The Public Domain ReviewJul 5, 2023

NEW ESSAY — “Radioactive Fictions: Marie Corelli and the Omnipotence of Thoughts” — https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/radioactive-fictions

Outselling books by Arthur Conan Doyle and H. G. Wells in their day, Marie Corelli’s occult romance novels brim with fantasies of telepathy, mesmerism, and radioactivity. Steven Connor revisits The Life Everlasting (1911), where the recent discovery of radium shapes the mechanics of phantasmal machines and psychic forces able to pass through all impediments.

Radioactive Fictions: Marie Corelli and the Omnipotence of Thoughts

Outselling books by Arthur Conan Doyle and H. G. Wells in their day, Marie Corelli’s occult romance novels brim with fantasies of telepathy, mesmerism, and radioactivity. Steven Connor revisits The Life Everlasting (1911), where the recent discovery of radium shapes the mechanics of phantasmal machines and psychic forces able to pass through all impediments.

The Public Domain Review
Show threadMichael Gemar
@publicdomainrev @marthawells What a terrific essay about a fascinating figure. It’s interesting to see the science-minded spiritualists/occultists move from electricity (E.g., John Murray Spear) to radiation as the latest discoveries take hold.
Jul 5, 2023 at 6:16pmWeb