A new scholarly edition of a major late-Victorian scientific romance novelMarie Corelli's A Romance of Two Worlds is regarded as one of the most culturally important Victorian bestsellers. This critical edition offers instructive access to this multifaceted but still largely underappreciated novel that is a key text for scholars and students of late-Victorian women's writing. It also raises urgent questions about a wide array of textual and cultural concerns, especially the form and function of the Victorian 'bestseller'.Key FeaturesContains a thorough critical and analytical introduction, annotations and appendicesProvides context and underlines the aesthetic significance of Corelli's supernatural romanceEngages with the full range of secondary scholarship on this neglected late-Victorian author
A new scholarly edition of a major late-Victorian scientific romance novelMarie Corelli's A Romance of Two Worlds is regarded as one of the most culturally important Victorian bestsellers. This critical edition offers instructive access to this multifaceted but still largely underappreciated novel that is a key text for scholars and students of late-Victorian women's writing. It also raises urgent questions about a wide array of textual and cultural concerns, especially the form and function of the Victorian 'bestseller'.Key FeaturesContains a thorough critical and analytical introduction, annotations and appendicesProvides context and underlines the aesthetic significance of Corelli's supernatural romanceEngages with the full range of secondary scholarship on this neglected late-Victorian author
Set in late nineteenth-century London, this Faustian novel is a masterful example of gothic horror fiction, analysing the depths of human desire and exploring the eternal battle between good and evil. A disillusioned and penniless author, Geoffrey Tempest, receives three letters. The first is from a friend who has come into fortune and may be able to offer financial help. The second is from a solicitor informing him he's inherited a fortune from a relative. The third is from Lucio, a foreign aristocrat who guides Tempest in using his new wealth. Despite many warnings, Tempest is unable to see Lucio is an earthly incarnation of the Devil, and he's seduced into a world of opulent decadence. But as the allure of his newfound life intensifies, he soon discovers the true cost of his Faustian bargain. Caught in a moral quandary, he must confront his inner demons and decide whether pursuing worldly desires is worth the sacrifice of his soul. This volume is part of the Mothers of the Macabre series, celebrating the gothic horror masterpieces of pioneering women writers who played a pivotal role in shaping and advancing the genre. First published in 1895, The Sorrows of Satan is a thought-provoking exploration of the human condition. Marie Corelli's social commentary, portrayal of the supernatural, and examination of human nature's complexities make this gothic horror novel a timeless and engrossing read.
Marie Corelli was a British writer during the Victorian era. Corelli was the most popular writer of fiction during her time. This edition of Temporal Power: A Study in Supremacy (original text) Marie Corelli ( 1 May 1855 - 21 April 1924) was a British novelist. She enjoyed a period of great literary success from the publication of her first novel in 1886 until World War I. Corelli's novels sold more copies than the combined sales of popular contemporaries, including Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, and Rudyard Kipling, although critics often derided her work as "the favourite of the common multitude."Mary Mackay was born in London to Elizabeth Mills, a servant of the Scottish poet and songwriter Dr. Charles Mackay, her biological father. 3] In 1866, eleven-year-old Mary was sent to a Parisian convent to further her education. She returned to Britain four years later in 1870. Mackay began her career as a musician, adopting the name Marie Corelli for her billing. Eventually she turned to writing and published her first novel, A Romance of Two Worlds, in 1886. In her time, she was the most widely read author of fiction. Her works were collected by Winston Churchill, Randolph Churchill, and members of the British Royal Family, among others. Mackay faced criticism from the literary elite for her overly melodramatic writing. In The Spectator, Grant Allen called her "a woman of deplorable talent who imagined that she was a genius, and was accepted as a genius by a public to whose commonplace sentimentalities and prejudices she gave a glamorous setting." James Agate represented her as combining "the imagination of a Poe with the style of an Ouida and the mentality of a nursemaid." A recurring theme in Corelli's books is her attempt to reconcile Christianity with reincarnation, astral projection, and other mystical ideas. Her books were a part of the foundation of today's New Age religion. Her portrait was painted by Helen Donald-Smith. Corelli famously had little time for the press. In 1902 she wrote to the editor of The Gentlewoman to complain that her name had been left out of a list of the guests in the Royal Enclosure