Imatge de l'autor

Richard Marsh (2) (1857–1915)

Autor/a de The Beetle

Per altres autors anomenats Richard Marsh, vegeu la pàgina de desambiguació.

Richard Marsh (2) s'ha combinat en Bernard Heldmann.

61+ obres 878 Membres 34 Ressenyes 2 preferits

Obres de Richard Marsh

Les obres s'han combinat en Bernard Heldmann.

The Beetle (1897) 612 exemplars
The Seen and the Unseen (1900) 21 exemplars
The Joss: A Reversion (1901) 17 exemplars
Tom Ossington's Ghost (1898) 14 exemplars
The Goddess: A Demon (1900) 14 exemplars
The Datchet Diamonds (1898) 12 exemplars
Both Sides of the Veil (1901) 9 exemplars
A hero of romance (2015) 9 exemplars
A Second Coming (1900) 9 exemplars
A Spoiler of Men (1905) 8 exemplars
The Crime and the Criminal (1897) 7 exemplars
The Chase of ruby Annotated (2009) 4 exemplars
Philip Bennion's Death (1897) 4 exemplars
Miss Arnott's marriage (2011) 4 exemplars
A Duel (2011) 3 exemplars
Marvels and Mysteries (1900) 3 exemplars
A Royal Indiscretion (1909) 2 exemplars
The Coward Behind the Curtain (2015) 2 exemplars
A Woman Perfected (2011) 2 exemplars
The Great Temptation (1916) 2 exemplars
The Garden of Mystery (1906) 2 exemplars
CRIME & MYSTERY Boxed Set (2018) 1 exemplars
The Twickenham Peerage (2012) 1 exemplars
Violet Forster's Lover (2015) 1 exemplars
The Mask (1900) 1 exemplars
Amusement Only (2011) 1 exemplars
In Full Cry (1899) 1 exemplars
Under One Flag (2012) 1 exemplars

Obres associades

Les obres s'han combinat en Bernard Heldmann.

The Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (1973) — Col·laborador — 189 exemplars
The Mammoth Book of Victorian and Edwardian Ghost Stories (1995) — Col·laborador — 168 exemplars
Victorian Nightmares (1977) — Col·laborador — 161 exemplars
Capital Crimes: London Mysteries (2015) — Col·laborador — 155 exemplars
Phantastic Book of Ghost Stories (1990) — Col·laborador — 109 exemplars
Victorian Villainies (1984) — Col·laborador — 93 exemplars
The Big Book of Female Detectives (2018) — Col·laborador — 79 exemplars
The Giant Book of Ghost Stories (1994) — Col·laborador — 59 exemplars
The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories: Volume One (2016) — Col·laborador — 56 exemplars
Horror Stories: Classic Tales from Hoffmann to Hodgson (2014) — Col·laborador — 45 exemplars
Gaslit Nightmares (1988) — Col·laborador — 44 exemplars
Tales from a Gas-Lit Graveyard (1980) — Col·laborador — 40 exemplars
Twelve Victorian Ghost Stories (1997) — Col·laborador — 27 exemplars
Dracula's Brethren (2017) — Col·laborador — 17 exemplars
Twelve Tales of Murder (1998) — Col·laborador — 17 exemplars
Victorian Tales of Terror (1974) — Col·laborador — 15 exemplars
The Second Book of Unknown Tales of Horror (1826) — Col·laborador — 14 exemplars
Klassieke griezelverhalen (1980) — Col·laborador — 8 exemplars
The Pirate of the Round Pond and Other Strange Adventure Stories (1977) — Col·laborador — 5 exemplars

Etiquetat

Coneixement comú

Nom normalitzat
Marsh, Richard
Nom oficial
Heldman, Richard Bernard
Data de naixement
1857-10-12
Data de defunció
1915-08-09
Gènere
male
Nacionalitat
UK
Lloc de naixement
London, England, UK
Lloc de defunció
Hayward's Heath, Sussex, England, UK
Llocs de residència
London, England, UK
Professions
author
Relacions
Aickman, Robert (grandson)

Membres

Ressenyes

A criminal is sentenced to 12 months hard labor. His wife looks on without pity: a year ago she married him without knowing his true character, and has led a miserable life ever since. For the year that he must spend in prison, she decides to revert to her maiden name and hide herself away.

