On the HahaFiction shelf
Miss Benson's Beetle
Audiobook available · 12 hr 4 min
In 1950, Margery Benson walks away from her teaching job to pursue a beetle she has dreamed about since childhood. Finding it means getting to New Caledonia and organizing an expedition. The assistant she takes with her, Enid Pretty, arrives in pink and has very different ideas about how to travel.
From the publisher’s blurb
“She’s going too far to go it alone.”Read the full description at Dial Press, publisher description
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What makes it funny?
Margery prepares for serious scientific work and asks for a French-speaking assistant. She gets the relentlessly talkative Enid, then spends weeks at sea too sick to remain in charge. Readers in book groups single out the friendship between these mismatched women as a source of the book’s humor.
The comedy at work
Joyce sets Margery’s careful plans against the demands of travel and a companion she cannot manage. The opening has a quieter wit, too: young Margery considers the problem of pairing her damaged toy animals and wonders whether an old book’s smell might actually belong to her father.
Try this if…
The beetle hunt offers a historical adventure centered on women who have been overlooked. If you enjoy friendships that grow through exasperation and practical dependence, Margery and Enid have a long journey in which to test each other.
Good to know
Suicide, bereavement and wartime trauma are part of this story. Some readers found the ending unsettling; expect emotional weight alongside the expedition’s comic mishaps.
A few distinguishing details
- A scientific expedition led by two unlikely travelers
- A golden beetle that may or may not exist
More funny quest
Sources & further reading
- Miss Benson's Beetle — Penguin Random House
Publisher
- Miss Benson's Beetle (Unabridged) — Apple Books
Book information
- Publisher
Publisher
- Reader discussion
Reader discussion
- Opening excerpt
Reading sample
- Trade review
Review
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