Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/219

 CHAPTER XI

"THE MURDER OF DELICIA" AND "ZISKA"

In the former of these works Marie Corelli has much to say about men that is very disagreeable and, as it appears to us, only partially true. It would seem that the novelist is too prone to seize upon a particular instance of "man's ingratitude," laziness, cruelty, and general worthlessness, and set it up as a frequently occurring type.

In "The Murder of Delicia," for example, a handsome guardsman, nicknamed by his fellow-officers "Beauty Carlyon," marries a lady novelist who is equally gifted in brain and person, and, after spending her money for a considerable period, finally breaks her heart—in short, "murders" her—by his neglect and infidelity.

The keynote of the story—which is, we are assured by its writer, a true one—may be found in an introductory note, which contains the following: "To put it plainly and bluntly, a great majority of the men of the present day want women to keep them."