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Marie Corelli (;〔("Corelli" ). ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.〕 1 May 185521 April 1924) was a British novelist. She enjoyed a period of great literary success from the publication of her first novel in 1886 until World War I. Corelli's novels sold more copies than the combined sales of popular contemporaries, including Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, and Rudyard Kipling, although critics often derided her work as "the favourite of the common multitude."〔Kirsten McLeod, introduction to Marie Corelli's ''Wormwood: a drama of Paris'', p. 9〕 ==Life and writings== Mary Mackay was born in London to Elizabeth Mills, a servant of the Scottish poet and songwriter Dr. Charles Mackay, the child's biological father.〔(Marie Corelli ) in ''Encyclopaedia Britannica''〕 In 1866, eleven-year-old Mary was sent to a Parisian convent to further her education. She returned to Britain four years later in 1870. Mackay began her career as a musician, adopting the name Marie Corelli for her billing. Eventually she turned to writing and published her first novel, ''A Romance of Two Worlds'', in 1886. In her time, she was the most widely read author of fiction. Her works were collected by Winston Churchill, Randolph Churchill, and members of the British Royal Family, among others.〔Coates & Warren Bell (1969)〕 Mackay faced criticism from the literary elite for her overly melodramatic writing. In ''The Spectator'', Grant Allen called her "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." 〔Scott, p. 30〕James Agate represented her as combining "the imagination of a Poe with the style of an Ouida and the mentality of a nursemaid."〔Scott, p. 263 〕 A recurring theme in Corelli's books is her attempt to reconcile Christianity with reincarnation, astral projection, and other mystical ideas. Her books were a part of the foundation of today's New Age religion. Her portrait was painted by Helen Donald-Smith. Corelli famously had little time for the press. In 1902 she wrote to the editor of ''The Gentlewoman'' to complain that her name had been left out of a list of the guests in the Royal Enclosure at the Braemar Highland Gathering, saying she suspected this had been done intentionally. The editor replied that her name had indeed been left out intentionally, because of her own stated contempt for the press and for the snobbery of those wishing to appear in "news puffs" of society events. Both letters were published in full in the next issue.〔Ransom (2013), (p. 100 )〕 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.〔(''The New York Times'' ), 28 June 1903〕 Novelist Barbara Comyns Carr mentions Corelli's guest appearance at an exhibition of Anglo-Saxon items found at Bidford-on-Avon in 1923.〔Comyns Carr (1985), p. 124〕 Corelli's eccentricity became well-known. She would boat on the Avon in a gondola, complete with a gondolier that she had brought over from Venice.〔(Venice Boats )〕 In his autobiography, Mark Twain, who had a deep dislike of Corelli, describes visiting her in Stratford and how the meeting changed his perception. 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. For over forty years, Corelli lived with her companion, Bertha Vyver;〔Frederico, pp. 162–186〕 when she died she left everything to her friend. Although she didn't self-identify as a lesbian, biographers and critics have noted the erotic descriptions of female beauty that appear regularly in Corelli's novels, while admitting they are expressed by men.〔Felski, pp. 130–131〕〔Frederico, p. 116〕〔Masters, p. 277〕 Descriptions of the deep love between the two women by their contemporaries have added to the speculation that their relationship may have been romantic. Following Corelli's death, Sidney Walton reminisced in the ''Yorkshire Evening News'':〔Frederico, p. 175〕 One of the great friendships of modern times knit together the hearts and minds of Miss Marie Corelli and Miss Bertha Vyver... Her own heart was the hearth of her comrade, and thought and love of 'Marie' thrilled through Miss Vyver's veins... In loneliness of soul, Miss Vyver mourns the loss of one who was nearer and tenderer to her than a sister... Over the fireplace in the fine, old spacious lounge at Mason Croft the initials M. C. and B. V. were carven into one symbol. And it was the symbol of life. Corelli was known to have expressed a genuine passion for the artist Arthur Severn, to whom she wrote daily letters from 1906 to 1917. Severn was the son of Joseph Severn and close friend to John Ruskin. In 1910, Arthur Severn and Corelli collaborated on ''The Devil's Motor'' with Severn providing illustrations for Corelli's story. Her love for the long-married painter, her only known romantic attachment to a man, remained unrequited and, in fact, Severn often belittled Corelli's success.〔MacLeod, p. 21〕〔Frederico, p. 144〕〔Julia Kuehn, ("Marie Corelli’s Love Letters to Arthur Severn" )〕 During the First World War, Corelli's reputation suffered when she was convicted of food hoarding.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=BBC One - Britain's Great War )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Marie Corelli」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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