Now Barabbas Was A Rotter: The Extraordinary Life of Marie Corelli

Brian Masters

Published by Hamish Hamilton, London, 1978

Signed First edition: SBN 241 89767 X

Who was Marie Corelli? She was a best-selling British novelist in the 1890s, read by Queen Victoria, Prime Minister Gladstone and millions of fans in England and abroad. Loved by her fans (not the critics), Corelli moved away from London to Stratford-upon-Avon in 1899 and lived in Mason Croft on Church Street (now the Shakespeare Institute) until her death in 1924. She is buried in Evesham cemetery in Stratford, and her companion for forty years, Bertha Vyver, was buried alongside her in 1942. (And yes, Corelli did own an Italian gondola and employed a gondolier to row her and her lady companion up and down the River Avon.) 

Hardcover (15 x 22 cm) 326 p. signed by author, Brian Masters, on the title page with date '1978'. Front free endpage has been unceremoniously jaggedly chopped away: an alligator-tooth remnant remains. Dustwrapper is encased in thin plastic and taped down (only on the plastic) on the inside. Fore edge and bottom edge of pages have minor foxing. Tape residue marks on back free endpage from rubbing of taped plastic covering. Small rip in the top of the plastic covering at the top of the spine. Otherwise in good condition. Not price clipped. No fading of spine. 

 For sale by Priory Books, Warwickshire County Record Office's second hand book shop