Story summary
Samenvatting van De Kever
- 8 min. leestijd
- 10 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A starving clerk climbs through an open window and meets a creature that sends him to burgle Paul Lessingham.
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De Kever in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 7 h5 h 35 min fast, 8 h 20 min slow
- Lengte
- 100.000 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1897by Richard Marsh
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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De Kever in short
The Beetle follows a single menace as it moves through four lives. A starving clerk is taken over and sent to rob a statesman. An inventor stumbles on strange events through jealousy.
What De Kever is about
What would you do for a loaf of bread? Robert Holt, a clerk out of work for nine months, has eaten almost nothing in three days when the casual ward at Hammersmith turns him away. In the rain he finds a lonely villa with one window open. He climbs in, and in the dark something with glowing eyes begins to crawl up his body.
The Beetle is a Victorian tale of horror by Richard Marsh, full of mesmerism, Egyptian cults and a London that hides terrible things behind ordinary doors. Four narrators tell it in turn, and you piece the case together before they do.
Voor wie is het?. Readers who enjoy Victorian sensation stories, hypnotism, ancient cults, mysteries told through several voices, and foggy London streets will love this book.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
Hunger and rain push an honest man inside
The story opens with a slammed door. Robert Holt, a City clerk, has looked for work for nine months. Now the casual ward at Hammersmith says it is full, and he has taken nothing but water and one crust since Sunday night.
He walks off into the rain along an unfinished road, dizzy and close to falling. He cries out that he would do anything for a loaf of bread. Then he sees a small villa standing alone, with one window open about six inches. He tells himself the house must be empty, and step by step he argues himself through the sash.
The carpet inside is soft as grass. Holt feels watched, and then he sees two points of light low in the dark. Something small and heavy climbs his boot, his waist and his chest, with many sticky legs and a foul smell. He is helpless as it crawls over him.
Holt is no fool and no thief, and the book will use him as a tool. Desperation can open a door that caution would keep shut.
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A hypnotic stranger takes over Holt's will
The man in the bed is the book's great horror.
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A burglary ends in a politician's terror
Holt is driven across London like a horse with a bridle in its mouth.
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Atherton's jealousy colors everything he sees
Book two opens at a ball.
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A mesmerist, a picture and a deadly gas
The next morning a stranger in a dirty burnoose walks into Atherton's laboratory.
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Marjorie's own voice shows love and courage
Book three is Marjorie's account, and it opens with joy.
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A calm agent follows a trail across London
Book four changes the tone.
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Will, trance and the loss of choice
The first big theme is the loss of will.
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Secret pasts, pride and fear of the foreign
The second theme is the gap between a public face and a private past.
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Four voices, short chapters and a hidden symbol
The book is told by four narrators, and the change of voice is its chief tool.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Robert Holt An out-of-work City clerk, starving and desperate, who climbs through an open window and falls under a stranger's will.
- The man in the bed A hideous, unblinking stranger with a powerful stare who hates Paul Lessingham and wants his letters.
- Paul Lessingham A rising Radical politician, famous for his cool nerve, who hides a past that frightens him and wants to marry Marjorie.
- Marjorie Lindon A clear-headed, spirited young woman who loves Lessingham, defies her father and will not stay out of danger.
- Sydney Atherton A brilliant, impulsive inventor who loves Marjorie, scorns Lessingham, and cannot resist a scientific puzzle.
- Geoffrey Lindon Marjorie's proud, stuttering father, a stubborn Tory who forbids her to speak to Lessingham.
- Dora Grayling A kind, wealthy young woman who quietly cares for Atherton and offers to fund his work.
- Augustus Champnell A calm confidential agent who takes Lessingham's case and follows the trail across London.
How it ends (spoiler)
Marjorie is found alive but broken in the wreck of the night train, dressed in a tramp's rags. She recovers slowly over some years under medical care, and she later marries Paul Lessingham. Holt dies of exhaustion, and Atherton marries Dora. What the creature really was, and where it went, is never settled. Lessingham is not troubled again, yet he still avoids talk of beetles.
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Vragen over De Kever
What is The Beetle by Richard Marsh about?
It is a Victorian horror mystery about a menacing figure who hypnotizes a homeless clerk and tries to ruin the politician Paul Lessingham. Four narrators follow the threat across London as Marjorie Lindon is drawn into the danger.
Who is the Beetle in the novel?
The Beetle is the name tied to a hidden, shape-shifting foe linked to an ancient Egyptian cult of Isis. Characters know it by its eyes, its power over the mind, and the fear that the word alone brings.
Is The Beetle a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction written in the 1890s. It borrows real fashions of its time, such as interest in mesmerism, Egyptian lore and Parliament, but its events and characters are invented.
Why is the book told by four narrators?
Each narrator sees only part of the story, so the reader builds the picture from Holt's ordeal, Atherton's wit, Marjorie's diary and Champnell's casebook. The change of voice keeps the suspense and the pace high.
Is The Beetle easy to read?
Yes in the sense that its chapters are short and end on strong moments, its language is plain, and its narrators speak with lively, distinct voices. Dialogue and action carry most of the story.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Marsh, Richard. The Beetle. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-beetle.
Marsh, R. (2026). The beetle. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-beetle (Original work published 1897)
Marsh, Richard. The Beetle. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-beetle.
@book{marsh2026beetle,
author = {Marsh, Richard},
title = {The Beetle},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-beetle},
note = {First published 1897}
}
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