The Beetle

"The Beetle" by Richard Marsh was first published in 1897, not long after Bram Stoker's "Dracula." 'Dracula' is now world famous, thanks to its early adoption by first the theatre, and then the movies, while 'The Beetle' remains all but forgotten. Yet 'The Beetle' consistently outsold 'Dracula' as long as it was in print: it was THE Gothic novel that terrified more of Victorian London than Dracula ever did. The tale revolves around a mysterious member of 'The Children of Isis', coming to London to seek revenge for an act committed 20 years previously in Cairo. Hypnosis, human/insect transformation, murder, white slavery, cannibalism, blackmail and kidnapping all feature in a mystery that keeps you reading until the very last page. Occult aficionados will recognize the book from its inspirational place in Kenneth Grant's "The Ninth Arch," where its peculiar occult symbolism featured heavily in workings of New Isis Lodge of the OTO.