First published in 1897, Richard Marsh s sensational fin-de-si cle Gothic masterpiece follows a shape-shifting, mesmeric creature from Egypt seeking vengeance against a British politician. Outselling Bram Stoker s Dracula upon its initial release, the novel is a critical entry for queer bibliography due to its heavy subversion of Victorian gender binaries. The antagonist shifts fluidly between a man, a woman, and a scarab beetle, exerting hypnotic control and enacting acts of sexual aggression against both male and female characters. By threatening the boundaries of the domestic English home with an unclassifiable, gender-ambiguous sexuality, Marsh s text serves as a vital historical record of late-nineteenth-century anxieties regarding homosexuality, transness, and non-normative desire.
Details
| Title: The Beetle A Mystery |
| Author: Richard Marsh |
| ISBN: 9789190000000 |
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| Genre: Horror |
| Subject(s): |
| Publication Date: 43813 |
| Original Publication Date: |
| Publisher: Timaios Press |
| Language: English |
| Format: Hardcover |
| Pages: 216 |
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| Book_ID: 106607 |