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. -- .

The legacy of antifascist partisan, Auschwitz survivor, and author Primo Levi continues to drive exciting interdisciplinary scholarship. The contributions to this intellectually rich, tightly organized volume - from many of the world's foremost Levi scholars - show a remarkable breadth across fields as varied as ethics, memory, and media studies.

The legacy of antifascist partisan, Auschwitz survivor, and author Primo Levi continues to drive exciting interdisciplinary scholarship. The contributions to this intellectually rich, tightly organized volume - from many of the world's foremost Levi scholars - show a remarkable breadth across fields as varied as ethics, memory, and media studies.

"In my time I have seen men who have come to their death by violence, but I have never seen such an extraordinary sight as he presented. It was as if some savage thing, fastening upon him, had torn him to pieces with tooth and nail. His flesh had been ripped and rent so that not one recognisable feature was left. Indeed, it might not have been a man we were looking upon, but some thing of horror."

After a night of intemperate drinking and gambling with his neighbour Edwin Lawrence, John Ferguson awakens in a cold sweat from a horrible nightmare in which he seemed to see Lawrence being torn to shreds by some vicious beast. But what is Ferguson's horror when he wakes to find that a beautiful woman, covered in blood and with no memory, has climbed through his window and that his vision of Lawrence's death is all too true

Who is the killer? The list of suspects is long: Ferguson, the lovely amnesiac, the dead man's dissolute brother. Or maybe the truth is more terrible still: Was Lawrence slain by the supernatural creature of Ferguson's dream - a bloodthirsty demon capable of the most savage of murders?

One of eight novels published by the prolific Marsh at the height of his popularity in 1900, "The Goddess: A Demon" retains its ability to thrill and terrify. This new edition, the first in over 75 years, features the unabridged text of the first edition and includes a new introduction and notes by Minna Vuohelainen as well as a wealth of contextual appendices and a reproduction of the original cover.

An ancient Egyptian evil known as 'The Beetle' has arrived in London to wreak a mysterious vengeance on politician Paul Lessingham. When this strange creature, 'born neither of God nor man', orchestrates the disappearance of Lessingham's fiancee Marjorie, it becomes a race against time to solve the mystery of the Beetle and save Marjorie from an unthinkable fate Told alternately from the points of view of Robert Holt, a clerk who is hypnotized into becoming a mindless slave, Marjorie, a beautiful and independent New Woman, Sydney Atherton, a cynical inventor of murderous weapons of war, and the clever detective Augustus Champnell, "The Beetle" is a thrilling mystery that will keep readers guessing until its startling climax.

This new edition is certain to become the definitive edition of Marsh's most successful novel. It features the unabridged text of the 1897 first edition, including a reproduction of its cover and all four illustrations by John Williamson. Minna Vuohelainen's introduction corrects the errors of previous scholars and places the novel in the context of fin de siecle fiction and growing uneasiness over urban conditions, imperialism, and gender roles. Also featured in this edition are substantial selections of fictional and nonfictional contextual material, including excerpts from Marsh's other works and unpublished manuscripts, as well as detailed notes for modern readers.