The Beetle

By Richard Marsh

Subjects: Collection and preservation, Antiquities, Egypt, fiction, Politicians, London (england), fiction, Fiction, Monsters, British, Revenge, Fiction, occult & supernatural, Egyptologists, Fiction, horror

Description: > This celebrated Victorian horror story by Richard Marsh, was originally published in serialized form in 1897. *The Beetle* tells the tale of an evil Ancient Egyptian spirit seeking revenge on an up-and-coming British politician, Paul Lessingham. The shape-shifting creature that pursues Lessingham is possessed of hypnotic powers and takes different forms, both male and female, as well as morphing into a beetle--a figure that induces terror in its victims. This creepy, gothic tale is told by a series of protagonists, whose accounts are collected by a detective who assists in tracking the creature to its final mysterious end. *The Beetle* has been viewed by some as a critique of British imperial attitudes in the late Victorian era.