| Beetle | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Other Names |
Beetle, Arab, Mohamed el Kheir |
|
First Appearance |
The Beetle (1897) |
|
Original Publisher |
Skeffington & Son |
|
Created by |
Richard Marsh |
Origin[]
The Beetle also called the Arab and going by the name Mohamed el Kheir, was a shape-shifting ancient Egyptian entity seeks revenge on a British member of Parliament.
The novel begins by retelling an account of Robert Holt, a clerk who has been searching for a job all day. Denied food and water at a workhouse, he continues to walk in the dark through the rain until he comes upon an abandoned, dilapidated house with an open window. There he finds shelter and meets a monstrous figure, the mysterious Beetle.
The Beetle takes control of Holt's mind through mesmerism, allowing him to take human form, and then accuses Holt of being a thief and promises to treat him like one. Then the Beetle forces Holt to take off his clothes and put on new ones in exchange for food and shelter. After that, the Beetle forces a kiss on Holt, which weakens him.
The Beetle plans to send Holt to the home of Paul Lessingham, a member of the House of Commons, to steal the letters from the drawer in his desk. When Holt encounters Lessingham, he is to say "the Beetle," which would hinder him. Holt succeeds because the Beetle can control him, but Lessingham captures Holt before he can leave with the letters. Holt shouts "the Beetle" twice, in a voice that is not his own, causing Lessingham to shiver in a corner. Holt jumps through a window and escapes. On the street, he is approached by another man, Sydney Atherton, who asks him if he committed a crime against Lessingham. When Holt answers truthfully, Atherton is pleased and lets him go. Holt delivers the letters to the Beetle, who realizes that they are love letters from a certain Marjorie Lindon. The Beetle plans to use her to harm Lessingham.
The narrative perspective switches to Sydney Atherton, who turns out to be Paul Lessingham's romantic rival for the affection of Marjorie Lindon. On the night of Holt's robbery, Atherton proposes to Lindon at a ball. She tells him that she is already engaged to Lessingham but that the engagement has been kept secret because her father is Lessingham's political opponent. Lindon asks Atherton to intercede with her father on Lessingham's behalf, knowing that her father considers Atherton like a son. Consumed by self-pity and anger, Atherton leaves the ball.
After meeting Holt, Atherton visits Lessingham, who insists that he and Lindon are not engaged before sending him away. In his anger, Atherton plans to spend the next day working on his chemical warfare inventions in his laboratory. The Beetle approaches Atherton in his laboratory and tries to mesmerise him like Holt, but Atherton is able to resist. The Beetle then introduces himself as a child of Isis and promises him Lindon's love if he agrees to help him. Atherton notices that the Beetle has the eyes of a skilled hypnotist and does not decline.
The Beetle leaves, and, shortly after that, Lessingham arrives at Atherton's laboratory. Lessingham apologizes for his rudeness the previous night and asks Atherton not to speak to anyone about it, as he does not want to be bothered by rumours. Atherton agrees, which prompts Lessingham to ask some questions about ancient superstitions and religions, which Atherton has some knowledge of. As Lessingham is about to leave, he sees a picture of a scarab on a shelf and enters a catatonic state, similar to what happened to him when Holt uttered "the Beetle." Atherton brings him out of it and promises him not to tell anyone what he just witnessed.
That night, Atherton goes to a ball and manages to secure financing for his experiments from a woman named Dora Grayling. They arrange to meet the next day. Atherton is then approached by his friend, Percy Woodville, whom he takes to the House of Commons to hear Lessingham speak. Lindon is there too, and an altercation between Lindon and Atherton is avoided when Marjorie's father finds out about her and Lessingham, and Lindon runs off with her fiancé. Enraged, Atherton takes Woodville to his laboratory for a demonstration, picking up a stray cat on the way. He uses a concoction of his to kill the cat, fatally wounding Woodville in the process. Atherton brings Woodville to the Beetle and agrees to help him in exchange for his friend's survival. Atherton escapes hypnosis and convinces the Beetle that he too has magic that can make anyone talk. The Beetle tells him that Lessingham killed a woman he was close to in Egypt. When Atherton asks the Beetle why the picture of a scarab frightened Lessingham, the Beetle denies any knowledge. Atherton threatens him, and the Beetle transforms into a scarab. When Atherton tries to capture it, the Beetle changes shape again and flees.
