Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Marie Corelli
-
Standard Name: Corelli, Marie
Birth Name: Mary Mackay
Nickname: Minnie
Pseudonym: Marie Corelli
MC
was one of the first authors of the modern best seller. She published thirty-one popular novels, including one, published posthumously, which fictionalizes events from her own life. She also wrote short stories (collected in four volumes). She wrote poetry as a child and published a collection of poems posthumously. Her novels have been seen as blending the conventions of the romance, gothic, historical, and society novels. At the turn of the century, sales of each of her novels were in the range of 175,000 copies; at the end of world war one her fame and sales fell drastically. She was the first woman to lecture before the Royal Society of Literature
: The Signs of the Times was presented on 20 February 1902.
This became BP
's most widely-reviewed text, and received a mixed reception. Robert Liddell
was again outraged, calling this a dreadful book which had only been made possible by the betrayal of Pym's friends in...
Literary responses
Daphne Du Maurier
Rebecca was DDM
's best known work, earning her massive profits, and it has become one of the most widely read novels of all time.
Kelly, Richard. Daphne du Maurier. Twayne.
66
The Times Literary Supplement reviewer wrote: In its kind...
Leisure and Society
Eliza Lynn Linton
She enjoyed going to and hosting prominent literary and social receptions. Her guests included a wide range of people: popular writers such as Rudyard Kipling
, Marie Corelli
, and Frank Harris
; luminaries of...
Intertextuality and Influence
Elizabeth Taylor
Paul Bailey opens his introduction by quoting extensively from a scene in Ethel M. Dell
's The Top of the World which features a Proud Beauty and a Faithful Retainer. He also links Angel with...
Intertextuality and Influence
Elizabeth Taylor
ET
's protagonist, a monster of egotism, mentions Rhoda Broughton
and Corelli
in connection with her own work, but only to suggest that hers is worth yet greater sums of money than theirs.
Taylor, Elizabeth, and Paul Bailey. Angel. Virago.
76
She...
Intertextuality and Influence
Rose Allatini
But the manuscript never reaches a publisher, for Olive gives it to her mother, aunt, and sister to read, with fearful results. To her aunt it is indecent and impossible; to her mother it is...
Intertextuality and Influence
Marjorie Bowen
Critic Maria Aline Seabra Ferreira
comments that the book combines historical and supernatural elements reminiscent of Marie Corelli
'sThe Sorrows of Satan (1895) with the baroque aspects of Jacobean tragedy. The novel is also...
Friends, Associates
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
On one of her visits to England she was entertained at Stratford by Marie Corelli
.
Wilcox, Ella Wheeler. The Worlds and I. Gay and Hancock.
In London JFLW
associated with writers such as Marie Corelli
, Ouida
, and Violet Hunt
. Oscar
, an emerging celebrity, introduced his mother to the city's artistic circle.
Friends, Associates
John Strange Winter
JSW
had an extensive social circle in London—her biographer, Oliver Bainbridge
, notes that a number of social claims were made upon her by reason of her popularity, and that these were always in advance...
One of NJ
's favourite home occupations even as a small child was improvised acting, with her sister in spear-carrying roles. She also learned cricket and football, and her grandfather Collinson taught her whist. She...
