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The Sorrows of Satan (1895) was one of the first modern bestsellers and was influential in establishing some of the major trends in twentieth-century bestselling fiction.`Breakers ahead! Throughout the world, storm and danger and doom! Doom and Death! - but afterwards - Life!'London, 1895, and the Devil is on the loose. He is searching for someone morally strong enough to resist temptation, but there seem little chance he will succeed. Britain is all but totally corrupt. The aristocracy is financially and spiritually bankrupt; church leaders no longer believe in God;Victorian idealism has been banished from literature and life; and sexual morality is being undermined by the pernicious doctrines of the `New Woman'. Everything and everyone is up for sale, and it takes a special kind of moral courage to resist the Devil's seductions.… (more)
User reviews
A struggling writer is is saved by making a deal with a mysterious stranger, and he begins to descend into vice under the guidance of said stranger, a Byronic Lucifer as the story quickly reveals (and which the title gives away). Along this journey we also meet Mavis Clare, an obvious self-insert of Marie Corelli who opines that if only authors wrote the truth, like she does, they would become great like her. She also rails against reviewers and expounds that the people are the ones who recognize true brilliance. Additionally, Clare proves so virtuous and pure a character that Satan himself is utterly powerless to do any harm to her. The devil even admires her virtue.
The character of Mavis Clare would be funny on its own as a blatant example of narcissism on the part of Corelli, and as a sample of the delusion authors fall under concerning their own abilities once they become famous, but what really pushes the novel over the top is the contemporaneous reviews the novel includes. At least in my edition the final pages of the book included several reviews of the book from when it was first released stating that, while the book was sure to be a crowd pleaser, it lacked literary merit and would not stand the test of time. The reviewers were right on the money, which makes the ego trip of Mavis Clare retroactively hilarious. Read this book for a chuckle, not if you're looking for something of actual quality.
Actually, it's so terrible that it's nearly hilarious.
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Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra engelsk "The Sorrows of Satan" af Margrethe Black
Bogvennens Bibliotek
Gutenberg, bind 42332
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| 823.8 |