The Helen Faucit Memorial--Marie Corelli’s Successful Campaign in Behalf of Shakespeare’s Burial Place--Portraits of the Novelist--Marie Corelli Declines to Review “The Eternal City”--An Introduction to Mr. Labouchere--Use made of a “Private and Confidential” Letter--“Self-advertisement”: Some Comments on Accusations of this Character brought against Marie Corelli by certain Sections of the Press--The Invitation to the Abbey on the Occasion of the King’s Coronation--An Invitation to open a Nonconformist Bazaar at Brighton, and why it was Declined--Letters from Dr. Parker and the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes--“The Ethics of Criticism”: a letter by E. Rentoul Esler--“To the Quarterly”: Some Verses by Marie Corelli 311
The “Local Color” in Marie Corelli’s Books--“I _Imagine_ it must be so, and I find it generally _is_ so”--Why the Novelist went to live at Stratford--“Hall’s Croft,” “Avon Croft,” and “Mason Croft”: her Successive Residences--Her Affection for Stratford and her Regret that the Memorial Theatre is so little used--Her Benefactions--Instances of Kind-heartedness in Other Writers--Marie Corelli’s “Life-Programme”--Her Personality “Striking in its Simplicity and in its Power”--The Novelist as a Shakespeare Enthusiast--Her Desire to see Stratford become the “Bayreuth of Literature”--The Novelist’s “Public”: the Vastness of her Constituency--Her Friends--A Character Sketch of Marie Corelli by Mr. J. Cuming Walters--Mr. Gladstone’s Parting Benediction 332
_Of the above Chapters, II, V, VIII, IX, XII, XIII, XVI, and XVII are by Thomas F. G. Coates; and Chapters I, III, IV, VI, VII, X, XI, XIV, XV and XVIII by R. S. Warren Bell._
“Mason Croft,” Miss Corelli’s Present Residence _Frontispiece_
A Boating Place on the Avon _Facing page_ 80
What Becomes of the Press Cuttings " " 146
Marie Corelli’s Pet Yorkshire Terrier “Czar” " " 146
“Killiecrankie Cottage” where “Ziska” was Finished " " 212
“Avon Croft” where “The Master Christian” was Finished " " 212
“Hall’s Croft” where Marie Corelli Wrote Half of “The Master Christian” " " 228
The Elizabethan Watch Tower, “Mason Croft” " " 336
“Keep a brave heart. You are steadily rising. People recognize that you are an artist working with love, not a machine producing novels against bank-notes, with no interest in its work. But keep a good heart, little lady. It is the way with people of imagination and keen sensibility to have their moments of depression.... I believe you will emerge out of all this with your brave little spirit, and I shall rejoice to see you successful, because I believe you will not be spoilt by success.”