WHY MISS CORELLI WRITES NOVELS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10903, 21 October 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

WHY MISS CORELLI WRITES NOVELS.

It is more than probable that Miss ?>Larie Corelli docs not entirely approve of -Mr Bernard Shaw, but she has followed his example 'in writing fur her new novel, •'The Life. Everlasting," a iong explanatory preface all about herself and the ideas behind her work. The world knows that Miss Corelli lives at Stratford-on-Avon, disapproves ot reviewers, enjoys enormous circulations. and possesses vigorous opinions concerning many of the tendencies of modern lilc. In her prologue she tells us much more. Slie begins by explaining why she has written the book: — "I am sure that,l am nob moved by egotism or arrogance. It is simply out of love and pity for suffering human , kind that I venture to become another Voice discarded—a voice which, if heard at all, may only serve to awaken the I cheap scorn and derision of the clowns of the piece. -! "Yet, shbuld this be so, I would not have it otherwise. I have never at any time striven to be one with the world, or to suit my speech pliantly to the conventional humor of; the moment. . I am oftc-n attacked, yet am not hurt; I am equally often praised,-and am not elated. I have no time to attend to the expression .of* opinions, which, whether good or bad, are to me indifferent. ..'And- whatever pain I .have, felt or feel, in experiencing human malice, has been, and is, in the fact that h.uman malice should exist at' all—not for its attempted wrong towards myself. For I, personally-speaking, have not a moment to waste among the mere shadows. of life which are riot Life itself. I follow; the the gloom." ■ Indifferent to praise or blame, Miss Corelli is eager to do good. "Many of you are very sad—and J would rather you Were Yoiir Ways.. of living are trivial and unsatisfactory—your so-called vices lead, you into unforeseen, painful .perplexities—your ideals of what may be best for your own enjoyment and advancement fall far short of your dreams —your amusements pall tin your overwearied youth hurries away like, a puff of thistledown on the wind—and you spend all _ your time feverishly in trying to live witho'Ut understanding Life." 'The Life Everlasting" is a '-'psychic" I novel (Miss Corelli uses the word continually), and she explains that it is the. latest in a series to which most, of her novels belong l : : - "I began to write when I was too young to know ahything of the world's worldly ways, and when I was too enthusiastic and too much carried away by the splendor and beauty of the spiritual" idea to realise the : inevitable -derision and scorn which are bound to fall, upon: untried explorers into . the mysteries of the. unseen;- yet it was. solely on account of a strange -psychical experience which chanced to myself when 1 stood upon the threshold: of what - is called 'life' that I-found myself producing my first hook, 'A Romance of Two Worlds' . . - ! "'A Eomance of Two Worlds,' "Ardath: The Story of a Dead Self,' ■ "The Soul of Lilitli,' 'Barabbas,'' 'The j Sorrows of Satan,' and 'The Master j Christian' are the result of a delib'er- , ately conceived plan and intention, and ( are all linked together by the one theory. . '

They have not been written solely as pieces of fiction for which I, the author, am paid by the publisher, or you, the reader, are content to be temporarily entertained—they are the outcome of what I myself have learned, practised and proved in the daily experiences, both small and great, of daily life."' The "learning,: practising, and proving" lias taken a long time. When "A Romance of Two Worlds" was written the novelist's range was limited. "My own probations-destined to' be a severe one—had only just been entered upon; aiid hard and fast limits were impressed oil me for a certain time. I was forbidden, for example, to write of radium, that wonderful 'discovery' of the immediate hour, though it was then, and had been for a long period, perfectly well known to my instructors."

The fact that she knew all about radium years before the British Association quite naturally gives her the right to set herself against authority without doubt or hesitation.

"You have at present living among you a great professing scientist, Dr Oliver Lodge, who, wandering among many infinities, conceives it even possible to communicate with departed spirits—while I, who have no such weight of world authority and learning behind me, tell you that such a thing is out of all natural law, and therefore can never be." Natural law is indeed Miss Gondii's chief concern.

"I saw how humanity, moved by gross egoism, has in every age of the world ordained laws and morals for itself which are the very reverse of Nature's teaching-—I saw how, instead of helping the wheel of progress and wisdom onward, man reverses it by his obstinacy and turns it backward even on the very point of great , attainment—and I was able to perceive liow the sorrows and; despairs of the world are caused by this one simple fact —Man working against Nature —while Nature, ever divine and invincible, pursues her God-appointed" course, sweeping her puny opponents aside and inflexibly carrying out her will to the end."

Nature must be obeyed. The shams and blinding rag of a false civilisation must be thrown off if man is really to find the joy of life, • And life, Miss Corelli contends, is indestructible. "Everything that. lives must live for ever. . Everything that lives always lived. . . Every soul imprisoned to-day in human form has lived in human form before —the very rose that flowers on its stem has flowered in the world before." ,

The story of "The Life Everlasting" is less interesting than the preface, and -is more didactic and" not so dramatic as most of Miss Corelli's writing. A young woman, a "psychic," meets a mysterious person, Rafel Santoris, who owns a wondrous yacht whose sails are electrically- propelled, and has discovered the secret of perpetual youth.. She learns that she has met Santoris in many previous lives, iii ancient Egypt, in Home, in Florence, and al-; ways outside circumstances or their own folly kept them apart. She falls in love with him, but she_ will not marry him until she has acquired the same mystic knowledge and the same mastery of self that lie possesses; To do this she goes away to a . monastery and becomes the pupil of the eerie master Aselzion, and there, after many tests, she throws herself into thearms of her lover. : Wealth, happiness, and knowledge are theirs. But Santoris is not encouraging concerning the fate of the rest of us. 'We are arriving at, that same old turning-point once more,'• he continued; —'The Western civilisation of two thousand years, assisted (and sometimes impeded) by the teachings of Christianity, is nearing its end. Out of the';vast wreckage of nations, now imminent, only a few individuals can be saved —: and the storm is so close at hand that, one can almost hear the mutterings of the thunder.' " Very. Marie Corelli. •- : j !