Other editions of book The Beetle

This carefully crafted ebook: "The Beetle" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents.Richard Marsh's greatest commercial success, The Beetle, is a story about a mysterious oriental person who pursues a British politician to London, where he wreaks havoc with his powers of hypnosis and shape-shifting. The story is narrated from the perspectives of multiple characters to create suspense. The novel engages with numerous themes and problems of the Victorian fin de siècle, including the New Woman, unemployment and urban destitution, radical politics, homosexuality, science, and Britain's imperial engagements (in particular those in Egypt and the Sudan). "The Beetle" sold out upon its initial printing, and continued to sell well and to be published for several decades into the 20th century. In the 1920s the novel's story was made into a film, and adapted for the London stage.

A classic tale of supernatural horror. Richard Marsh's novel _The Beetle_ is the story of a British statesman, Paul Lessingham, who is haunted by his youthful indiscretions in Egypt. A shape-shifting figure follows him from Egypt, intent upon getting revenge on Lessingham. 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.

It changes its shape at will. It compels others to do its bidding. It inspires terror in all who look on it ...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 Isis, the Beetle terrorizes its victims and will stop at nothing until it has satisfaction. Six people's worlds are turned upside down by murder, mesmerism and human sacrifice as they struggle to save their sanity and above all, their lives.

This carefully crafted ebook: "THE BEETLE" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents.The Beetle is supernatural thriller in which a polymorphous Ancient Egyptian entity seeks revenge on a British Member of Parliament. Robert Holt, a clerk who has been looking all day for a place to work, which he hasn't had for a long time, seeks shelter and food at a workhouse in Fulham. He is, however, denied, and in the dark and rain walks on looking for another place to stay. Holt comes upon a house in terrible state, with opened window, and invites himself in. This proves to be a mistake, as he comes face to face with what the beetle, and gets hypnotized into paralysis. The beetle takes human form as an Arab, and starts making a use of Holt.

• Now with an Historical Afterword by Ron Miller• Includes the original illustrationsFeatured in Ron Miller’s “The Conquest of Space Book Series.” Published in the same year as Dracula , Richard Marsh's little-known occult thriller tells the blood-curdling story of a supernatural, shape-changing creature that takes the form of a mysterious, beautiful woman in order to enact her terrible vengeance on Mankind. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

The Beetle (1897) tells the story of a fantastic creature, "born of God nor man," with supernatural powers and hypnotics, chasing British politician Paul Lessingham through London to seek revenge for the desecration of a sacred tomb Egypt. In imitation of various popular genres of fiction of the late nineteenth century, Marsh unfolds a tale of terror, late imperial fears, and the "return of the repressed", through which the crisis of the late imperial Englishness is revealed. *This book contains a small biography of the author.

"A face looked into mine, and, in front of me, were those dreadful eyes. Then, whether I was dead or living, I said to myself that this could be nothing human,-nothing fashioned in God's image could wear such a shape as that. Fingers were pressed into my cheeks, they were thrust into my mouth, they touched my staring eyes, shut my eyelids, then opened them again, and-horror of horrors!-the blubber lips were pressed to mine-the soul of something evil entered into me in the guise of a kiss."

'No room!—Full up!' He banged the door in my face. That was the final blow. To have tramped about all day looking for work; to have begged even for a job which would give me money enough to buy a little food; and to have tramped and to have begged in vain,—that was bad. But, sick at heart, depressed in mind and in body, exhausted by hunger and fatigue, to have been compelled to pocket any little pride I might have left, and solicit, as the penniless, homeless tramp which indeed I was, a night's lodging in the casual ward,— and to solicit it in vain!—that was worse. Much worse. About as bad as bad could be. I stared, stupidly, at the door which had just been banged in my face. I could scarcely believe that the thing was possible. I had hardly expected to figure as a tramp; but, supposing it conceivable that I could become a tramp, that I should be refused admission to that abode of all ignominy, the tramp's ward, was to have attained a depth of misery of which never even in nightmares I had dreamed. As I stood wondering what I should do, a man slouched towards me out of the shadow of the wall. 'Won't 'e let yer in?' 'He says it's full.' 'Says it's full, does 'e? That's the lay at Fulham,—they always says it's full. They wants to keep the number down.' I looked at the man askance. His head hung forward; his hands were in his trouser pockets; his clothes were rags; his tone was husky. 'Do you mean that they say it's full when it isn't,—that they won't let me in although there's room?' 'That's it,—bloke's a-kiddin' yer.' 'But, if there's room, aren't they bound to let me in?' 'Course they are,—and, blimey, if I was you I'd make 'em. Blimey I would!' He broke into a volley of execrations. 'But what am I to do?' 'Why, give 'em another rouser—let 'em know as you won't be kidded!' I hesitated; then, acting on his suggestion, for the second time I rang the bell. The door was flung wide open, and the grizzled pauper, who had previously responded to my summons, stood in the open doorway. Had he been the Chairman of the Board of Guardians himself he could not have addressed me with greater scorn. 'What, here again! What's your little game? Think I've nothing better to do than to wait upon the likes of you?' 'I want to be admitted.' 'Then you won't be admitted!' 'I want to see someone in authority.' 'Ain't yer seein' someone in authority?' 'I want to see someone besides you,—I want to see the master.' 'Then you won't see the master!' He moved the door swiftly to; but, prepared for such a manoeuvre, I thrust my foot sufficiently inside to prevent his shutting it. I continued to address him.

Richard Marsh (1857 –1915) was the pseudonym of the English author born Richard Bernard Heldmann. A best-selling and prolific author of the late 19th century and the Edwardian period, Marsh is best known now for his supernatural thriller novel The Beetle, which was published the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), and was initially even more popular. The Beetle remained in print until 1960. In the book a polymorphous Ancient Egyptian entity seeks revenge on a British Member of Parliament.