Ziska [Paperback]

Marie Corelli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 8, 2009

Marie Corelli was born in England. She was the illegitimate daughter of the Scottish poet Charles Mackey and his servant. Marie was sent to a Parisian convent for her education. Her Victorian romances have been compared to those of Jaqueline Suzann. Ziska is a mysterious Princess who captivates a group of European tourists who have come to Egypt to enjoy the warmer weather in exotic Egypt. Ziska draws three men towards her--Denzil Murray, a Scottish highlander; Armand Gervase, a French painter; and Dr. Maxwell Dean, an English historian and Egyptologist. Ziska grips the reader from the very first sentences, "Dark against the sky towered the Great Pyramid, and over its apex hung the moon. Like a wreck cast ashore by some titanic storm, the Sphinx, reposing amid the undulating waves of grayish sand surrounding it, seemed for once to drowse. Its solemn visage that had impassively watched ages come and go, empires rise and fall, and generations of men live and die, appeared for the moment to have lost its usual expression of speculative wisdom and intense disdain--its cold eyes seemed to droop, its stern mouth almost smiled. The air was calm and sultry; and not a human foot disturbed the silence. But towards midnight a Voice suddenly arose as it were like a wind in the desert, crying aloud: "Araxes! Araxes!" and wailing past, sank with a profound echo into the deep recesses of the vast Egyptian tomb."

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Kessinger Publishing reprints over 1,500 similar titles all available through Amazon.com. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

English novelist of famous melodramatic themes, Marie Corelli is the pen name of Mary Mackay. She learned music but later turned to literature after a psychical experience and trauma. Consequently she gave master-pieces to English literature. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Book Jungle (June 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1438519222
• ISBN-13: 978-1438519227
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,817,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Thrilling Tale, June 15, 2002

By 

"kaia_espina" (Quezon City, Philippines) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ziska (Paperback)

At first, "Ziska: The Problem of a Wicked Soul" may seem like an odd title for what is, in essence, a romance. It is perfectly appropriate, however, when one learns that the story is about the darker side of the kind of love that "many waters cannot quench . . . nor can the floods drown"--the only kind of love that Marie Corelli believed in.

The story revolves around the mysterious Princess Ziska, who captivates the set of European tourists who are escaping their continent's harsh winter, in exotic Egypt. In particular, she draws three men towards her--Denzil Murray, a Scottish highlander; Armand Gervase, a French painter; and Dr. Maxwell Dean, an English historian and Egyptologist--for very different reasons.

During a costume ball, she comes as her namesake, Ziska-Charmazel, a woman who lived during the reign of Amenhotep. At this point it becomes clear that she has a diabolical agenda that involves one of these three men--her Twin Soul, the reincarnation of Araxes, a great Egyptian warrior and lover of Ziska-Charmazel.

Corelli tells this tale beautifully. The foreshadowing is excellent and the pace never lags. She keeps the reader in total suspense until the ending--which is proper, as "Ziska" is a mystery story (with some juicy horror elements). Unlike her more well-known reincarnation romance, "The Life Everlasting", which had a perfectly predictable ending (not necessarily a bad thing), "Ziska" has a conclusion that is anybody's guess.

It may _still_ be anybody's guess. Though this novel was written only a mere century or so ago, it is dedicated to the present incarnation of Araxes. Where _he_ is, there Ziska-Charmazel shall also be. It's a nice, spooky thought.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Reincarnation Romance, June 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ziska (Paperback)

a wonderful, silly book brimming with turn-of-the-century fascination for the mysteries of Egypt and what was then (and maybe still is!) alternative spiritualism.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Less of a Novel, More of a Mouthpiece for Her Spirtualism, March 12, 2011

By 

Gypsi Phillips Bates "bilbiophile" (Tennessee) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ziska (Kindle Edition)

Marie Corelli was a highly popular writer of sensational novels in the Victorian era. She combined high melodrama with an attempt to reconcile Christianity with reincarnation, astral project and other spiritual aspects not generally associated with Christianity. With Ziska, Corelli uses the medium of novel writing as a vehicle for just that crusade.

The plot of Ziska takes place in the British society's "Season" in Cairo. According to Corelli, t is just the same as the London Season, only with slightly looser morals, giving the greater opportunity to find husbands for daughters past their prime on the marriage market. The Princess Ziska has appeared on the scene, and taken this tight community by storm. Nothing is known about her, except that she is unusually beautiful and has stolen the hearts of all the young men, the Scottish laird Denzil Murray in particular. When Murray's best friend, the famous French painter Armand Gervase, arrives in Cairo, complications arise. Gervase immediately falls for Ziska, makes no pretense that he (unlike Murray) does not have pure intentions, and feels that he knows her from somewhere.

Marie Corelli
Murray's mentor and friend, Dr. Maxwell Dean acts as the mouthpiece for Corelli's unconvetional spiritual beliefs, and through him the reader begins to see that there is something not quite human and Ziska and that she and Gervase are somehow destined to be together.

A good portion of this novel is given over to soliloquy in which Corelli expresses her opinion about various things. The first 21 pages, for example, are a roast of the British tourist in Egypt, and of how said tourist wants to make all foreign lands into another version of England. It made for amusing reading, but I did begin to wonder if I had stumbled onto a book of essays instead of a novel.

The rest of the book is much taken up with much discussion of reincarnation and of a slightly different take on Christianity. It was interesting the first time, but Corelli has her characters discuss this time and again, and for paragraphs and pages, and by the end, I was skimming large parts of conversations.

The actual storyline was rather thrilling, in the way of a Victorian sensational novel, despite the fact that Dr. Dean spells it out for the reader several times. Had it not been for his "spoilers" and for the recurring, yawn-inducing philosophizing, this would have been a rather good read. There was drama and humor and emotion, as well as interesting characters, but there was just way too much laborious, stilted conversations about spiritualism that kept interrupting the flow and made Ziska a struggle to finis