Somehow (I say somehow, though in reality it was quite easy to do), in my quest for pre-20th century literature, I'd overlooked what appears to have been a much bigger category than I'd first imagined. Having previously only really thought about the classics (and there are any number of these which I've never strayed anywhere near, and then expanded my horizons when I remembered that what I mostly like in this category is more adventuresome stuff, I was pleasantly surprised when the library served me up classic Victorian horror.
Handidly packaged with distinctive yellow covers, a couple of years back Penguin published a series of ten such titles. Ever willing to dabble, I plumped for The Beetle by Richard Marsh. Published in the same year as Dracula, it was apparently even more popular with contemporaries than today's rather better known title. It certainly didn't disappoint with the supernatural element, throwing you straight in at the deep end as early as the second chapter. I don't think I'm giving much away to say that the insect of the title is a scarab and that the antagonist is of Egyptian origin. I really liked the use of the beetle throughout and enjoyed the ending.
The four perspectives in the narrative were interesting, telling events from different points of view. However, with the overlap between some of them, it didn't drive the book along at a particularly fast pace, as it was recapping previous events through the course of several chapters. Whilst this was quite interesting, it was also not really necessary and possibly inhibited the story in this sense. However, I think that the different narrators worked well to showcase how the beetle had managed to infiltrate the lives of numerous persons. An enjoyable thriller, with a strong sense of the otherworldly throughout, I'd happily give another in the series a spin.
Book number: 70
Title: The Beetle
Author: Richard Marsh
Category: Pre-20th century literature
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