London and has the ability to transform himself into a beetle. In fact, he is the magical scarab beetle of Egypt and emblematic of the worshipers of Isis. The story then goes on to be told through four different points of view as to how he/she/it wreaks havoc across London including causing a train wreck. It's all terribly exciting and crosses the classes as well as the various neighbourhoods of London.I particularly liked the first book's narrator, the down on his luck clerk, Robert Holt. The second book is narrated by Sydney Atherton - definitely upper class and some kind of early chemical weapons manufacturer - when he tested his "inventions" on a neighbourhood cat, I fell out with him and started wanting the Beetle to win! Marjorie Lindon who narrates the third book is a great example of a modern Victorian woman and the final narrator, a private detective, will remind readers of Sherlock Holmes (and, incidentally also reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro's lead character in "When we were Orphans").This is a great example of fin de siecle literature with thoroughly modern "new women" featuring, lots of emphasis on science as well as the class divisions which were so painfully apparent during those times. It also has that Victorian obsession with all things Egyptian to commend it. A great example of Victorian literature and FREE on Kindle. Not to be missed.

The Beetle (1897) concerns the impact on English life of a mysterious oriental figure who pursues a British politician from Egypt to London, where he wreaks havoc with his powers of hypnosis and shape and even gender shifting. Published the same year as Dracula (which it outsold) the novel is structured as four consecutive narratives, with further narratives within them, a style not dissimilar to that of Dracula and the Woman in White and popular in Victorian times. Marsh doesn’t differentiate the various narrative voices particularly well and uses highly overblown language though not without a sense of irony. However his horror, The Beetle, the centre of a strange cult, is original, and the plot brings together elements of white slave trafficking, mesmerism, feminism, class prejudice, racism and xenophobia. How much Marsh is a product of his time and how much he distanced himself from it is a matter of interpretation, but the novel has more subtleties than are obvious. The reference by one narrator to the case of the Duchess of Datchet’s deed box sounds like a Holmesian homage but it is actually the title of a novel that he wrote a couple of years after the Beetle. At times the story seems slowed by the redundancy of the multiple narratives, at other times he throws away an entire sequel in a sentence. Anyway it all comes to a rather exciting climax. Lovecraft praised the novel in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature and it clearly influenced his own stories with its references to nameless horrors and loathsome practices. If you are looking for a fast paced supernatural thriller then this is a good place to pause.