By the greatest good fortune, she hears at this time that she is her uncle's heiress, and she immediately moves to the family home in the country, more determined than ever to distance herself from her husband. She would be happy to avoid all human society, but hires a companion for appearances' sake, and suffers through a round of social calls from inquisitive neighbors. None of them matter to her, until she meets Hugh Morice. He irritates her to no end. He challenges her property boundaries, calls her out on her aloofness, and orders her about. Nevertheless, they develop a tense sort of friendship.

Up to this point I thoroughly enjoyed the story, (it's about the first third). After this, it deals with an encounter with the ne'er-do-well husband, a crime/mystery, and a whole big messy bunch of suspicion and miscommunication, which I have little patience with. The resolution was easily guessed. It did move along at a good pace. The main issue I had was the willful misunderstanding that could have so easily been cleared up. That particular plot device holds no charms for me!
… (més)
 
Marcat
Alishadt | Feb 25, 2023 |
As he came on, something entered into me, and forced itself from between my lips, so that I said, in a low, hissing voice, which I vow was never mine, “THE BEETLE!”
***
Paul Lessingham! Beware! THE BEETLE!


Poisoned Pen Press is an American publisher of (primarily) crime and detection novels, including the US editions of the highly successful British Library Crime Classics series which is resurrecting many forgotten classics of the Golden Age of crime fiction. Poisoned Pen has recently embarked on a new project which promises to be just as exciting Together with the Horror Writers Association, it is launching The Haunted Library of Horror Classics, a collection of classic horror novels presented in new editions, with commentaries and notes to introduce the contemporary reader to the historical and cultural context of the featured works.

One of the first publications in the series is The Beetle by Richard Bernard Heldmann, better known by his pen-name Richard Marsh. The novel was originally issued as “The Beetle: A Mystery” in 1897. This was the same year which saw the publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and it may come as a surprise that The Beetle initially outsold Stoker’s cult vampire novel, going into no less than 15 editions before the Great War. Like Dracula, Marsh imagines a supernatural entity unleashed in Victorian London, except that the monster here is no vampire, but an entity rather more difficult to pin down: a “Nameless Thing” which, although vaguely bearing the features of a hideous man, scarcely seems to be human and, if it is, is of indeterminate sex. This Being, which calls itself one of the “Children of Isis”, and I therefore, presumably, of Egyptian origin, appears to have mesmeric powers and the magical ability to turn into a beetle – or rather THE BEETLE. Indeed, the characters who come across this infernal monster tend to lose their composure as soon as they hear the said two words, which Marsh generally expresses in GARISH CAPITAL LETTERS whenever they appear in the text. Although it is not clear how THE eponymous BEETLE ended up in Kensington, it seems that the main purposes of its City sojourn is to haunt one Paul Lessingham, an upcoming politician who, in younger days, made the fatal mistake of visiting a dubious Egyptian establishment, ending up a prisoner of an ancient esoteric cult. Lessingham’s past has caught up with him with a vengeance and threatens to put his and his fiancée’s life in mortal danger.

As is common in many Gothic and sensation novels of the era, each one of The Beetle’s four “books” features a different first-person narrator. In “The House with the Open Window”, unemployed clerk Robert Holt seeks shelter in a seemingly abandoned house, only to fall under the mesmeric powers of the Egyptian fiend. In “The Haunted Man”, the story is taken up by eccentric, hyperactive inventor Sydney Atherton, an acquaintance of Lessingham and his rival in love. The object of their attention is Miss Marjorie Lindon, who seems to be the most wanted young woman in London and is also being pursued by the monster him/her/itself. Marjorie is also the narrator of the third Book: “The Terror by Night and the Terror by Day”. The novel ends with notes “extracted from the Case-Book of the Hon. Augustus Champnell, Confidential Agent”, a Sherlock-Holmes-like figure who tries to bring his detective skills to bear on the lurid mystery of THE BEETLE and leads a feverish hunt all over London for the elusive Egyptian insectoid.

