The Life Everlasting: A Reality of Romance

by Marie Corelli

1911. More Corelli Metaphysical Fiction! The Fairy Ship; Angel of a Dream; A Bunch of Heather; An Unexpected Meeting; Recognition; Memories; Visions; Doubtful Destiny; Strange Associations; One Way of Love; A Love-Letter; The House of Aselzion; Cross and Star; A First Lesson; Shadow and Sound; The Magic Book; Dreams Within a Dream; The Unknown Deep; Into the Light.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

Marie Corelli (born Mary Mackay) was a best-selling British novelist of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, whose controversial works of the time often label her as an early advocate of the New Age movement.

In the 1890’s Marie Corelli’s novels were eagerly devoured by millions in England, America and the colonies. Her readers ranged from Queen Victoria and Gladstone, to the poorest of shop girls. In all she wrote thirty books, the majority of which were phenomenal best sellers. Despite the fact that her novels were either ignored or belittled by the critics, at the height of her success she was the best selling and most highly paid author in England.

She was the daughter of poet, journalist, author, anthologist, novelist, and songwriter Charles Mackay. Her brother was the poet Eric Mackay.

Reviews

[The Starry Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marie Corelli writes captivating stories about spiritual awakenings and The Life Everlasting is no different. The unnamed heroine in this story accompanies a convalescing man and his ill daughter on a yacht trip to Scotland where she discovers her twin soul and has her life forever changed. At the beginning of the story she is full of life but has little patience for her narrow minded and ignorant hosts. A chance meeting with a mysterious man sailing an even more mysterious yacht sets off a past life awakening that triggers a vision quest to find the true meaning of love, life, and death.

Love of life, the mind-body connection, twin souls, psychicism, and life-force, are the spiritual teachings laid out in this intriguing story. Corelli has a more condescending tone in this book than in her previous works by way of her cutting prologue and snobbish spiritual characters which I suspect was directed to her critics who were not as "enlightened" as she hoped them to be.

Fans of mystical fiction will appreciate this story which is very similar to her first book 'A Romance of Two Worlds.'

I applaud Corelli for writing strong soulful female characters who are self-sufficient, wise, attuned, and committed to finding the true meaning of life, in a society that does not accept nor understand them.

[El · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one feels a lot like Marie Corelli's spiritual manifesto and I'm great with that because her spiritual philosophy isn't incredibly far from my own and the idea that Love is the most powerful Principle on Earth is a very beautiful one. I appreciate Marie Corelli as a writer and also as a free-thinking and independent woman from a time where women like her had to fight so hard for any shred of independence or individuality. And even though the nameless heroine here feels like a self-insert, I don't mind it, because I LIKE Marie Corelli as a person. She's wilfull and witty and very very bright.

[Abhik Gulati]

It asks the question and I hope it answers it for you.

[Il_mare_ghiacciato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Durante tutta la sua vita, Marie Corelli non ha mai nascosto di non volersi adattare alle convenzioni del tempo. Figlia illegittima, si era dedicata con scarso successo alla musica, aveva rifiutato ogni proposta di matrimonio e mentiva spudoratamente sull’età e sulle sue origini italiane.
Oggi quasi nessuno la ricorda più, eppure sul finire dell’Ottocento i suoi romanzi erano molto popolari, letti, si diceva, non solo dal popolo ma persino dai regnanti. La critica la trattava già da allora come una donnetta senza nerbo, che scriveva con troppo sentimentalismo e in toni esagerati.
Ma bastavano le sue opere, a difenderla. Il suo primo romanzo, nel 1886, aveva ottenuto subito uno straordinario successo di pubblico. I suoi modi eccentrici piacevano, la trasformavano in una diva ante litteram adorata dai suoi fan. I suoi incontri coi lettori erano veri e propri bagni di folla.

Autrice prolifica (ben trenta romanzi e saggi sugli argomenti più svariati), viene bollata come scrittrice frivola e poco intellettuale. Eppure le sue storie si basano su concetti assai più profondi degli usuali luoghi comuni della letteratura gotica, tanto da farle meritare l’apprezzamento di autori come Oscar Wilde e Henry Miller.
Appassionata di tematiche esoteriche, alla ricerca lei stessa di un percorso mistico che la portasse all’immortalità dell’anima, crede e scrive di reincarnazione, karma, innalzamento della coscienza.
Sono idee che riportano a filosofie orientali che si diffonderanno solo più tardi.
Le sue protagoniste rappresentano modelli in antitesi con la società vittoriana, forti e determinate, padrone del proprio destino, quasi a precorrere l’ideologia femminista, sebbene la scrittrice si dichiarerà sempre sfavorevole all’apertura del voto alle donne.

[Keleigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Marie Corelli was a British novelist/mystic who wrote during the turn of the century. I picked up this falling-apart antique book years ago, and I think I like the feel of the physical book itself more than the content. I didn't get all the way through it due to overwhelming cheese (they used a lot! of exclamation! points! back then!) and predictability, but it does feel like a fanciful old relic notable for occultists interested in the roots of Western mysticism. Corelli was occupied with reconciling Christianity with her belief in things like reincarnation and astral projection. Wikipedia says that Corelli "emerged as a literary superstar from the publication of her first novel in 1886 until World War I when her popularity began to fade. Corelli's novels sold more copies than the combined sales of popular contemporaries, including Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, and Rudyard Kipling, despite the fact that critics often derided her work as "'the favorite of the common multitude.'"

[Paul Fadoju · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an imagination, what realities....Marie takes her readers into this world where you start questioning yourself is this fiction or reality. Has anyone ever steps into this ideal an reality that she is talking about. The idea is noble, engaging and lifts you out of the doldrums of everyday life as process the aspect of Life, soul and immortality. There is no DEATH....and to understand that is to live to the fulness of life.

[Endimione · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book bring us to search a sence in this life. This book want to make us in front of the important questions and matters of the life. Isn't a easy read, isn't simple as the way is write than for the argument...
But, if someone want to read it, the book - and Corelli - can reveal big surprise!!!

[Leonardo Ribeiro Machado · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marie Corell - Vida Sempiterna

Livro muito bom... mostra, em forma de romance, que a vontade deveria estar sempre presente na consecução de qualquer atividade. "Tudo o que merece ser feito, merece ser bem feito". De outra forma, estamos apenas desperdiçando nossa energia vital em atividades que não seguem qualquer propósito.

[JJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Book worth the name......Loved every page of it.