Miss Benson's Beetle

Miss Benson’s Beetle (2020) is the sixth novel by British author Rachel Joyce. The novel debuted as a New York Times bestseller, was named Amazon Best Book of November 2020, and received the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize in 2021. Miss Benson’s Beetle is categorized as Friendship Fiction and Women’s Historical Fiction, but it also contains elements of travel humor and adventure. In depicting the adventures of Margery Benson as she pursues her dream of capturing a rare beetle, the novel explores the themes of liberation from the past, embracing one’s purpose in life, and the enduring bonds of friendship.  

Before writing fiction, Joyce previously worked as an actress, script writer, wife, and mother. She received a New Writer of the Year award from the National Book Awards for her first novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (2012). Her other novels include Perfect (2013), The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy (2014), A Snow Garden and Other Stories (2015), and The Music Shop (2017).

This study guide references the Kindle edition of the novel. Please be advised that Miss Benson’s Beetle depicts PTSD, stalking, and death by suicide.

Plot Summary

In 1914, Margery Benson is the 10-year-old daughter of a mild-mannered clergyman and his stolid wife. Margery’s four older brothers are off fighting in World War I. To amuse his daughter, Mr. Benson shows Margery a book with pictures of extraordinary creatures that may or may not exist. Among them is the golden beetle of New Caledonia. Margery is immediately captivated and decides to find the bug when she grows up. As she looks at the illustration of the beetle, her father receives a phone call informing him that all his sons have been killed in battle. In a fit of despair, he takes a revolver out of his desk drawer, goes out into the garden, and shoots himself. This traumatic event leaves Margery with a phobia about bloodshed and guns.

Margery and her mother go to live with Mr. Benson’s maiden sisters, who run a strict, joyless household. Mrs. Benson dies soon afterward. Margery’s childhood is lonely, but she develops a passion for insects after numerous visits to the Natural History Museum. After 35 years, Margery is a home economics teacher. When her students sketch a cruel caricature of her dowdy appearance, she experiences an identity crisis and vows to begin her expedition to find the golden beetle from the book.

Margery interviews assistants to take with her on the adventure, rejecting a traumatized war veteran named Mundic. Mundic becomes obsessed with Margery and believes that he is the only person capable of leading her expedition. As a result, he begins stalking her. When Margery’s chosen assistant cancels at the last moment, she is forced to hire the erratic Enid Pretty. Enid is a free spirit whose lively ways are the antithesis of Margery’s. Margery is on the point of firing Enid during their ocean crossing, but she eventually comes to appreciate Enid’s capacity to find solutions to insurmountable problems. Along the way, Margery learns that Enid is pregnant and is running away from a murder charge after having helped her husband die by suicide at his own request.

In New Caledonia, the women experience a variety of new challenges in their quest to find Margery’s beetle. Enid convinces Margery that the two women must pursue their vocations no matter what. Enid’s vocation is to have a baby, while Margery’s vocation is to find the golden beetle. Both women accomplish their goals, but danger awaits.

Mrs. Pope, the wife of the British consul in New Caledonia, identifies Enid as a murderess fleeing from the law. While the two friends manage to elude Mrs. Pope, they soon encounter Mundic, who has followed them all the way from London. A fight ensues during which Mundic accidentally kills Enid, and Margery accidentally kills him. In the wake of this tragedy, Margery escapes the island and raises baby Gloria for Enid’s sake.

Over the years, Margery anonymously sends various rare insect specimens to the entomologists at the Natural History Museum. In 1983, a middle-aged female entomologist opens a package containing a photo of the now elderly Margery and the now-adult Gloria. Gloria holds a golden beetle in her hand. The back of the photo lists the insect’s name. The entomologist is enthralled by the image and immediately vows to travel to New Caledonia to find the rare insect: Another woman in a dead-end job has just been awakened to the call of adventure by the golden beetle.