A Romance of Two Worlds Illustrated

The first novel by Marie Corelli, written in 1886, was A Romance of Two Worlds. It referenced the current controversy, overlaid with elements of science fiction, between creationism and evolution and supernatural themes. In first person, it begins with a young heroine sharing her storey of a crippling disorder that involves depression and suicidal thoughts. Her doctor can't help her and sends her off on a trip where she encounters a mysterious character by the name of a popular Italian poet, Raffello Cellini. Cellini gives her a strange potion that puts her into a calm slumber immediately, in which she encounters spiritual visions.