at the Braemar Highland Gathering, saying she suspected this had been done intentionally. The editor replied that her name had indeed been left out intentionally, because of her own stated contempt for the press and for the snobbery of those wishing to appear in "news puffs" of society events. Both letters were published in full in the next issue. Corelli spent her final years in Stratford-upon-Avon. There, she fought hard for the preservation of Stratford's 17th-century buildings, and donated money to help their owners remove the plaster or brickwork that often covered their original timber framed facades. Novelist Barbara Comyns Carr mentions Corelli's guest appearance at an exhibition of Anglo-Saxon items found at Bidford-on-Avon in 1923. Corelli's eccentricity became well-known. She would boat on the Avon in a gondola, complete with a gondolier that she had brought over from Venice. In his autobiography, Mark Twain, who had a deep dislike of Corelli, describes visiting her in Stratford and how the meeting changed his perception. She died in Stratford and is buried there in the Evesham Road cemetery. Her house, Mason Croft, still stands on Church Street and is now the home of the Shakespeare Institute. For over forty years, Corelli lived with her companion, Bertha Vyver; when she died she left everything to her friend. Although she didn't self-identify as a lesbian, biographers and critics have noted the erotic descriptions of female beauty that appear regularly in Corelli's novels, while admitting they are expressed by men. Descriptions of the deep love between the two women by their contemporaries have added to the speculation that their relationship may have been romantic. Following Corelli's death, Sidney Walton reminisced in the Yorkshire Evening News:
A Romance of Two Worlds starts with a young heroine, in first person, telling her story of a debilitating illness that includes depression and thoughts of suicide. Her doctor is unable to help her and sends her off on a holiday where she meets a mystical character by the name of Raffello Cellini, a famous Italian artist. Cellini offers her a strange potion which immediately puts her into a tranquil slumber, in which she experiences divine visions. Upon wakening, she craves more. Later, she meets her unnamed guardian angel, who whisks her through infinite solar systems faster than a shooting star while human spirits fly by like gossamer silk. He shares the truth of religion and the secret of human destiny, but still she longs for more. She comes to understand God as pure light and pure love, but it's not enough that she should see and hear these things from the touch of an angel. She wants to master this ability on her own and seeks a oneness with God through a series of meditative disciplines while locked away in a monastery. Reception--The novel was rejected for publication by Hall Caine-an act that began a lifelong feud between Caine and Corelli. After hearing of Caine's harsh criticism, George Bentley suspected that the novel might have commercial appeal and published Corelli's first novel. Marie Corelli did not expect A Romance of Two Worlds to be so well received. She claims, in the introduction to the second printing in 1887, that, "It was not only read, but loved." Her scripture, "The Electric Principle of Christianity," included in the novel, is presented as something factual and after the publication of the book, generated a cult following, in which readers sought more information about her experience. Today, New Age devotees hail Corelli as "inspired". Many believe that the book is autobiographical, something Corelli encouraged during her lifetime.In several chapters Corelli hints that Heliobas may be the Count of St. Germain, although Rosicrucian authors identify him as an Illuminati hierophant, Count A. di Guinotti Heliobas appears in two other Corelli novels, Ardath and The Soul of Lilith. Themes--In A Romance of Two Worlds, Marie Corelli takes on an old argument between the creationists and the evolutionists. However, her insights are futuristic, including ideas about electricity, solar power, and the properties of the atom. She explains in the introduction, "in this cultivated age a wall of skepticism and cynicism is gradually being built up by intellectual thinkers of every nation against all the treats of the Supernatural and Unseen, I am aware that my narration of the events I have recently experienced will be read with incredulity. At a time when the great empire of the Christian Religion is being assailed, or politely ignored by governments and public speakers and teachers, I realize to the fullest extent how daring is any attempt to prove, even by a plain history of strange occurrences happening to one's self, the actual existence of the Supernatural around us; and the absolute certainty of a future state of being, after the passage through that brief soul-topor in which the body perishes, known to us as Death."The book is suffused with Pantheism. She also argues that Christ did not come to us as a sacrifice because God is a creator of love and beauty and could not desire "a bleeding victim as sacrifice to appease His Anger...
