Thelma: A Society Novel

Chicago: Donohue, Hennenberry & Co., 1900. No date, circa 1900. Green cloth boards w/cover design, some cover, edge wear. Pages good, toned. Marie Corelli (1, May 1855 - 21, April 1924) was a British novelist who emerged as a literary superstar from the publication of her first novel in 1886 until World War I when her popularity waned. Corelli's novels sold more than the combined sales of popular contemporaries, including Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, and Rudyard Kipling, despite the fact critics derided her work as "the favorite of the common multitude." Wonderfully fast-paced, engrossing and dramatic novel. Thelma begins in Norway, amidst the raw beauty of its fjords. The tempestous beginning never flounders - from Philip Errington's surreal meeting with the beautiful Thelma, a Norwegian princess, and later his quest for her that leads him and friend Lorimer to Thelma's home, which she shares with Britta, her loyal servant, Sigurd, a dwarf, and her brilliantly portrayed father, Olaf Guldmar. Scathing critique of English aristocracy and London manners of the time, seething in hypocrisy and subterfuge. 404 pages.. Hardcover. Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Book.