NOVEL CHRISTMAS BOOK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11878, 1 February 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

NOVEL CHRISTMAS BOOK.

MISS MARIE CORELLI'S YULETIDE FANCIES. There is no lack of point or pungency in Miss Marie Corelli's contribution to the literature of the season. Under the title of "A Christmas Greeting." it takes the form of a brochure, published by Messrs. Methuen and Co., and to use the phrase of the authoress, its 133 pages contain 29 " Various thoughts, verses, and fancies." ... j In her first article, entitled, "A Merry Christmas," Miss Corelli declares: — ; : " I must confess I have no sympathy with ilia restless, nervous swarms of semilunatics ever 'on the go' in search of 'change'—who turn their backs on Imperial Britain at the first breath of its winter, which, taken on the whole, is a much more healthy winter than many other countries are blessed with." There is a 'wealth of scorn in the way in which Miss Corelli makes the Old-Fash-' ioned Girl talk in The Ghost in the Sedan Chair": — ' • "In the old uuprogressive days," declares the shade, "we walked and rode, and found in these two exercises quite sufficient relaxation as well as development for our bodies, which, if you will please to remember, are nob intended to be in tho least like the bodies of men, and are by no means fitted for masculine gymnastics. We had neither cycles n nor motors, we did not smoke, drink, bet, or gamble—but—we were the models of womanliness, goodness, and purity for nil the world!—and—we were loved!" But Miss Corelli is not always satirical. She is intensely, loyal in a "Hymn for the Coronation" and "A Christmas Carol at Sandringham," and full of reverence for the Queen, of whom sho writes elsewhere —

"The Empire of love and purity, 0 tinselfishness and goodness, of truth and kindness, is built up on eternal foundations and can never end! And within that Empire the Soul of Queen Alexandra is crowned more gloriously than with the crown of England—from every quarter of it she commands more subjects than any earthly kingdom holds—and those' who cannot penetrate- into this boundless and everlasting realm of hers do not. know her, and cannot say, they have ever looked upon Ijer. • ' " - j