Atherton has forgotten about the appointment and is surprised by Grayling's visit the next day. He does not know that Grayling has feelings for him, and makes several insensitive remarks that cause her to leave in anger. Later, Marjorie Lindon's father visits to talk about how Lessingham is not an appropriate match for his daughter. When Atherton receives a third surprise visit, from Marjorie, her father hides and eavesdrops on their conversation. Marjorie tells him about a half-naked and starving man (Holt) she brought to her house yesterday without her father's knowledge after finding him lying in the street. The man had mentioned that Lessingham was in danger, and she wanted to know more about it. Atherton suspects it is the same man he saw leaving Lessingham's house two nights ago but does not mention it. Marjorie tells him that she, too, had been attacked by an unseen force that sounded like a beetle. Her father then emerges from his hiding place and accuses her of insanity. Both Lindons leave the house in an agitated state. The fourth coincidental visitor is Lessingham, who wants to know what Atherton has to do with the picture of the scarab and everything else that happened. Although neither speaks openly about it, they agree that Lessingham is haunted, and that if he ensures Lindon won't be dragged into it, Atherton will give him the benefit of the doubt regarding his innocence. Finally, Grayling returns, still wishing to lunch, and Atherton accepts.
The narrative perspective switches again, this time to Marjorie Lindon. Arriving home, Lindon finds that her guest, Holt, is awake, and he tells her his story. Astonished, Lindon sends her servants to fetch Atherton, because she has no one else to turn to. When Atherton arrives, he interrogates Holt enough to confirm his suspicions, but he hopes to keep Lindon out of the matter. He fails, however, and Lindon insists that she go along in search of the Beetle. The three manage to find the house, but it is deserted. Suddenly, Holt is hypnotised again and runs out. Atherton and Lindon agree that he should follow Holt and that she will stay in the house in case the Beetle returns, and that he will send anyone he finds to the house to help her. Only minutes later, Lindon finds that the Beetle is hiding in the house, and her account ends abruptly as she is captured by the Beetle.
The final narrative is given from the perspective of Detective Augustus Champnell. Champnell is finishing up the paperwork on a case when Lessingham enters his office. Lessingham tells him about his connection to the Beetle. Twenty years ago, Lessingham decided to go to Cairo. Out on his own one night, he was lured by a young woman and was captured by the cult of Isis. In her temple, Lessingham was put into a hypnotic state and forced to obey the orders of the high priestess, called the Woman of the Songs. There he witnessed many human sacrifices, all of them women. After one such sacrifice, the Woman of the Songs' control over him weakened, and he took the opportunity to attack and strangle her until she turned into a scarab. He managed to escape the temple and was found by missionaries and nursed back to health, after which he returned to England. As Lessingham explains his current situation to Champnell, Atherton, a friend of Champnell's, bursts in. Having returned to the house after losing sight of the hypnotized Holt, he discovered that Lindon was missing; he asks Champnell for help in finding her.
The three men quickly make their way to the Beetle's house, but all they find are Lindon's clothes and hair. They inquire at the only other house on the street, which belongs to a Louisa Coleman. She also owns the Beetle's house. She explains that she rented the house to the Beetle, but because she was suspicious, she spied on him. She never saw Lindon leave, but she did see a man leave the house, and shortly after that, she also saw the Beetle leave, carrying a human-sized package. Champnell theorises that the Beetle intends to return to Egypt and that the man was Lindon, dressed in Holt's old clothes. After acquiring information from an officer, the three men follow the Beetle to London Waterloo, where they learn that the Beetle boarded a train with two peculiar Englishmen. At the local police station, the men learn that a man who was previously in the company of an "Arab" has been found murdered. It turns out to be Holt, but he is in fact still barely alive. Before he collapses, he asks Atherton to save Lindon and confirms that she is the other man. With the help of the police, they find out that the Beetle and Lindon took a train from London St Pancras to Hull. They are provided with a special train to catch up with the kidnapper, but their journey ends in Luton, where the train they had been pursuing has derailed. In the chaos, they find Lindon unconscious in one of the front coaches. All that is left of the Beetle are burnt and bloodied rags.
Champnell concludes his narrative by saying the events took place several years ago. Lindon has since married Lessingham, who has become a great politician. Atherton and Grayling married after Atherton came to understand the feelings between them. Holt lies buried in Kensal Green Cemetery under an expensive tombstone. As for the children of Isis, Champnell has learned from good sources that, during an expeditionary advance to Dongola, a temple and its occupants - victims of an explosion - were discovered. The corpses were neither men nor women but monstrous creatures, and the remnants of scarab artifacts lay scattered about. Champnell declines to investigate further but hopes that the temple was the one Lessingham spoke of.
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- The Beetle (1897)
Public Domain Film Appearances[]
- The Beetle (1919) - An Ancient Egyptian princess transforms herself into a beetle in order to gain revenge on Paul Lessingham, a British Member of Parliament. The creature can change its form, appearing as a man, a woman or a beetle. Lessingham seeks the aid of another man, who is a rival for the affections of a young woman they love, to aid him in his fight against the supernatural being that is haunting him.
Public Domain Theatrical Appearances[]
- The Beetle (October 1928)
Notes[]
- The Beetle sold out after its first printing and continued to be published into the 20th century. It initially sold more copies than Bram Stoker's Dracula, which was published in the same year.