[Illustration: "MASON CROFT" MISS CORELLI’S PRESENT RESIDENCE
(A Corner Glimpse in Winter)]
MARIE CORELLI
The Writer and The Woman
By
T. F. G. COATES
Author of “The Life of Lord Rosebery”
and
R. S. WARREN BELL
Author of “Bachelorland,” etc.
[Illustration]
WITH 16 FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
PHILADELPHIA
GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO.
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1903, by
George W. Jacobs & Company,
Published June, 1903
Preface
Miss Marie Corelli’s unique personality has aroused interest and
curiosity among all classes of society, and we are aware that the
present work will be diligently searched for intimate information
regarding the subject of these pages. It behooves us, therefore, to
remind those who peruse this volume that the writing of contemporary
biography is a most delicate literary performance; so, while it has been
our aim to set before the public as many particulars as possible
concerning Marie Corelli the Woman--as distinct from Marie Corelli the
Writer--it will be apparent to the least intelligent of our patrons
that, in common courtesy to Miss Corelli, it is possible for us to
publish only a limited number of personal minutiæ concerning the
novelist during her lifetime.
In making a general survey of Miss Corelli’s various books, we have
endeavored, in each case, to quote such passages as may be read with
interest independently of the context, or such as tend to explain the
spirit animating the novelist whilst engaged upon the volume under
treatment.
It has been our endeavor to keep this biographical study free from
offense to any living person, or to the memory of any who have passed
away. In cases where we have found it necessary to refer in vigorous
terms to the words or conduct of certain individuals, we have been
actuated solely by a desire to have justice done to Miss Corelli. And in
this respect we prefer not to be regarded as her champions so much as
“counsel” briefed for the defense of a woman who has had, and still has,
to contend with a very great number of adversaries, not all of whom are
in the habit of conducting their warfare in the open.
In conclusion, we beg to offer Miss Corelli our grateful thanks for
permitting us to have access to letters, papers, and other documents
necessary to authenticate our facts, as without such permission we could
not have undertaken our task.
THOMAS F. G. COATES,
R. S. WARREN BELL.
_March, 1903._
Contents
CHAPTER I
THE HEROINE OF THE STORY
A Bentley Letter--The Effect of a Publisher’s Advice on a Writer’s
Career--The Success of “A Romance of Two Worlds” without help from the
Press--The Unfairness of appointing Novelists to Criticise Novels or act
as Publishers’ “Readers”--Marie Corelli’s Universality, and the Reason
for it--Her Endeavors to Promote Holy Living--Her Unequaled
Boldness--Which is her Best Book?--“Thelma” most Popular as a
Love-story--Her Short Works--The Difficulty of awarding her a Definite
Place in Letters 13
CHAPTER II
MARIE CORELLI’S CHILDHOOD, ETC.
Marie Corelli, Adopted as an Infant, by Dr. Charles Mackay--Description
of Mackay’s Career--The “Rosebud” and her Fancies--Absence of Child
Playmates--Marie Corelli at the Convent School--Her Musical Studies--Dr.
Mackay’s Illness, and her Return Home for Good--Miss Bertha
Vyver--George Eric Mackay: his Chequered Career--“Love-Letters of a
Violinist”: their Publication and Reception 26
CHAPTER III
“A ROMANCE OF TWO WORLDS”
Its Original Title--The MS. Accepted by Bentleys--Its Name Suggested by
Dr. Mackay--The Press and the “Romance”--Its Reception by the Public,
and its Effect on Readers--Marie Corelli and the Supernatural--Synopsis
of Plot--Heliobas and his “Electric Creed”--X-Rays and Wireless
Telegraphy foretold in this Book 48
CHAPTER IV
“VENDETTA” AND “THELMA”
Mr. Bentley’s Opinion of “Vendetta”--Practically a True Story of Naples
during the Cholera Epidemic of 1884--The Remarkable Ingenuity of its
Construction--The Novelist’s Habit of Creating a Pretty Picture only to
Destroy it, as Exemplified by the Opening Chapters of “Vendetta” and
After Events--The Appalling Ferocity of Count Fabio and the Culminating
Scene of his Vengeance.
