| Marie Corelli |
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Information AboutMarie Corelli |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT MARIE CORELLI | |
| 1855 births | |
| corelli, marie | |
| 1924 deaths | |
| people from london | |
| english novelists | |
| women of the victorian era | |
| lesbian writers | |
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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 Paris ian Convent to further her education. She would only return to the United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Ireland four years later in 1870 . 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 Melodrama tic and emotional writing. Despite this, her works were collected by members of the British Royal Family , and by Winston and Randolph Churchill , amongst others. Professional critics deplored her books. The 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." 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". 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 . 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 Brian Masters: Now Barabbas Was a Rotter, 1978, see chapter 13: Beloved Pendragon. A poem by Billy Bennett , entitled ''The Postman'' {Link without Title} , makes reference to Corelli. REFERENCES BIBLIOGRAPHY Some of Marie Corelli's works:
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