Richard Marsh was one of the most popular and prolific authors of the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods. His bestselling The Beetle: A Mystery (1897) outsold Bram Stoker's Dracula. A prolific author within a range of genres including Gothic, crime, humour and romance, Marsh produced stories about shape-shifting monsters, morally dubious heroes, lip-reading female detectives and objects that come to life. However, while Marsh's work appealed to a public greedy for sensationalist fiction, both the cultural elite of the day and twentieth-century literary critics looked askance at his popular middlebrow fiction. In the wake of the recent rediscovery of Marsh's fiction, this essay collection builds on burgeoning scholarly interest in the author. Marsh emerges here as a fascinating writer who helped shape the genres of popular fiction and whose stories offer surprising responses to issues of criminality, gender and empire in this period of cultural transition.

About the Author

Victoria Margree is Principal Lecturer in the Humanities at the University of Brighton

Daniel Orrells is Reader in Ancient Literature and Its Reception at King's College London

Minna Vuohelainen is Lecturer in English at City, University of London

Book Information
ISBN 9781526124340
Author Victoria Margree
Format Hardback
Page Count 248
Imprint Manchester University Press
Publisher Manchester University Press
Weight(grams) 435g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 138mm * 16mm