Mesmerism for the masses Mesmerism as poetic deceit in Mary Corelli’s novels

Marie Corelli, an iconic British novelist of the 1880s-1910s, enjoyed a wide readership. Three of her novels, A Romance of Two Worlds, The Soul of Lilith and The Young Diana, deal with the themes of magnetism. Mesmer’s fluid is transposed into an injectable solution, a water of youth produced by capturing ambient electricity. The power of the scientists able to dispense this panacea is above all to put their subjects into a state of trance where it is possible to access a knowledge that would explain the mystery of poetic inspiration.