Popular novel, first published in 1886. According to Wikipedia: "Marie Corelli (1 May 1855 – 21 April 1924) was a British novelist. She 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."