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A review by ohnoflora
The Beetle by Richard Marsh
3.0
A very curious novel, nowadays perhaps more interesting for the fin-de-siecle attitudes to race, gender and sexuality it depicts than for the (not a little ludicrous) plot.
It's a period piece more than anything else. Imperial England (portrayed by the white, virginal woman - who also happens to be a New Woman) is under threat from an 'Oriental', sexually ambiguous (and sexually threatening)Other and can only be defended by the honorable polititian (yes, you heard that right) Paul Lessingham. The structure is circular and repetitive - the same events are told four times from different perspecitves - and the events are overblown, but it is entertaining in its own way.
It's a period piece more than anything else. Imperial England (portrayed by the white, virginal woman - who also happens to be a New Woman) is under threat from an 'Oriental', sexually ambiguous (and sexually threatening)Other and can only be defended by the honorable polititian (yes, you heard that right) Paul Lessingham. The structure is circular and repetitive - the same events are told four times from different perspecitves - and the events are overblown, but it is entertaining in its own way.