Marie Corelli (May 1, 1855 - April 21, 1924), was a British novelist. May 1 is the 121st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (122nd in leap years). ... 1855 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... April 21 is the 111th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (112th in leap years). ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Born Mary Mackay in London, she was the illegitimate daughter of a well known Scottish poet and songwriter, Dr. Charles Mackay, and his servant, Elizabeth Mills. In 1866, the very young Mary Mackay was sent to a Parisian convent to further her education. She would only return to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland four years later in 1870. This article is about the British city. ... 1866 (MDCCCLXVI) is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... The Eiffel Tower, the international symbol of the city, with the skyscrapers of La Défense business district 3 miles behind. ... This article is about an abbey as a religious building. ... The Union Flag, in its modern form, was first adopted in 1801. ... 1870 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

- Marie Corelli -

Mary Mackay began her career as a musician, adopting the name Marie Corelli for her billing. She gave up music, turning to writing instead and in 1886 published her first novel, A Romance of Two Worlds. In her time, she was the most widely read author of fiction but came under harsh criticism from many of the literary elite for her overly melodramatic and emotional writing. Despite this, her works were collected by members of the British Royal Family, and by Winston and Randolph Churchill, amongst others. 1909 photo in the public domain This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Poster for The Perils of Pauline (1914). ... Members of the Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after the Trooping the Colour ceremony The British Royal Family is a group of people closely related to the British monarch. ... Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... Randolph Frederick Edward Spencer Churchill (May 28, 1911-June 6, 1968) was the son of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine. ...

Professional critics deplored her books. The Jacqueline Susann of her time, who shared her mansion with her livelong friend Bertha Vyver, her difficult ego and huge sales inspired some quotable moments of spite: Grant Allen called her, in the pages of The Spectator, "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 a Ouida and the mentality of a nursemaid." Jacqueline Susann (August 20, 1918 – September 21, 1974 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a Jewish-American author known for her mass-appeal novels. ... Grant Allen (February 24, 1848 - October 25, 1899) was a scientific writer, author and novelist; an able upholder of the evolution doctrine and an expounder of Darwinism. ... The Spectator is a conservative British political magazine, established 1828, published weekly. ... This daguerreotype of Poe was taken less than a year before his death at the age of 40. ... Caricature of Ouida (Punch, August 20, 1881) Ouida (January 7, 1839 – January 25, 1908) was the pen name of the English novelist Maria Louise Ramé (although she preferred to be known as Marie Louise de la Ramée). ...

A recurring theme throughout Corelli's books was her attempt to reconcile Christianity with reincarnation, astral projection and other mystical topics. Her books were a very important part of the foundation of today's New Age religion, some of whose adherents say that Corelli was "inspired". Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, known by Christians as Jesus Christ, as recounted in the New Testament. ... Past Lives redirects here. ... Astral projection (or astral travel) is a controversial interpretation of out-of-body experiences (OOBEs) achieved either consciously or via lucid dreaming, deep meditation, or use of psychotropics. ... New Age describes a broad movement characterized by alternative approaches to traditional Western culture. ...

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. Her eccentricity became legendary, however, and she caused much amusement by boating on the Avon in a gondola, complete with gondolier, that she had brought over from Venice. 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. Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon is a town in Warwickshire, England. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... Timber framing is the modern term for the traditional half-timbered construction in which timber provides a visible skeletal frame that supports the whole building. ... The River Avon or Avon is a river in or adjoining the counties of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire in the midlands of England. ... A Venetian gondola A gondola is a small long, narrow boat with a high bow and stern, best known for its use in the canals of Venice. ... A Venetian gondola A railroad gondola A gondola is a small long, narrow boat with a high prow and stern, best known for its use in the canals of Venice. ... Venice (Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venexia) , the city of canals, is the capital of the region of Veneto and of the province of Venice in Italy. ... The Shakespeare Institute is a college of the University of Birmingham, located in Stratford-upon-Avon and dedicated to the study of William Shakespeare and the literature of the English Renaissance. ...

Her fantastic works were so popular in their day, yet now so forgotten, that it moves one to reflect upon the British best-selling authors of a hundred years later.

Some have claimed that she was homosexual, although this is clearly contradicted by her love passion in later years for Arthur Severn ^[1].

A poem by Billy Bennett, entitled The Postman [1], makes reference to Corelli. William Robertson Russell Bennnett, better known as Billy Bennett, (1887 – June 30, 1942) was a British comedian who specialised in parodies of dramatic monologues and was billed as // Life Bennetts father, John Bennett, was the partner of Robert Martell in a music hall slapstick comedy act but Glasgow-born...

References

1. ^ Brian Masters: Now Barabbas Was a Rotter, 1978, see chapter 13: Beloved Pendragon

Bibliography

Some of Marie Corelli's works:

• The Romance of Two Worlds - (1886)
• Vendetta! - (1886)
• Thelma - (1887)
• Ardath - (1889)
• Wormwood: A Drama of Paris (novel)- (1890)
• Barabbas - (1893)
• The Sorrows of Satan - (1895)
• Cameos - (1896)
• The Mighty Atom - (1896)
• The Murder of Delicia - (1896)
• Ziska - (1896)
• Boy - (1900)
• Jane - (1900)
• The Master Christian - (1900)
• Temporal Power: a Study in Supremacy - (1902)
• God's Good Man - (1904)
• Free Opinions Freely Expressed - (1905)
• Holy Orders - (1908)
• Life Everlasting - (1911)
• The Innocent - (1914)
• The Young Diana - (1918)
• The Secret Power - (1921)
• Love and the Philosopher - (1923)

Cameo is a method of carving; or an item of jewelry made in this manner. ... The Innocent is 1985 film, starring Andrew Hawley, Liam Neeson and Miranda Richardson, and set in the Yorkshire Dales. ...

Quotations about

"A pretty little blonde woman who wrote torrentially and died of her 28th novel in her 70th year." Reader's Encyclopedia, 1948

External links

• Jessica Amanda Salmonson, "Marie Corelli & her Occult Tales," 1998
• Private Collection, "A rare collection of signed books, letters and personal items from Marie, also complete Bibliography." 2004
• Literary Encyclopedia Article
• Works by Marie Corelli at Project Gutenberg
• Some old picture postcards of Marie Corelli and her house in Stratford-upon-Avon