Best known work

• The Sorrows of Satan, 1895

Other well known work(s)

• A Romance of Two Worlds, 1886
• Vendetta, 1886
• Thelma, 1887
• Ardath, 1889
• Wormwood, 1890
• The Soul of Lilith, 1892
• Barabbas, 1893
• Ziska, 1897
• The Master-Christian, 1900
• The Treasure of Heaven, 1906

Genres

• Fiction - Novels
• Fiction - Short Stories
• Poetry
• Politics / Philosophy / Essays

Nom de plume

Mary Mills, Mary Mackay, Minnie Mackay,

Social class

Middle class

Parental background

Her parentage is uncertain. She claimed to be the daughter of an Italian father who was an accomplished musician and came from a family of wealth. She was raised by Elizabeth Mary Mills, a house servant, who most likely conceived Mary (to become Marie) with her then employer, Charles Mackay. After Mackay’s wife died, he married Elizabeth Mary when her daughter was six. He was a songwriter and poet and worked on various newspapers and magazines.

At publication of best known work

• Age: 40
• Marital status: Unmarried (cohabiting with Bertha Vyver)
• Number of children: 0

Physical description

Biographer George Bullock called her short, fat, and outspoken (131), five feet and “squat and tubby” (186), and claimed that she did not dress her age (209). She often lied about her age, and infuriated critics, publishers, and the citizens of Stratford-on-Avon where she lived. The well-known Victorian publisher George Bentley once said that she was the most “unladylike a lady to do business with,” though she dressed and acted in a hyperfeminine style.

Did you know?

Biographer Brian Masters said that, after the queen, Corelli was the “second most famous Englishwoman in the world” (6). According to Janet Galligani Casey, most of her novels outsold those by Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, and H. G. Wells combined (163), and hers were the favourite of many royals including Queen Victoria and later King Edward VII, the queen of Romania, the empress of Austria, Czarina Alexandra of Russia, Empress Frederick of Germany, and the king and queen of Italy.

Additional information

There are a wealth of useful articles at the Victorian web. The Marie Corelli site has everything you need to know about Corelli plus useful links to other sites of interest. An interesting article about Corelli's image management can be found on Catherine Pope's blog.