Richard Marsh 
The Beetle 

‘The Beetle’ (1897) tells the story of a fantastical creature, ‘born of neither god nor man, ‘ with supernatural and hypnotic powers, who stalks British politician Paul Lessingham through fin de siecle London in search of vengeance for the defilement of a sacred tomb in Egypt.In imitation of various popular fiction genres of the late nineteenth century, Marsh unfolds a tale of terror, late imperial fears, and the ‘return of the repressed, ‘ through which the crisis of late imperial Englishness is revealed.It initially out-sold Bram Stoker’s similar horror story Dracula, which appeared the same year.