Mr. Bentley’s Enthusiastic Comments on “Thelma”--The Story Compared with
“She,” to the Latter’s Disadvantage--A Romantic Setting--The Main Theme
of the Book--Thelma’s Bewilderment at the Hollowness of Society--Her
Husband’s Alleged Unfaithfulness--Her Flight to Norway and the
Sequel--Miss Corelli’s “Unsparing Brush”--The Weak Spot in the
Book--Thelma’s Winning Personality 64
CHAPTER V
“ARDATH”
Its Theme--Congratulations from Lord Tennyson--A suggested Corelli City
in Colorado--An Example of the Novelist’s Descriptive Powers--Theos
Alwyn, Agnostic--His Interview with Heliobas--The Dream and the
Poem--The Field of Ardath--The City of Al-Kyris--Sah-Lûma, the Poet
Laureate--The Religion of Al-Kyris--Lysia, High Priestess of the
God-Serpent--The Prophet Khosrûl and his Predictions--The Fall of
Al-Kyris--The Awakening of Alwyn and his Return to London--The Converted
Poet--“Ardath” a Book for all who Doubt--Six Tests for
Spiritualists 79
CHAPTER VI
“WORMWOOD” AND “THE SOUL OF LILITH”
Pauline de Charmilles: a Character Sketch--Her Engagement to Beauvais
and the Arrival of Silvion Guidèl--“First Impressions”--Pauline’s
Confession and Beauvais’ First Bout of Absinthe-drinking--The Exposure
on the Wedding-Day--More Absinthe, and the Murder of Guidèl--The Meeting
between Beauvais and Pauline, and the Suicide of the Latter--Pauline’s
Corpse at the Morgue--A Denunciation of Absinthe--A Suggestion to Marie
Corelli Concerning the Drink Question in this Country.
“The Soul of Lilith” an Attempt to Prove the Apparently Unprovable--A
Reason for Marie Corelli’s Immense Popularity--El-Râmi and the Dead
Egyptian Girl--His Experiment--Heliobas again--“The Two Governing Forces
of the Universe”--“Poets are often the Best Scientists”--“The Why, Why,
Why of Everything”--A Solution of Life’s Problems 112
CHAPTER VII
MR. BENTLEY’S ENCOURAGEMENT
The Thorny Path of the Literary Pilgrim--Old Publishers and New--Mr.
George Bentley an Honorable Example of the Former Type--The Happy
Relations that existed between Miss Corelli and her Publisher--A List of
the Novelist’s Works Published by Bentleys--Mr. Bentley’s Appreciation
of “Ardath”--His Refusal to make Overtures to the Press--A Reference to
Miss Rhoda Broughton and the Treatment dealt out to her by Critics--Mr.
Gladstone’s Visit--Concerning “Wormwood”--Maarten Maartens and his
Opinion of “Ardath”--Press Attacks on “The Soul of Lilith”--The Late
Queen Victoria and Marie Corelli’s Books--A Comment on the Chivalry of
the Press--A Carlyle Anecdote--Mr. Bentley as Author--His Book: “After
Business”--The Inestimable Value of Mr. Bentley’s Advice to the Young
Novelist 134
CHAPTER VIII
“BARABBAS”
Charles Kingsley and “Women’s Writings”--Marie Corelli’s Idea in Penning
“Barabbas”--The Character of “Judith”--St. Peter’s Definition of a
Lie--The Character of Jesus of Nazareth--Melchior’s Speeches--The
Treacherous Caiaphas--The Magdalen--The Scene of The Resurrection--The
Tragedy of Love and Genius 152
CHAPTER IX
“THE SORROWS OF SATAN”
As a Book--How the Critics Missed the Allegorical Idea of the Story--The
Opinion of Father Ignatius: “Tens of Thousands will Bless the
Author”--A Plea for more Womanliness among modern Women--Geoffrey
Tempest--£5,000,000 from Satan--Prince Lucio Rimânez and his
Associations with Tempest--Lady Sibyl Elton--The Effect of Perfect
Beauty on a Man--The Modern Gambling Mania--Viscount Lynton’s Last
Wager--The Character of Mavis Clare,--Lady Sibyl’s Bitter Description of
Herself--Her Marriage with Tempest, and the Disillusionment--Her Passion
for Prince Rimânez and Subsequent Suicide--The Conception of Satan, and
an Explanation of his Position: “Satan becomes on Terms of Intimacy with
Man only if Man shows that he wishes to Travel an Evil Course”--The
Yachting Cruise and Tempest’s return to Christian Ways--Opinion of the
Late Rev. H. R. Haweis.
