“No one is contented in this world, I believe. There is always something left to desire, and the last thing longed for always seems the most necessary to happiness.”

Known as the queen of bestsellers, Corelli’s career began with A Romance of Two Worlds, which addressed the contemporary debate between creationism and evolution. The debut novel even developed a cult following of its own, garnering a group of devotees to her passage regarding “The Electric Principle of Christianity” that they believed was born of her own supernatural experiences (a belief from which she did not try to dissuade them).

In A Romance of Two Worlds, a young musician in England who has been suffering from depression and a nervous ailment goes on holiday in order to recuperate. While abroad, she meets an Italian artist, Cellini, who gives her a special draught for relaxation. The young woman has divine visions under the influence of the strange potion which she longs to have again. Cellini takes her to Dr. Casimir, also known as Heliobas, for further treatment of her nervous disposition. The doctor describes himself as an “electric physician,” and with his help she is able to experience more visions, as well as some relief from her anxiety. With each vision she learns more about religion and the destiny of mankind, but it is not enough. She is always yearning to learn more, to be closer to the divine.

The Devil arrives in fin de siecle London

The setting is London, 1895, and the Devil is on the loose, in the guise of the handsome and charming Prince Lucio Rimanez. He is searching for someone morally strong enough to resist temptation, but there seems little chance he will succeed. Britain is all but totally corrupt. The aristocracy is financially and spiritually bankrupt, church leaders no longer believe in God, Victorian idealism has been banished from literature and life, and sexual morality is being undermined by the pernicious doctrines of the “New Woman.”

Lucio sets his sights on Geoffrey Tempest, a starving novelist who has just inherited a fortune, and promises to show Geoffrey how best to invest his newfound wealth. As the tragic story of Geoffrey’s meteoric rise and fall unfolds, Marie Corelli exposes the hypocrisy and immorality of modern life in this Faustian novel and bestseller of its time.

“I, who write this, am a dead man. Dead legally–dead by absolute proofs–dead and buried! Ask for me in my native city and they will tell you I was one of the victims of the cholera that ravaged Naples in 1884, and that my mortal remains lie moldering in the funeral vault of my ancestors. Yet–I live! … I, Fabio Romani, lately deceased, am about to chronicle the events of one short year …”

In the cholera-ridden Naples of 1884, Fabio Romani is prematurely buried and awakes to find himself in a coffin. After managing to free himself, Fabio rushes home to reassure his wife and child. While he expected to find his family deep in mourning, he instead discovers that his wife has been unfaithful to him and is having an affair with his best friend.

Utilizing a disguise and adopting a new identity, Fabio slowly works his way back into the trust, and home, of those who betrayed him, culminating in a frightful finale of revenge.