The Beetle (Haunted Library of Horror Classics)

by Richard Marsh, Chelsea Yarbro (Introduction), Leslie S. Klinger (Editor), Eric J. Guignard (Editor)

Overview

"A fun new way to encounter the spine-tinglers of yesteryear." —Booklist

A horror classic for the modern reader, presented by the Horror Writers Association.

Rediscover the classic and come face-to-face with a creature "born of neither god nor man"

First published in 1897, Richard Marsh's classic work of gothic horror, The Beetle, 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.

Featuring an introduction by bestselling author Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, the Haunted Library Horror Classics edition of The Beetle is a tale of revenge that takes the reader on a dark journey, one that explores the crisis of late imperial England through a fantastical and horrific lens.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781492699712
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	04/07/2020
Series:	Haunted Library of Horror Classics Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	287,576
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

RICHARD MARSH (October 12, 1857 - August 9, 1915), was the pseudonym of the English author Richard Bernard Heldmann. A bestselling and prolific author of the late 19th century, Marsh produced nearly 80 volumes of fiction and numerous short stories.

LESLIE S. KLINGER is the two-time Edgar® winning editor of New Annotated Sherlock Holmes and Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s. He has also edited two anthologies of classic mysteries and, with Laurie R. King, five anthologies of stories inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon. Klinger is the series editor of Library of Congress Crime Classics, a partnership of the Library of Congress and Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks. He is a former Chapter President of the SoCal Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and lives in Malibu, California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Richard Marsh: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text

The Beetle

Appendix A: London in the fin de siècle

1. From Walter Besant, All Sorts and Conditions of Men (1882)
2. From Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)
3. From Henry James, “London” (1888)
4. From Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four (1890)
5. From Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
6. From Arthur Machen, The Three Impostors (1895)
7. From Arthur Morrison, A Child of the Jago (1896)

Appendix B: The New Woman

1. From Ouida, “The New Woman,” North American Review (May 1894)
2. From Sarah Grand, “The New Aspect of the Woman Question,” North American Review (March 1894)
3. From Nat Arling, “What is the Rôle of the ‘New Woman?’,” Westminster Review (November 1898)
4. From Kathleen Caffe, “A Reply from Daughters,” The Nineteenth Century (March 1894)

Appendix C: English Interest and Involvement in Egypt

1. From Georgia Louise Leonard, “The Occult Sciences in the Temples of Ancient Egypt,” The Open Court (1887)
2. From J.Norman Lockyer, “The Astronomy and Mythology of the Ancient Egyptians,” The Nineteenth Century (July 1892)
3. From “Egypt,” London Quarterly Review (April 1884)
4. From “Our Position in Egypt,” The Speaker (19 October 1891)

Appendix D: Mesmerism and Animal Magnetism

1. From Joseph W. Haddock, Somnolism & Psycheism; or, the Science of the Soul and the Phenomena of Nervation, as Revealed by Vital Magnetism or Mesmerism, Considered Physiologically and Philosophically, with Notes of Mesmeric and Psychical Experience (1851)
2. From James Esdaile, Natural and Mesmeric Clairvoyance, with the Practical Application of Mesmerism in Surgery and Medicine (1852)
3. From “Magic and Mesmerism,” Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, 50 (1843)
4. From Romulus Katscher, “Mesmerism, Spiritualism and Hypnotism,” The Literary Digest (21 February 1891)

Works Cited and Recommended Reading

Editorial Reviews

…a weird and gripping tale…

The New York Times Book Review - Danielle Trussoni

12/02/2019

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. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"A fine period piece, as well as an entertaining mystery that has withstood the test of time." — NY Journal of Books

"This will appeal to a wide range of readers. The universal ick factor of creepy crawlies additionally ensures that this crowdpleaser from the past will continue to strike fear in the hearts and minds of 21st-century readers." — Library Journal

"This series is a fun new way to encounter the spine-tinglers of yesteryear." — Booklist

"Ripe with melodrama and purple prose...Marsh creates an eerie atmosphere." — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

01/01/2020

Originally published the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula, in 1897, Marsh's chilling story was more popular than the classic vampire novel during its time. This reissue includes broader historical context, lists of further reading, and discussion questions. Drawing on a Victorian fascination with the dark powers of the Egyptian scarab, the tale begins with Holt, a homeless man, who enters a deserted building. He sees an insect transform into a deformed man. The man then commands Holt to break into the home of a member of Parliament, setting the stage for a tale of intrigue, love, and revenge told through four narrators, each describing their personal encounters with the mysterious, shape-shifting Beetle, all while a visceral threat to the whole of England emerges. The plot itself, while bordering on silly at times, nevertheless manages to tackle some serious issues of class, gender, sexual, and ethnic identity while still providing plenty of satisfying chills. VERDICT Like many Victorian-era gothic tales, this will appeal to a wide range of readers. The universal ick factor of creepy crawlies additionally ensures that this crowdpleaser from the past will continue to strike fear in the hearts and minds of 21st-century readers.

Library Journal