“The Sorrows of Satan” as a Play--How Miss Corelli has Suffered from the
Defective Law of Literary Copyright--The Play Written, and Read at the
Shaftesbury Theatre--Miss Corelli’s Opinion of it--Miss Evelyn Millard’s
Attitude with Regard to the part of “Lady Sibyl”--“The Grosvenor
Syndicate”--The Play Produced--Other Versions--How the Dramatic Rights
of Novels have to be Protected 164
CHAPTER X
“THE MIGHTY ATOM” AND “BOY”
Novels with a Purpose--The Criminally Mistaken Up-bringing of
Children--Lionel Valliscourt an Eleven-year-old Atheist--The Cramming
Process and its Effect on him--His Breakdown and Holiday--His Return to
find that Little Jessamine is Dead--His Grief and Pathetic End--The
Power of a Book like “The Mighty Atom” to _Teach_.
“Boy”--A somewhat Similar Work--The Responsibilities of Parents--“Boy’s”
Childhood--His Neglected Condition--Miss Letty and the Major--“Boy” goes
to School--The Change Wrought in him--His Entirely _blasé_ Demeanor at
sixteen--“Boy” Guilty of Drunkenness and Fraud--His Final Reformation
and Death 192
CHAPTER XI
“THE MURDER OF DELICIA” AND “ZISKA”
Modern Husbands--The Money Marriage--The Average Man and his Attitude in
this Respect--Delicia Vaughan, Novelist and Beauty--Her foolish
Infatuation for Lord Carlyon and Consequent Misery--“The Rare and
Beautiful Blindness of Perfect Love”--The Penalty Paid by Delicia.
“Ziska”: A Cairean Romance--Ziska the Flesh-clad Ghost of a Long-ago
Dancer--“The Mighty Araxes,” her Former Lover, Presented in Modern Shape
as Armand Gervase, a French Painter--The Renewal of his Passion for
Ziska--His Rival--“The Attraction we Call Love” a Preordained
Destiny--Dr. Dean, _savant_, and his Interesting Theories--Beneath the
Great Pyramid--Ziska’s Terrible Revenge 207
CHAPTER XII
“THE MASTER CHRISTIAN”
How it was Commenced and Interrupted--The Novelist’s Severe
Illness--Death of George Eric Mackay--The Literary Dinner and the
Critic--Sir Francis Burnand Describes “Boy” as “a Work of Genius”--Mr.
Stead and “The Master-Christian”--The Novelist’s Views on Roman
Catholicism--Miss Corelli’s Open Letter to Cardinal Vaughan--The Story
of the “Master-Christian”--Cardinal Bonpré at Rouen--Paulism--The
Discovery of the Boy Manuel--The Miraculous Healing of the Lame
Fabien--The Cardinal and Manuel at Paris--Angela Sovrani--The Abbé
Vergniaud, Atheist--A Flower Legend--Manuel and Angela 222
CHAPTER XIII
“THE MASTER CHRISTIAN” (_continued_)
The Abbé Vergniaud’s Sermon and the Attempt on his Life--He Confesses
that his Assailant is his Son--The Cardinal’s Leniency towards the Abbé
and his Persecution by the Vatican--Monsignor Moretti--Manuel and the
Cardinal at Rome--Manuel’s Extraordinary Address to the Pope--“Come and
Preach Christ as He Lived and Died”--The Effect of the Boy’s Exhortation
on the Pope--Other Characters--Angela’s Picture--A Poem by Dr. Charles
Mackay--The Death of Cardinal Bonpré 246
CHAPTER XIV
“TEMPORAL POWER”
An Unprecedented Sale--A Note on its Title--Reviewed by Three Hundred
and Fifty Journals, although not sent out to the Press--Criticisms from
_Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper_ and the _Review of Reviews_--A Reply to Mr.
