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mayhappily 's review for:
The Beetle
by Richard Marsh
Repetition is a curse; but please, forgive me and bear with me when I, too, begin this review by stating that Richard Marsh's The Beetle and Bram Stoker's Dracula were both first published in the same year - I do have a point to make. While today, I think it's fairly safe to say, more people are familiar with Stoker's magum opus than with Marsh's The Beetle, The Beetle was actually the more popular of the two in the early 20th century. Apart from their being published in the same year, there are other similarities between the two books as well; one being the use of multiple narrators,
Starving, penniless and refused a roof over his head even from the casual ward (the section of a workhouse where tramps and beggars could pay in manual labor for a night's shelter) Robert Holt finds himself collapsed against the low wall surrounding a house of not much better appearance than his own.
In the words of Mr. Holt himself: "If only death had come upon me quickly, painlessly, how true a friend I should have thought it!", so desperate and in such agony was he, when his weary eyes fell upon his salvation: an open window.
The house was, to say the least, in poor shape and the darkness within was so impenetrable that it seemed almost impossible, but it would offer shelter from the rain, and it would offer some warmth just for having walls and soon it was that Robert Holt found himself inside.
It would not be long after that, that he would have great cause to regret his actions.
Robert Holt is but the first narrator, and through him and the subsequent three narrators we're told the story of Mr. Paul Lessingham, though only in the final chapters are we told the story's beginning.
This trick, of telling a story almost backwards, doesn't always work for me - there have been plenty of books where this method has irritated me beyond reason - but it does work in The Beetle.
Part of that, I think, is the way which Richard Marsh has of telling his story: the language is 'aged' but not dated; most sentences, written or spoken by characters, are flowery and embroidered (as shown in the quote above) which I found entertaining to read.
I actually found all but one character (Sydney Atherton) likeable, but even "the one" made for interesting read and I think it adds to the story that not all the characters are agreeable; it gave it more depth.
And I love the mix of creeping dread and comical quips.
Starving, penniless and refused a roof over his head even from the casual ward (the section of a workhouse where tramps and beggars could pay in manual labor for a night's shelter) Robert Holt finds himself collapsed against the low wall surrounding a house of not much better appearance than his own.
In the words of Mr. Holt himself: "If only death had come upon me quickly, painlessly, how true a friend I should have thought it!", so desperate and in such agony was he, when his weary eyes fell upon his salvation: an open window.
The house was, to say the least, in poor shape and the darkness within was so impenetrable that it seemed almost impossible, but it would offer shelter from the rain, and it would offer some warmth just for having walls and soon it was that Robert Holt found himself inside.
It would not be long after that, that he would have great cause to regret his actions.
Robert Holt is but the first narrator, and through him and the subsequent three narrators we're told the story of Mr. Paul Lessingham, though only in the final chapters are we told the story's beginning.
This trick, of telling a story almost backwards, doesn't always work for me - there have been plenty of books where this method has irritated me beyond reason - but it does work in The Beetle.
Part of that, I think, is the way which Richard Marsh has of telling his story: the language is 'aged' but not dated; most sentences, written or spoken by characters, are flowery and embroidered (as shown in the quote above) which I found entertaining to read.
I actually found all but one character (Sydney Atherton) likeable, but even "the one" made for interesting read and I think it adds to the story that not all the characters are agreeable; it gave it more depth.
And I love the mix of creeping dread and comical quips.