“Mr.Lessingham opened his mouth,–and shut it. A marked change took place in the expression of his countenance. His eyes became fixed and staring,–resembling the glassy orbs of the somnambulist. For a moment I feared that he was going to give me an object lesson in the ‘visitations’ of which I had heard so much. I rose, with a view of offering him assistance. He motioned me back. ‘Thank you.—It will pass away’”

I picked this quote from Chapter 34 when Lessingham and Champnell are meeting and talking about Lessingham’s past, and entanglements with The Beetle and Children of Isis. I really like this quote because it gets into the psychological aspect of monstrosity and how we can become victims to things that aren’t physically there. Mr. Lessingham obviously has trauma regarding his situation in Egypt and this may have caused him to develop some sort of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This could be why he has no private life, is always working, and why Atherton saw him frozen solid in fear from a picture of the beetle. It’s so interesting to see how Richard Marsh is able to portray the internal and external monstrosity that the Beetle creates within the story, from the actual physical form of the beetle to the debilitating fear Lessingham and Holt have of the beetle. I wonder if we will get a perspective of Lessingham in the novel at some point, it would be interesting to read because the story ultimately revolves around him and his choice of going to Egypt.

Do you think that this novel was created more for the “internal monster” or “external monster”? Would a Lessingham account of the story be beneficial or does what we get from Champnell give us enough? Would an account of the story from the Child of Isis/the beetle give us an entirely different story, and what would that look like?