Stead’s Suggestion that Certain Royal and other Characters in the Book
have Living Counterparts--The Novelist’s Emphatic Denial in this
Respect--“Carl Perousse, Secretary of State”--The European Statesman
Miss Corelli had in her Mind when Drawing this Character--The “King” of
“Temporal Power”--Morganatic Marriages: the Novelist’s
Denunciation--Attempts on the Part of Book Trade Journals to Quash the
Success of the Novel, and their Retractations--The Rejection of the
King’s Love by Lotys, Woman of the People: a Quotation 265
CHAPTER XV
SPEECHES AND LECTURES
The Novelist’s First Public Speech: an Appeal for a Warwickshire
Church--An Address Delivered to Stratford Working-men on “The Secret of
Happiness”--Hard Work the Best Tonic in the World--The Novelist at the
Edinburgh Philosophical Institution--“The Vanishing Gift”: an Address on
the Decay of the Imagination--Art in the “Old World” Period and Art
now--Imagination an Artist’s First Necessary--Modern Wonders Imagined
when the World was Young--The Novelist at Glasgow--An Address on “Signs
of the Times” Delivered before a Huge Audience--An Allusion to the
Prince of Wales and his Famous Speech at the Mansion House--“The Old
Country must Wake up”--“The Advancing and Resistless Tide of Truth”--A
Notable Peroration 281
CHAPTER XVI
MARIE CORELLI’S VIEWS ON MARRIAGE
The Novelist’s Definition of Marriage--The Modern “Market”--“One Woman,
One Man”--Marie Corelli’s Exhortation to Women--“God will not be
Mocked”--The Religious Instruction of Children--The Abolition of
Religious Education in French Schools and its Unhappy Effect on the
Country--Lionel Valliscourt: a Pathetic Example of “Cram”--And “Boy”: of
Parental Neglect 298
CHAPTER XVII
SOME PERSONAL ITEMS
The Helen Faucit Memorial--Marie Corelli’s Successful Campaign in Behalf
of Shakespeare’s Burial Place--Portraits of the Novelist--Marie Corelli
Declines to Review “The Eternal City”--An Introduction to Mr.
Labouchere--Use made of a “Private and Confidential”
Letter--“Self-advertisement”: Some Comments on Accusations of this
Character brought against Marie Corelli by certain Sections of the
Press--The Invitation to the Abbey on the Occasion of the King’s
Coronation--An Invitation to open a Nonconformist Bazaar at Brighton,
and why it was Declined--Letters from Dr. Parker and the Rev. Hugh Price
Hughes--“The Ethics of Criticism”: a letter by E. Rentoul Esler--“To the
Quarterly”: Some Verses by Marie Corelli 311
CHAPTER XVIII
AT STRATFORD-ON-AVON
The “Local Color” in Marie Corelli’s Books--“I _Imagine_ it must be so,
and I find it generally _is_ so”--Why the Novelist went to live at
Stratford--“Hall’s Croft,” “Avon Croft,” and “Mason Croft”: her
Successive Residences--Her Affection for Stratford and her Regret that
the Memorial Theatre is so little used--Her Benefactions--Instances of
Kind-heartedness in Other Writers--Marie Corelli’s “Life-Programme”--Her
Personality “Striking in its Simplicity and in its Power”--The Novelist
as a Shakespeare Enthusiast--Her Desire to see Stratford become the
“Bayreuth of Literature”--The Novelist’s “Public”: the Vastness of her
Constituency--Her Friends--A Character Sketch of Marie Corelli by Mr. J.
Cuming Walters--Mr. Gladstone’s Parting Benediction 332
_Of the above Chapters, II, V, VIII, IX, XII, XIII, XVI, and XVII are by
Thomas F. G. Coates; and Chapters I, III, IV, VI, VII, X, XI, XIV, XV
and XVIII by R. S. Warren Bell._
Illustrations
“Mason Croft,” Miss Corelli’s Present Residence _Frontispiece_
A Boating Place on the Avon _Facing page_ 80
A Favorite Reach on the Avon " " 80
What Becomes of the Press Cuttings " " 146
Marie Corelli’s Pet Yorkshire Terrier “Czar” " " 146
“Killiecrankie Cottage” where “Ziska” was Finished " " 212
“Avon Croft” where “The Master Christian” was Finished " " 212
“Hall’s Croft” where Marie Corelli Wrote Half
of “The Master Christian” " " 228
Winter at “Mason Croft” " " 320
The Elizabethan Watch Tower, “Mason
Croft” " " 336
Miss Corelli’s Boatman and Punt " " 346
MARIE CORELLI
The Writer and the Woman
CHAPTER I
THE HEROINE OF THE STORY
“Keep a brave heart. You are steadily rising. People recognize that you
are an artist working with love, not a machine producing novels against
bank-notes, with no interest in its work. But keep a good heart, little
lady. It is the way with people of imagination and keen sensibility to
have their moments of depression.... I believe you will emerge out of
all this with your brave little spirit, and I shall rejoice to see you
successful, because I believe you will not be spoilt by success.”
