The title character is a sinister and androgynous figure from Egypt, who may or may not be able to turn into a large actual beetle but who definitely has scary mesmeric powers. He has set himself against Paul Lessingham, an orator and politician who has somehow offended the Cult of Isis. These two may be the key figures, but the four sections are narrated by four other figures. First up there's Robert Holt, a clerk reduced to vagrancy who has the additional misfortune of being controlled and used by the Beetle. Then there's Sydney Atherton, an inventor who hopes to take the Alfred Nobel career track of becoming a great humanitarian after developing a deadly weapon. He's Lessingham's rival for the affection of Marjorie Lindon, who follows him as narrator. Her love is so loud and sycophantic that it seems like it would become very tiresome to the object. And finally we have Augustus Champnell, Confidential Agent, a lesser Holmesian figure good for a sympathetic ear and not-so-reassuring reassurance.
It's a solid Victorian entertainment, one that might have influenced Sax Rohmer and maybe even Edward Gorey. The overlapping narrators means there's also an interesting chance to see the same events from different perspectives.
2 comments:
Jer found this one on AbeBooks five minutes after you told him about the novel. It's odd to know it was more popular than Dracula when they first were published but I can understand that Bram Stoker's character and the eventual offshoot stories had more staying power. Vampires might be undead but at least they were previously human whereas it's hard to conceive of a charming human sized insect. Somehow I just can't envision Kafka's Gregor Samsa scampering off into the night carrying the beautiful Lucy while John Harker and VanHelsing conspire to defeat the beast.
Still and all, your summary of Richard Marsh's novel makes it sound fascinating. I may just read it myself once Jer has enjoyed it. I did see some of the illustrations from the original printing that look very good. I can see what you meant about his influence on Edward Gorey.
It's good that there's a fairly recent, easy to find copy of this one. It could very easily have become one of those dusty out-of-print oddities that only a few collectors willing to pay thousands for a rare edition even know about. Marsh's family connection to the somewhat prestigious author Robert Aickman probably does help. In any case, your invocation of Gregor Samsa scuttling off with Mina Harker amused me, and I sort of want to write this story. Of course I suspect that Gregor's own sense of futility would stop him well before Van Helsing could.
Gorey's stories and illustrations often suggest a secret world beyond the mostly doomed characters he writes about. Dark rituals and all that. That's a facet of Marsh's story as well, although Gorey could have gotten it from somewhere else I guess.
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