Ardath: The Story of a Dead Self

In 1889, Marie Corelli published “Ardath: The Story of a Dead Self”. It was her fourth novel and a sequel of sorts to her first book “A Romance of Two Worlds”. Many of the weaknesses of her first three books are still evident in this one. There are the almost endless paragraphs which carry on for pages; the long speeches by characters voicing, quite often, the views of Corelli on society and religion; the characters who are flawlessly good, though admittedly there are fewer of them evident in this novel and very few of their opposites who are without some positive characteristics.