Thus wrote George Bentley, the publisher, to Marie Corelli on November
15th, 1888. At that time only three of her books had appeared--“A
Romance of Two Worlds,” “Vendetta,” and “Thelma”--and she was engaged
upon the latter portion of “Ardath.” She was in the spring of her
career, probing the Unknown and the Unseen, the Long Ago and the Future,
with daring flights of fancy that had already set the world wondering.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bentley watched over his _protégée_ with a care that was
almost parental. A number of extracts from his wise and helpful letters
will be given in the course of this work; and the reader will not fail
to observe that there was very much more in Mr. Bentley’s attitude than
a mere desire to coin pretty expressions for the benefit of a charming
young woman possessed of undeniable genius. He could be very candid in
his criticisms, when occasion demanded, but his tact was unfailing, and
his sympathy boundless. He was one of an old school of which but few
examples now remain. He was a personal friend as well as a publisher,
one who could regard an author as something more than a creature with a
money-producing imagination. He was of the school that produced
Blackwood, Murray, Smith--the famous scions of those houses--and others
whose names have ever been uttered with affection by those men and women
of the pen who had dealings with them. One has only to peruse the
correspondence which passed between John Blackwood, on the one side, and
G. H. Lewes and George Eliot, on the other, to appreciate in full the
power of encouragement and the influence a publisher possesses in his
negotiations with a writer of promise.
Of a truth, Marie Corelli had need of such a friend, for her early
career, as everybody knows, was thorny and troublous. A publisher greedy
for a golden harvest might have prevailed upon her to write quickly,
and, as a natural consequence, not at her best, for the certain gains
which such work would produce in abundance. Mr. Bentley deprecated undue
hurry. “You are now a person,” he says in one of his characteristic
letters, “of sufficient importance not to have to depend on appearance
or non-appearance. You have shown not only talent, but versatility, and
that you are not a mere mannerist with one idea repeating itself in each
book; consequently, when you next come, there will be expectation.”
In advising one possessed of so seemingly inexhaustible a fund of mental
riches, Mr. Bentley was undertaking no light task. Moreover, he was
offering counsel to a writer, who, to many people, was an absolute
enigma.
For when Marie Corelli appeared as a novelist she was altogether new.
She was something entirely fresh, and, to a certain extent,
incomprehensible; as a result, she was reviled, she was told that she
was impossible, she was treated as a pretending upstart: the critics
would have none of her.
But her success with her first book, “A Romance of Two Worlds,” was due
to itself, and not to either the praise or the censure of the press.
Only four reviews of this romance appeared, each about ten lines long,
and none of the four would have helped to sell a single copy. But the
public got hold of it. People began to talk about it and discuss it.
Then it was judged worth attacking, and the more continuous its sale the
more it was jeered at by the critical fault-finders.
Marie Corelli did not invite adverse criticism. She was quite a girl,
untried and inexperienced, and had, apparently, from her letters to her
friends, a most touching faith in the chivalry of the press. “I hope,”
she wrote to Mr. Bentley, “the clever men on the Press will be kind to
me, as it is a first book [the ‘Romance’]; because if they are I shall
be able to do so much better another time.”
But, much to her surprise, the clever men of the press bullied her as
though she had been a practiced hand at literature, and abused her with
quite unnecessary violence. She did not retort upon them, however.
“Vendetta,” “Thelma,” “Ardath,” and other works were produced patiently
in rotation, and still the abuse continued--and so did her success. It
was only with the publication of “Barabbas” and the distinctly unfair
comments that book received, that she at last threw down the gauntlet,
and forbade her publishers to send out any more of her books for review.
