The Sorrows of Satan Or the Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire, A Romance

The Sorrows of Satan was one of the first modern bestsellers and was influential in establishing some of the major trends in twentieth-century bestselling fiction. The setting is London, 1895, and the Devil is on the loose. He is searching for someone morally strong enough to resist temptation, but there seems little chance he will succeed. Britain is all but totally corrupt. The aristocracy is financially and spiritually bankrupt; church leaders no longer believe in God; Victorian idealism has been banished from literature and life; and sexual morality is being undermined by the pernicious doctrines of the "New Woman." Everything and everyone is up for sale, and it takes a special kind of moral courage to resist the Devil's seductions.

Marie Corelli, pen-name of Mary Mackay 1855-1924
Peter Keating is currently a freelance writer. He was a Reader in English Literature at Edinburgh University and he lives in Edinburgh.