The Sorrows of Satan

The novel "The Sorrows of Satan" by Marie Corelli (such a sonorous pseudonym was taken by the Englishwoman Mary MacKay) was published in 1895 and became one of the major literary events of the Victorian era. It was an extraordinary... success with readers, breaking all possible sales records. When critics attacked the writer, she was supported by Oscar Wilde, whose novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray," written five years earlier, largely anticipated the appearance of "The Sorrows of Satan." Turning to the popular plot of a deal with the devil, Marie Corelli created one of the most ambiguous images of Satan in world literature: in her novel, he is a character who does not wish evil but creates it, tempting people but living in hope that they will overcome their desires and stop sinning. Readers are awaited by non-trivial plot twists and a phantasmagorical conclusion. Interestingly, the first Russian-language edition of the novel (1903) was published under the name of Bram Stoker, the author of the novel about Dracula. As a result of this mistake, in Russia, the authorship of "The Sorrows of Satan" was long attributed to Stoker. In our time, the novel by Marie Corelli is rightly recognized as a classic of European mysticism.