The life and legacy of the best-selling Victorian and Edwardian Novelist.

The website has been rebuilt and re-launched for the Corelli centenary in 2024, with more content to be added over the next few months. We hope you find it informative and enlightening. 

Following her death in 1924, the news headlines shrieked, ‘Who was Marie Corelli?’ Her past was concealed by the fog of so much obfuscation and rumour that it was impossible to discover the truth, and some facts concerning her origin are still open to question.

Born in 1855, the illegitimate or adopted daughter of Charles Mackay, Mary or 'Minnie' Mackay was desperate to escape the shame of her birth. By the time she published her first novel in 1886, The Romance of Two Worlds, she had created a different narrative for her origins and changed her name to Marie Corelli. She rapidly achieved popular success with her books, and wrote one of the first best-sellers published in a single-volume The Sorrows of Satan in 1895, defining the format of the modern novel.

In 1899 after a serious illness and sick of the ‘spite and meanness’ in London, she moved to Stratford-upon-Avon with her devoted companion, Bertha Vyver. In Stratford, Marie Corelli took up the cause of protecting Shakespeare’s legacy, opened fetes, and discovered a gift for public speaking. Unfortunately the eager enthusiasm with which she got involved in local issues, and an apparent lack of sensitivity did not endear her to many of the town’s male dominated hierarchy. Nevertheless, she bestowed money on many worthy causes, and became one of the first true conservationists, helping to preserve the towns heritage.

When she died on the 21st April 1924 crowds gathered outside her home, Mason Croft. The press capitalised on her outstanding popularity, but lacking many hard facts they invented stories about her origins. Her faithful companion, Bertha, survived her until 1941 following which the house and contents were sold at auction. Fortunately a large collection of documents, including manuscripts, letters, and photographs reside in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust archives in Stratford-upon-Avon, and her house is now occupied by the Shakespeare Institute.

Today she is once again being recognised for her extraordinary place in Victorian literary society, and by her adopted home town of Stratford-upon-Avon. Her ability to captivate the reading public of her age is a subject of academic study in an attempt to re-examine and re-define her literary legacy.

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