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The Beetle

Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks

The Beetle is a horror novel that was published in 1897 and significantly outsold Dracula, which appeared in the same year. A polymorphous Egyptian creature—the Beetle—seeks revenge on the eminent British politician Paul Lessingham for crimes committed against the disciples of an ancient cult. Although it is less well-known than Dracula to modern readers, The Beetle remains a leading example of the Gothic novel. The story is told from the perspectives of four different characters, concluding with the account of the detective Augustus Champnell. The action takes place within a three-day period in an undisclosed year in the 1800s.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 2, 2019
      Ripe with melodrama and purple prose, this ripping horror classic from Marsh, first published in 1897, epitomizes the style of the Victorian penny dreadful. Four sections, each narrated by a different character, interlock to relate the tale of an ancient Egyptian entity known as the child of Isis, who has traveled to London to torment Paul Lessingham, a member of Parliament, and his fiancée, Marjorie Lindon, as revenge for an indiscretion Paul committed during his travels in Egypt two decades earlier. Marsh creates an eerie atmosphere by keeping his story’s supernaturalism tantalizingly ambiguous; it’s never clear whether the occasional transformations of the child of Isis into the insect of the title are genuine or illusory. An overly chatty cast slows the tale’s pace to a crawl and their penchant for conveniently fainting or falling into gibbering incoherence during dramatic moments reduces the novel to a clump of sensational set pieces. Though some readers will enjoy this novel’s maximalist gothic flourishes, others will find the tale a bit over the top.

    • Library Journal

      March 1, 2022

      Marsh's tale of an ancient Egyptian shape-shifting creature--the titular Beetle--seeking revenge against a British politician may not be widely known today, but when it was released in 1897, it substantially outsold Bram Stoker's Dracula, which was published the same year. The plot unfolds from the point of view of four people. Robert Holt is a clerk who meets the Beetle on a dark and stormy night and is mind-controlled by him into stealing letters from a politician named Paul Lessingham. Sydney Atherton agrees to help the Beetle, in exchange for the love of Marjorie Lindon and later for the creature's help in saving his friend's life. Marjorie Lindon is a politician's daughter who has romantic connections to both Lessingham and Atherton and is eventually captured by the Beetle. The story's final section is told from the point of view of Augustus Champnell, a detective who takes Lessingham's confession about his involvement in a cult devoted to Isis, which has led to the Beetle's obsession with him. Gunnar Cauthery, Jonathan Aris, Natalie Simpson, and Andrew Wincott provide resonant, compelling narration. VERDICT Fans of gothic novels and 19th-century horror shouldn't miss this excellent production.--Stephanie Klose

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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  • English

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