Marie Corelli : the writer and the woman

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 minutise 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

4 Preface

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 xMiss 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.

March, igoj.

Chapter I

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 i^

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 5

" 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-Luma, the Poet Laureate — The Religion of Al-Kyris — Lysia, High Priestess of the God-Serpent— The Prophet KhosrQl and his Predictions — The Fall of Al-Kyris — The Av/akening of Alwyn and his Return to London — The Converted Poet — " Ardath " a Book for all who Doubt — Six Tests for Spiritualists 79

Chapter VI

Pauline de Charmilles : a Character Sketch— Her Engagement to Beauvais and the Arrival of Silvion Guidel— " First Impressions "—Pauline's Confession and Beauvais' First Bout of Absinthe-drinking — The Exposure on the Wedding-Day — More Absinthe, and the Murder of Guidel — 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-Rami 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 Novehst'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,ooo,ooo from Satan — Prince Lucio Rimanez 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 Riminez 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 blase 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 lo Contents

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 Bonpre 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 Abbe Vergniaud, Atheist — A Flower Legend — Manuel and Angela 222

CHAPTER XIII "THE MASTER CHRISTIAN " {continued^

The Abbe Vergniaud's Sermon and the Attempt on his Life — He Confesses that his Assailant is his Son — The Cardinal's Leniency towards the Abbe 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 Bonpre .... 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 Coielli 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

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

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

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

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

« Killiecrankie Cottage" v^^here « Ziska "

was Finished . . • • " "212

"Avon Croft" where "The Master

Christian " w^as Finished . . " "212

" Hall's Croft " where Marie Corelli Wrote

Half of " The Master Christian " . '* " 228^ Winter at " Mason Croft " . . . " " 320 y

The Elizabethan Watch Tower, " Mason ^

Miss Corelli's Boatman and Punt . . " " 346 */

The Writer and the Woman

Chapter I

*'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

>3 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 proUgee 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 wokrfd 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 suecess. 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 l8 Marie CorelU

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

20 Marie CorelH

differed from her in their rehgious 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 Bonpre, when he deplores the decay of holy living. "For myself, 1 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'oeuvre. 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 " asa 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.