What is this book?

The Sorrows of Satan; or, The Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire is a wildly popular late-Victorian novel that retells the Faust myth for modern city life. A struggling writer, Geoffrey Tempest, suddenly inherits a fortune and meets a dazzling aristocrat, Prince Lucio Rimânez—who gradually reveals the price of wishes granted. The novel skewers literary snobbery, fashionable society, and the worship of money, asking whether success without a soul can ever satisfy.

How did Corelli come to write it?

Corelli drafted the book in the early–mid 1890s after years of watching London’s cultural scene from just outside the club doors. She had already found a huge readership, yet critics were often hostile. This tension—between public enthusiasm and elite disdain—fed the novel’s sharp portrait of publishers, salons, and “serious” taste. She shaped the plot as a moral fable: temptation arrives with a smile, not a threat; the real bargain is made long before anyone speaks of a contract.

What inspired her?

• Faustian tradition: A timeless pattern—ambition meets a mysterious patron—recast for the age of finance and publicity.
• Social hypocrisy: Corelli satirizes circles that praise success loudly while sneering at sincerity.
• Reader loyalty: She wrote for ordinary readers, not just critics, and defended art that speaks plainly about conscience.

Why did it matter?

• Huge popular impact: It became one of the decade’s biggest sellers, proving that moral fiction could still dominate the market.
• Conversation starter: The book sparked debates about money, art, and the responsibility of writers in a celebrity culture.
• Female authorship: Corelli’s success challenged assumptions about who could set the literary agenda in the 1890s.

Interesting facts

• The full title explicitly spotlights wealth—“Millionaire”—to signal that the temptation here is fame and money, not magic tricks.
• The suave “Prince Lucio” is widely read as a modern Devil figure—urbane, witty, and never in a hurry.
• There were early stage versions and later screen adaptations; a notable silent film appeared in 1926.
• Critics were divided, but readers made it a sensation; the split between reviews and sales became part of the book’s legend.

If you are using a graded retelling

This preface offers historical and thematic context. The simplified story that follows focuses on the core arc (temptation → success → crisis → restitution) and keeps the moral questions visible in accessible English. You can revisit this preface after reading to connect scenes with the ideas above.