Marie Corelli’s fifth novel Wormwood: A Drama of Paris was published in November of 1890 in three volumes, and the first release quickly sold out a mere ten days later. Wormwood’s success, though, was not entirely new to Corelli who had gained a sort of celebrity status in the English literary market following the publication of her previous novels, A Romance of Two Worlds (1886), Vendetta! (1886), Thelma (1887), and Ardath (1889). Corelli’s melodramatic novels captured the attention of readers in England, but the critical reception was decidedly less positive. Annette Federico explains this contradictory position as being indicative of Corelli’s interest in reaching the public as “reviewers and the literary elite continued to ridicule her … but such treatment had no effect on her mass appeal. Her audience crossed class lines, and she was...
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Citation: Wahl, Peyton. "Wormwood". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 December 2025 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10892, accessed 09 June 2026.]
