The Beetle: A Mystery
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Product Description
J. Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine
"The Beetle is a great read...I enthusiastically recommend this book."
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
J. Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine
"The Beetle is a great read...I enthusiastically recommend this book."
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"The Beetle" has got to be one of the strangest novels to come out of the richness of the whole Victorian/Edwardian Gothic tradition. It concerns a bizarre creature, the insect of the title, that can transform itself into a human being. The story starts with a down-and-out on the streets of London, trying desperately to find somewhere to shelter for the night against the rain. He finds a window open in what appears to be an abandoned house, and climbs in. He finds himself sharing his quarters with someone who appears slowly from under a mass of bedding in the corner. This person appears to be a bald-headed repellent old man, with a creepy way of speaking, who takes the tramp for its first victim.
Rather akin to Arthur Machen's "The Great God Pan" in that this terrible creature begins to wreck havoc on the polite society it finds itself in. But what is this creature? For one thing we are never entirely sure what sex it is, on many occasions it appears to be an hermaphrodite, which adds some intriguing sexual psychology to the proceedings! Or perhaps Marsh was simply picking up on the old idea that alchemists, when they had perfected their craft, were able to change sex? The whole story is a bizarre yet absorbing mix of true Victorian spaciness combined with John Buchan-style heroics (there is a splendid chase scene when the creature is pursued across London and onto a train). I suspect the reasons it is not that well known these days is that the writing is quite dated. Incidentally, Richard Marsh was the grandfather of fantasy writer, Robert Aickman, so it seems that writing "strange stories" ran in the family!
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Published at around the same time as Stoker's Dracula this book initially outsold Dracula, but alas over the years it has not fared so well. For something like forty plus years it remained out of print, but now with this Wordsworth Edition you can have a brand spanking new one at an affordable price. This book has always been considered by most to be Richard Marsh's masterpiece and it is definitely a classic horror tale from the fin de seicle putting it alongside Dracula and The Picture of Dorien Gray. So why then has it become neglected? Unlike the other two books mentioned this has dated, but probably more importantly it doesn't fall nicely into one genre and it is all a bit camp. I love nineteenth century novels and I love gothic horror and decadence, so that didn't put me off of this as probably it would some people.
Told by four different narrators we are told a strange and bizarre tale of a creature - a scarab beetle that shapeshifts into a man, or as some report, a woman. We are never really sure what the thing really is or what sex, does it use magic to become human or is it human and changes sex and becomes a beetle by magic? This vagueness leads to the terror felt by the main characters - this thing is also able to mesmerise people and place them under its power. Taking in and mentioning the Cult of Isis, orgies and naked young women being sacrificed there is a whiff of decadence and erotica in this tale that runs most of the way through it, and this is probably what made it such a sensation at the time. Indeed if you were to take away the supernatural part from it this would read as a sensation novel. With the heroine being kidnapped we are led to believe that she will be stripped, tortured and killed, thus leading to the excitement at the later stages of the novel and leading to a great little chase scene.
Will the monster get what it wants, or will it be eventually thwarted? I'm not going to say, you will just have to read this book to find out. If you love a great read that is both fun and enjoyable then buy this book. If you are into classic horror then this should really be on your bookshelf, the same applies if you are into fin de siecle. All in all this is a great little read and will definitely while away a few hours.
Told by four different narrators we are told a strange and bizarre tale of a creature - a scarab beetle that shapeshifts into a man, or as some report, a woman. We are never really sure what the thing really is or what sex, does it use magic to become human or is it human and changes sex and becomes a beetle by magic? This vagueness leads to the terror felt by the main characters - this thing is also able to mesmerise people and place them under its power. Taking in and mentioning the Cult of Isis, orgies and naked young women being sacrificed there is a whiff of decadence and erotica in this tale that runs most of the way through it, and this is probably what made it such a sensation at the time. Indeed if you were to take away the supernatural part from it this would read as a sensation novel. With the heroine being kidnapped we are led to believe that she will be stripped, tortured and killed, thus leading to the excitement at the later stages of the novel and leading to a great little chase scene.
Will the monster get what it wants, or will it be eventually thwarted? I'm not going to say, you will just have to read this book to find out. If you love a great read that is both fun and enjoyable then buy this book. If you are into classic horror then this should really be on your bookshelf, the same applies if you are into fin de siecle. All in all this is a great little read and will definitely while away a few hours.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
Other reviewers have already outlined the plot, so I would just like to add that I found this an interesting and exciting story. Like most novels of its time it reads differently to modern books, but, so much the better for that (good grammar and no foul language!). Easily readable, the story rocks along with a good pace.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Post-Gothic Page-Turner
`The Beetle' (1897) by Richard Marsh is an excellent horror-story but it also something more. It has been described as a mystery and romance. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Bob
A cracking good read
Apparently, this novel once outsold Bram Stoker's Dracula, and it is easy to see why. It tells the strange tale of the creature called The Beetle that plays tricks on and catch... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Petra Bryce
The Beetle
Initially it takes the first 30 pages to get into the story, then it's an easy read. A good old fashioned mystery.
Published on 2 Feb 2009 by J. Morrison
A Neglected Thriller
This book came out at the same time as Dracula but has not fared as well over the years. It has been unduly overshadowed by its better known rival. Read more
Published on 11 Dec 2002
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