First published in 1895, "The Sorrows of Satan" is Marie Corelli's masterpiece and the novel where her views on religion and society find their clearest and fullest expression. And on another level it is a savage and bitter riposte to her critics, who had vilified her previous novel, "Barabbas".
"The Sorrows of Satan" is a faustian novel and it is widely regarded as one of the world's first bestsellers.
When the Devil arrives in fin de siècle London in the form of the handsome and charming Prince Lucio Rimânez, his work promises to be easy. After all, in a world where science and materialism have replaced a belief in God, who will suspect Lucio of being Satan in disguise? Lucio sets his sights on Geoffrey Tempest, a starving novelist who has just inherited a fortune, and promises to guide him to power and fame. As the tragic story of Geoffrey's meteoric rise and fall unfolds, Marie Corelli lays bare the hypocrisy, immorality, and irreligiousness of modern life, satire which is as fresh and relevant today as ever.