This edition opens with a rather convoluted warning that THE BEETLE and novels of its ilk might “exemplify ideas that are no longer current, attitudes and behaviours that are no longer tolerated, standards that are no longer judged valid”. You don’t say so! Like most examples of “Egyptian Gothic”, Marsh’s novel relies for its effect on racist and xenophobic fears, much as first and second-wave Gothic was often decidedly prejudiced against Southern Europeans and Roman Catholics. Knowing the cultural context helps one to turn a blind eye on ideas which are past their sell-by date. Even so, the constant references to “that Arab” and “diabolical Asiatic” and the idea that the civilised Western world is under threat from a creature hailing from the “dirty streets and evil smells” of Egypt starts to become jarring. And, frankly, the very thought that an ancient cult favours as choice cuts for human sacrifice, not just “white women” but, more specifically, fine examples of English maidenhood, is frankly ludicrous.

Marsh’s attitudes to women and the working classes are not much better. In that respect, however, the narrative has several redeeming features, not least the strong character of Marjorie Lindon (so much more than just a demure “damsel in distress) and the fact that he lampoons all sectors of society (the farcical figure of Marjorie’s politician father is a case in point).

This brings me to another aspect of Marsh’s novel which might be puzzling to a modern reader. Horrific though it is, THE BEETLE has an underlying comedic streak, which is particularly evident in Atherton’s narrative segment. This ambivalence might not be to everyone’s taste and, to be honest, I found that the changes in tone dampened the more horrific aspects of the novel and sometimes hovered towards self-parody. To a generation used to explicit horror or, on the other hand, to subtly unsettling psychological thrills, THE BEETLE might seem like a madcap roller-coaster ride.

There’s no doubt however that at its best, as in Holt’s encounter with the fiend, or the final, thrilling chapters, THE BEETLE still packs a punch and is a worthy addition to The Horror Library. This edition features an introduction by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, together with biographical details about Richard Marsh (including the fact that he is the grandfather of Robert Aickman, celebrated author of ‘weird fiction’), questions for discussion and suggestions for further “horrific reading”.
… (més)
 
Marcat
JosephCamilleri | Hi ha 25 ressenyes més | Feb 21, 2023 |
This horror novel was published in 1897 at the same time as Bram Stoker's Dracula, whose popularity it initially rivalled. It is atmospheric, especially in the first and final sections of the novel, with a creepy feel and some dramatic events, though I thought the middle sections sagged a bit. The central villain and its eponymous insect form is quite striking, though I fear it was never going to rival a bloodsucking vampire for dramatic colour. Most of the human characters were fairly unmemorable, though there were some quirky and amusing minor ones. I thought the ending was a little sudden and a bit of a cop out. Good stuff though and I would read more by this author.… (més)
½
 
Marcat
john257hopper | Hi ha 25 ressenyes més | Nov 15, 2022 |
When I saw that this was published in the same time frame as Dracula and was for a time even more popular than Bram Stoker's masterpiece I knew I had to read it. Now for me that comparison is a high standard to live up to, and The Beetle did not quite make it.
A homeless man climbs through a window of what he thinks is an empty dwelling, in a desperate attempt to find shelter from the cold rain. Instead he finds himself under the control of a strange being with supernatural powers. After this fascinating start it began to lose me towards the middle and just did not measure up to it's contemporary. Others may enjoy it more than I did.

I received a complimentary copy for review.
… (més)
 
Marcat
IreneCole | Hi ha 25 ressenyes més | Jul 27, 2022 |

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Estadístiques

Obres
61
També de
23
Membres
878
Popularitat
#29,161
Valoració
½ 3.6
Ressenyes
34
ISBN
239
Llengües
8
Preferit
2

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