Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/351

 and Clovelly have been faithfully represented. But some of the scenery in her other books, though correct in detail, has never been visited by the novelist at all. "Thelma," which is a frequent companion-volume to travelers in Norway, has certain scenes depicted which are now shown by local guides as associated with the novel, but the writer herself has never visited Norway.

It may be remembered that in "Anne of Geirstein" Walter Scott gives an exact description of Switzerland; but at the time he wrote the novel he had never seen that country. We have already told how Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, a great authority on Persia, called on Miss Corelli shortly after the publication of "Ardath" to inquire personally where she had resided in the East, to be so familiar with Eastern color and surroundings; and he was very much surprised to learn that she had never visited the East at all, nor had any idea of going there. In the same way, though "Vendetta!" is an essentially Neapolitan story, she has never seen Naples. Nor does she "read up" for her local color. When asked to explain how she manages to convey herself in spirit to countries with which she is entirely unacquainted, she replies: "I imagine it must be so, and I find it generally is so." As she stated