Richard Marsh (author)
Encyclopedia
Richard Marsh was the pseudonym of the British author born Richard Bernard Heldmann. He is best known for his supernatural
thriller The Beetle: A Mystery, which was published in the same year as Bram Stoker
's Dracula
and was initially even more popular. The Beetle remained in print until 1960, and was subsequently resurrected in 2004 and 2007. Heldman was educated at Eton
and Oxford University. He began to publish short stories, mostly adventure tales, as "Bernard Heldmann," before adopting the name "Richard Marsh" in 1893. Several of the prolific Marsh's novels were published posthumously. Marsh's grandson Robert Aickman
was a notable writer of short "strange stories".
and shape-shifting, Heldmann/Marsh's novel is of a piece with other sensational turn-of-the-century fictions such as Stoker's
Dracula
, George du Maurier
's Trilby
, and Sax Rohmer
's Fu Manchu
novels. Like Dracula and many of the sensation novel
s pioneered by Wilkie Collins
and others in the 1860s, The Beetle is narrated from the perspectives of multiple characters, a technique used in many late nineteenth-century novels (those of Wilkie Collins
and Stoker, for example) to create suspense and to confuse gender boundaries.
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
thriller The Beetle: A Mystery, which was published in the same year as Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker
Abraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula...
's Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
and was initially even more popular. The Beetle remained in print until 1960, and was subsequently resurrected in 2004 and 2007. Heldman was educated at Eton
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and Oxford University. He began to publish short stories, mostly adventure tales, as "Bernard Heldmann," before adopting the name "Richard Marsh" in 1893. Several of the prolific Marsh's novels were published posthumously. Marsh's grandson Robert Aickman
Robert Aickman
Robert Fordyce Aickman was an English conservationist and writer of fiction and nonfiction. As a writer, he is best known for his supernatural fiction, which he described as "strange stories".-Life:...
was a notable writer of short "strange stories".
The Beetle
Heldmann's greatest commercial success came with one of his earliest novels, The Beetle (1897). A story about a mysterious oriental figure who pursues a British politician to London, where he wreaks havoc with his powers of hypnosisHypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
and shape-shifting, Heldmann/Marsh's novel is of a piece with other sensational turn-of-the-century fictions such as Stoker's
Bram Stoker
Abraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula...
Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
, George du Maurier
George du Maurier
George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was a French-born British cartoonist and author, known for his cartoons in Punch and also for his novel Trilby. He was the father of actor Gerald du Maurier and grandfather of the writers Angela du Maurier and Dame Daphne du Maurier...
's Trilby
Trilby (novel)
Trilby is a novel by George du Maurier and one of the most popular novels of its time, perhaps the second best selling novel of the Fin de siècle after Bram Stoker's Dracula. Published serially in Harper's Monthly in 1894, it was published in book form in 1895 and sold 200,000 copies in the United...
, and Sax Rohmer
Sax Rohmer
Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward , better known as Sax Rohmer, was a prolific English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr...
's Fu Manchu
Fu Manchu
Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century...
novels. Like Dracula and many of the sensation novel
Sensation novel
The sensation novel was a literary genre of fiction popular in Great Britain in the 1860s and 1870s, following on from earlier melodramatic novels and the Newgate novels, which focused on tales woven around criminal biographies, also descend from the gothic and romantic genres of fiction...
s pioneered by Wilkie Collins
Wilkie Collins
William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and over 100 non-fiction pieces...
and others in the 1860s, The Beetle is narrated from the perspectives of multiple characters, a technique used in many late nineteenth-century novels (those of Wilkie Collins
Wilkie Collins
William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and over 100 non-fiction pieces...
and Stoker, for example) to create suspense and to confuse gender boundaries.
Works
- The Mahatma's Pupil (1893)
- The Devil's Diamond (1893)
- Mrs Musgrave and Her Husband (1895)
- The Beetle: A Mystery (1897)
- Crime and the Criminal (1897)
- The Duke and the Damsel (1897)
- Philip Bennion's Death (1897)
- The House of Mystery (1898)
- Curios: Some Strange Adventures of Two Bachelors (1898)
- The Goddess: A Demon (1900)
- The Seen and the Unseen (1900)
- Marvels and Mysteries (1900)
- The Joss: A Reversion (1901)
- The Magnetic Girl (1903)
- The Confessions of a Young Lady: Her Doings and Misdoings (1905)
- A Spoiler of Men (1905)
- The Coward Behind the Curtain (1908)
- The Deacon's Daughter (1917)
- On the Jury (1918)
Further reading
- Vuohelainen, Minna. "Distorting the Genre, Defining the Audience, Detecting the Author: Richard Marsh's 'For Debt' (1902)." CLUES: A Journal of Detection 25.4 (Summer 2007): 17–26.