Résumé
Résumé de Le Scarabée
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love fog-bound Gothic tales, shocking mysteries and the roots of the modern monster story, and anyone curious about Dracula's rival.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
The Beetle is a horror novel by Richard Marsh, published in 1897, the same year as Dracula by Bram Stoker. It first appeared as a serial under another title and then came out as a book. In its day it was read by a great many people. It takes place in a London of fog, rain, cheap lodgings and grand drawing rooms, and it sets a creature from the ancient East loose among them.
The story is told by four people in turn. A starving clerk tells the first part. An inventor tells the second. A young woman tells the third. A private detective tells the last. Each one sees only a piece of the danger, and each piece makes the whole more alarming. At the center is a being that can bend a human will, that takes the shape of a man and of something far worse, and that wants revenge on a rising politician for something he did years ago.
In this summary you will meet the main people, follow the story in the order the narrators tell it, and see what the book is really afraid of. You will also hear how its four voices work. The ending is kept apart from the rest. So let us begin on a wet night, with a man who has no work, no money and nowhere to go.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A ruined clerk walks into the rainFree
- 2The thing in the empty house
- 3Forced to steal for a master he cannot refuse
- 4Holt runs and the story changes hands
- 5An inventor, a rival and a bitter love
- 6Marjorie Lindon and the man with a secret
- 7A detective gathers the scattered threads
- 8What the book is really afraid of
- 9Four voices, a shifting mask and a long afterlife
Point clé 1 sur 9
A ruined clerk walks into the rain
The book opens with Robert Holt, a clerk who has lost his job and spent his last coins. He has walked the streets of London looking for work and has found none. He is hungry, cold and soaked by a hard rain. Marsh uses his misery to set the tone. This is a city where a man can fall out of sight in a single season, and nobody will notice.
Holt has been turned away from a night shelter, and he has no bed to go to. He drifts through the outskirts of the city, far from the busy centre. At last he sees a house that looks empty. No light shows, and a window stands open. A man in his state does not think long. He wants a roof over his head, so he goes in.
The first chapters are told in his own voice, and it is an honest, shaky one. He does not paint himself as a hero. He admits his fear, his weakness and his shame at his own condition. That makes him easy to believe. When strange things begin to happen, the reader trusts what he says because he has no reason to make himself look good.
This opening also does a clever job of building dread slowly. Nothing yet has been seen, but the house has a smell, a silence and a feeling that something is watching. Holt notices small details, such as a stale odour that he cannot place, and a sense that he is not alone. Marsh lets these details gather before he shows anything.
For the listener, the lesson is how a Gothic tale starts. It begins with a person at the edge of safety, and it offers a door that should not be opened. Holt opens it. Everything else in the book follows from that choice, and from the one who is waiting inside.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Robert Holt
- An unemployed clerk seeking shelter, Robert falls under the creature's power and becomes its unwilling servant.
- The Beetle
- A mysterious shape-shifting being from Egypt, the creature controls Holt and seeks revenge against Paul Lessingham.
- Paul Lessingham
- A rising politician engaged to Marjorie Lindon, Paul conceals a painful past and faces Atherton's romantic rivalry.
- Marjorie Lindon
- A spirited young woman engaged to Lessingham, Marjorie remains loyal to him despite her friend Atherton's love.
- Sydney Atherton
- A gifted scientist and inventor, Sydney loves Marjorie and resents her attachment to his rival Lessingham.
- Augustus Champnell
- A composed private inquiry agent, Champnell investigates the danger connecting Lessingham, Marjorie, Atherton and the unfortunate Holt.
- Dora Grayling
- Marjorie's warm, plain-spoken friend, Dora cares for Atherton and belongs to the circle threatened by the creature.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 115,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 7 h 40 min
- Listening time12 h 50 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 11 other languages
Questions about Le Scarabée
What is The Beetle by Richard Marsh about?
It is a Gothic horror novel set in London. A shape-shifting creature from the East, able to control minds, pursues a politician named Paul Lessingham to take revenge for something in his past, drawing in several people around him.
Is The Beetle better than Dracula?
They are different books. Both came out in 1897, and both use several narrators. The Beetle is faster and more sensational, and it was widely read at first, while Dracula has stayed more widely known.
Who tells the story in The Beetle?
Four people tell it in turn: Robert Holt, a ruined clerk, Sydney Atherton, an inventor, Marjorie Lindon, the politician's fiancée, and Augustus Champnell, a private detective who pieces the events together.
When was The Beetle written and is it a true story?
It is fiction, first published in 1897 after appearing as a serial. It plays on Victorian interests in Egypt, mesmerism and fears about empire, but the creature and the plot are invented.
Is The Beetle hard to read?
Not very. The language is that of a Victorian popular novel, with short chapters and cliffhangers. The plot moves briskly.