This action practically put an end to the discussion of her works in the
literary journals by critics with warped ideas of fair play. For they
failed to remember that, though his draftsmanship may here and there
display a flaw, an artist should be judged by the conception of his
design--by his coloring--by the intention of his work as a whole.
Five years have elapsed since the one-sided truce was called; those
critics, wandering by the bookshops, see people issuing therefrom
bearing in their hands the hated volumes--the brain-children of the
woman who had met them in unequal combat. They read in the papers of the
gigantic sales of these works; they lift their hands in horror, and sigh
for the gone days of authors who appealed but to the cultured few. So
waggeth the world of letters; so arriveth that person to be trampled
on--offend he or she the critics by ever so little--the New Writer.
It is manifestly unfair that a novelist should criticise novels; yet
this is frequently done. It goes without saying that the novelist who
devotes valuable time to reading and criticising the works of his
brethren in art cannot be in very great demand, as fiction is paid for
at a much higher rate than reviewing. That Miss Corelli’s earlier works
were submitted for valuation to those engaged--if we may use a
commercial phrase--in the same line of business, may account for the
bitterness that characterized many of the notices. Let the critic
criticise, and the novelist write novels; then, each attending to his
trade, the new writer will receive fairer play.
The rough-and-tumble journey through the now defunct house of Bentley
which “A Romance of Two Worlds” experienced, prompts us to question the
advisability of appointing novelists to act as publishers’ “readers.”
Quantities of manuscript pass through the hands of a publisher’s
literary adviser, and in six weeks he may imbibe--he cannot help
imbibing--enough ideas to set him up for six years. A novelist who
spends a considerable portion of his lifetime weighing and sorting the
raw material of other novelists, must find it a matter of great
difficulty to reconcile his conscience with the performance of such
duties.
It must often have occurred to the men who have so harshly criticised
Miss Corelli’s works to demand of themselves a logical reason for her
boundless popularity--a popularity that extends to every corner of the
earth. “The Mighty Atom” has been published under the auspices of the
Holy Synod in Russia, and “Barabbas” has been translated into Persian,
Greek, and Hindustani. And these are but two instances of her
universality. Why is Marie Corelli read the world over, while the
authors upon whom many responsible judges of literature shower encomiums
can claim but an Anglo-Saxon public, and not a tremendous one then?
It is because, primarily, her chief mission is to exploit, with
knowledge, with conviction, and with limitless zeal, the most vital
question of this or any age--man’s religion. Since the world was created
this has been the chief motive of humanity’s actions. The Israelites,
for taking to themselves false gods, were sold into bondage; thousands
of years later, because the tomb of Christ was threatened, Christian
Europe, putting aside international differences, arose in pious wrath
and sent forth its men of the Red Cross to do battle with the infidels.
In misguided zeal, and prompted by a morbid fanaticism, “bloody” Mary
destroyed the peace of our own fair land, and earned for her memory
undying execration by burning at the stake the unfortunates who
differed from her in their religious views. The impiety of its rulers
was the root of the evil which plunged France into the throes of a
ghastly Revolution. Even on every coin of the realm at the present
day,--on every sovereign that changes hands at race meetings, on every
penny that the street arabs play pitch and toss with, we are reminded
that the reigning monarch is the Defender of our “Faith.”
A simple belief in God pervades everything that Marie Corelli has
written, and from this devout standpoint she views all those other
things which constitute mundane existence--Love, Marriage, buying and
selling, social intercourse, art, science, and education.
Her books abound in passages which bewail the fact that--to extract a
phrase from the “Master-Christian”--“the world is not with Christ
to-day.” Her sole weapons pen and paper, the author of that remarkable
book is making a strenuous effort to dispel the torpor to which
Christianity is gradually succumbing. The keynote of her work is sounded
by Cardinal Bonpré, when he deplores the decay of holy living. “For
myself, I think there is not much time left us! I feel a premonition of
Divine wrath threatening the world, and when I study the aspect of the
times and see the pride, licentiousness, and wealth-worship of man, I
cannot but think the days are drawing near when our Master will demand
of us account of our service. It is just the same as in the case of the
individual wrong-doer; when it seems as if punishment were again and
again retarded, and mercy shown,--yet if all benefits, blessings, and
warnings are unheeded, then at last the bolt falls suddenly and with
terrific effect. So with nations--so with churches--so with the world!”
