23 h 17 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a woman who speaks her heart enters a world where people rarely mean what they say?
Near Norway’s Altenfjord, where the summer sun barely sets, Thelma Guldmar lives with her protective father, Olaf. Music, old legends and the northern landscape shape her sheltered world. Then Sir Philip Bruce-Errington arrives from England, drawn to her at once and eager for her to share his life.
London brings Thelma into drawing rooms ruled by gossip, display and polite cruelty. Her frankness meets people who treat conversation as a game, while Lady Winsleigh’s charm and ambition pose a danger. In this Victorian romance, Marie Corelli asks whether sincere feeling can stand against wealth and the empty rules of rank.
What you’ll discover
- A world beside the fjord Enter a northern landscape of lingering summer light, music and old Norse traditions.
- A heroine who speaks plainly Meet Thelma, whose honest words stand apart from London’s carefully managed conversations.
- Love across different worlds Follow Philip’s attraction to Thelma as the romance moves from Norway into fashionable London.
- Charm with a dangerous edge Encounter Lady Winsleigh, whose social grace comes with ambition and danger for those around her.
- Sincerity against social display Explore Corelli’s contrast between natural feeling, simple living and the demands of rank.
Who will love it
For readers who love Victorian romance, melodrama and stories that set country simplicity against city manners, with strong feeling, northern landscapes and a frank heroine.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A girl raised by the northern fjord
- An Englishman comes to her world
- London tests her honesty
- What the novel argues and how it speaks
Who’s who
- Thelma GuldmarA young Norwegian woman raised by the fjord, musical and frank, who knows little of the world beyond her home.
- Olaf GuldmarThelma's father, who holds to the old Norse ways and guards his daughter from the wider world.
- Sir Philip Bruce-ErringtonAn English baronet who travels to Norway, is drawn to Thelma, and wants her to share his life.
- Lady WinsleighA London society woman whose charm and ambition make her a danger to those around her.
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Thelma
by Marie Corelli · 1887
Love carries a Norwegian girl from the fjords into London society, where gossip and display test her honesty.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A girl raised by the northern fjord
The story opens in the far north of Norway, near the Altenfjord, where the sun barely sets in summer. Thelma Guldmar lives there with her father, Olaf Guldmar. He holds to the old Norse ways and keeps his daughter close to nature and to song.
Thelma grows up outside the manners and habits of fashionable Europe. She is open, musical and fearless, and she trusts what she feels. Corelli draws her as someone who has learned about the world from mountains, water and legend rather than from drawing rooms.
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What is Thelma by Marie Corelli about?
It tells of Thelma Guldmar, a Norwegian girl raised by a fjord, who falls in love with an English baronet and enters London society, where her honesty meets the manners and hypocrisy of the rich.
When was Thelma written?
Marie Corelli published Thelma in 1887. It is a work of fiction, not a true story, though it draws on Norwegian scenery and legend and on Victorian ideas about society and sincerity.
Where is Thelma set?
The story begins in northern Norway near the Altenfjord, then moves to England, mainly London and its fashionable drawing rooms. The contrast between the two settings carries much of the book's meaning.
The author
Marie Corelli
1855–1924 · British novelist
Marie Corelli was an English novelist and one of the best-selling authors of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, at her height outselling most of her famous contemporaries. The Sorrows of Satan, her 1895 tale of a devil's bargain in literary London, is often called one of the world's first modern bestsellers.
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