The Beetle
by Richard Marsh
“I saw him taking a different shape before my eyes. His loose draperies all fell off him, and, as they were in the very act of falling, there issued ... a monstrous creature of the beetle type”
First published in 1897, Richard Marsh's The Beetle was a roaring success upon its release, even outselling Bram Stoker's monolith classic Dracula, which was released in the same year. This classic gothic horror novel opens with Robert Holt, an out-of-work clerk seeking shelter in an abandoned house. He comes face to face with a fantastical creature with supernatural and hypnotic powers; a creature who can transform at will between its human and beetle forms and who wrecks havoc when he preys on young middle-class Britons.
Eminent politician Paul Lessingham is the toast of Westminster, but when 'the Beetle' arrives from Egypt to hunt him down, the dark and gruesome secret that haunts him is dragged into the light. Bent on revenge for a crime committed against the disciples of an Egyptian goddess, the Beetle terrorises its victims and will stop at nothing until it has satisfaction.
____________________________________________________________
Paperback Edition
384 pages. Printed card cover.
ISBN: 978-0-2413-4135-3
____________________________________________________________
Press, reviews, endorsements
“[The Beetle] will horrify and delight the modern reader with its timeless tale of jealousy and its many hideous faces—as relevant today as it was over 100 years ago.”
A Universe in Words - read the full review here
____________________________________________________________
About the Author
Richard Marsh was the nom de plume of the late English author Richard Bernard Heldmann (1857-1915). A best-selling and prolific writer of the late 19th century and the Edwardian period, who produced nearly 80 volumes of fiction and numerous short stories, Marsh is best known now for his supernatural thriller novel The Beetle. Published the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), The Beetle was initially even more popular, outselling Dracula six times over, and remaining in print until 1960.