Marie Corelli is bold; perhaps she is the boldest writer that has ever
lived. What she believes she says, with a brilliant fearlessness that
sweeps aside petty argument in its giant’s stride towards the goal for
which she aims. She will have no half-measures. Her works, gathered
together under one vast cover, might fitly be printed and published as
an amplified edition of the Decalogue.
It is small wonder, then, that she has not earned the approbation of
those critics who are unable to grasp the stupendous nature of her
programme; they, having always held by certain canons, and finding those
canons brusquely disregarded, retort with wholesale condemnation of
matters that they deem literary heterodoxy, but whose sterling
simplicity is in reality altogether beyond their ken. Fortunately, their
words have failed to frighten off the public, which, ever loyal to one
fighting for the right, has supported and befriended Marie Corelli in
her dauntless crusade against vice and unbelief.
Other writers have doubtless written in a somewhat similar strain, and
it has not been their fault that the woman who forms the subject of this
biography has eclipsed all the worthy makers of such books who have
preceded her. Power has been given her, and she has not proved false to
her trust. Genius is Heaven-sent, to be used or abused according to the
will of its possessor; let those so gifted beware lest they cast the
pearls of their brain before swine, for of a surety there will come a
day of reckoning when every genius, as well as every other man, shall be
called upon to give an account of his stewardship.
Unlike the majority of her contemporaries, Marie Corelli does not
subsist on a single “big hit.” She is a twelve-book rather than a
one-book woman. It is a fortunate circumstance for a writer when people
disagree in regard to his or her _chef-d’œuvre_. There are those--and
their name is legion--who regard “Thelma” as Miss Corelli’s best book,
while others--and their name, too, is legion--account “The Sorrows of
Satan” the worthiest of her productions. The overwhelming success of the
“Master-Christian” served somewhat to bedim the lustre of her former
writings, but in many hearts the moving history of the sweet and
unsophisticated Norwegian maid will always cause “Thelma” to hold chief
sway.
“Barabbas,” at once the most scriptural and devotional of its author’s
long list of publications, has won almost as great a popularity as “The
Sorrows of Satan,” being now in its thirty-seventh edition. “The Mighty
Atom,” of which nearly a hundred thousand copies have been sold, is
regarded by the public with singular affection, many children, as Mr.
Arthur Lawrence has told us in _The Strand Magazine_, sending Miss
Corelli “all sorts of loving and kindly greetings” as a token of their
sympathy with little Lionel and Jessamine. The turbulent and stormy
progress of “A Romance of Two Worlds” through the sea of criticism has
made this book more familiar to the ear than some of its successors,
though its sale has not equaled that of half a dozen of its
fellow-works.
Miss Corelli’s average book is about as long as two novels of the
ordinary six-shilling size put together; but she has published some
comparatively short stories--notably “Boy,” “Ziska,” and “The Mighty
Atom,” as well as some brochures; to wit, “Jane,” a society sketch;
“Cameos;” and her tribute to the virtues of “Victoria the Good.” “Boy,”
though published about the time that the “Master-Christian” appeared,
was accorded the heartiest of welcomes, being now in its forty-sixth
thousand.
In days to come the “Master-Christian” and “The Sorrows of Satan” will,
we venture to predict, be sufficient alone to preserve their author’s
fame; and, for those who delight in a love-story, “Thelma” will
constitute a perpetual monument to its creator’s memory.
Owing to the unique and unclassifiable nature of her productions, it is
impossible to award Miss Corelli a definite place in the world of
letters. It is under any circumstances a thankless task to arrange
writers as one would arrange boys in a class--according to merit. There
are the poets, the historians, the novelists, the humorists, and--the
critics. Marie Corelli occupies a peculiarly isolated position. A
novelist she is, in the main, and yet hardly a novelist according to
cut-and-dried formulas; she is, unquestionably, a poet, for there is
many a song in her books not a whit less sweet because it is not set in
measured verse and line. So we may safely leave her place in the Temple
of Fame to be chosen by the votes of posterity, for there is one critic
who is ever just, who goeth on his “everlasting journey” with gentle
but continuous step; who condemns most books, with their writers, to
oblivion, but who saves a certain few.
And his name is TIME.