The Purple Cloud
A last man novel about a deadly purple cloud.
The Purple Cloud is a British apocalyptic novel by M. P. Shiel, published in 1901. It belongs to the 'last man' subgenre and was praised by H. G. Wells as 'brilliant' and by H. P. Lovecraft as exemplary weird fiction. The novel later served as the basis for the 1959 American film The World, the Flesh and the Devil.
Quick Facts
- Author
- M. P. Shiel
- Illustrator
- J. J. Cameron
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Genre
- Science fiction
- Publisher
- Chatto and Windus and others
- Published
- 1901
- Format
- Print (hardback and paperback)
Facts from the source article.
Textual variations
The novel exists in three distinct texts. The shortest version was first published as a serial in The Royal Magazine from January to June 1901, with illustrations by J. J. Cameron. This serial was later photo-offset in Volume I of A. Reynolds Morse's series The Works of M. P. Shiel (1979–1983). The original book text, published in London by Chatto & Windus in September 1901, is the longest version and is often considered the preferred text. This 1901 text was reprinted by Tartarus Press in 2004 with all Cameron illustrations and an Introduction by Brian Stableford, and by Hippocampus Press in 2005 in an omnibus volume edited by S. T. Joshi. Penguin Classics also used the 1901 text in a 2012 edition with an introduction by John Sutherland. Shiel revised the novel in the 1920s, tightening the language without changing the plot. This final version was first published in London by Victor Gollancz Ltd. in 1929 and in New York by Vanguard Press in 1930, and became the most commonly reprinted text. Translations exist in French, Italian, German and Spanish.
Plot
The story is presented as a medium's meditation over the future writing of the text. The narrator, Adam Jeffson, joins an expedition to the North Pole on the ship Boreal during the 20th century. His fiancée, the Countess Clodagh, poisons her own cousin to secure Jeffson's place on the ship, as the expedition was known to be one of the best ever planned, with a millionaire's will offering millions to the first person to reach the Pole. Before leaving, Jeffson hears a priest prophesying a terrible fate for those who defy God's will by pursuing polar research. He also recalls a man who spoke of vague powers, 'The White' and 'The Black', vying for dominance. During the polar journey, Jeffson finds a lake of spinning water with a rocky island bearing inscriptions, then faints. Returning to camp, he smells a peach-like odour and sees a moving purple cloud spreading in the heavens. He discovers dead animals without injury and learns of his crew's deaths. Operating the ship alone, he travels toward northern islands, finding corpses of various races who fled the cloud, then encounters ships crowded with dead. He walks through London, searching for survivors but finding only broken barricades. At the house of Arthur Machen, a close friend of Shiel's, he finds Machen dead, having been writing a poem.
More in British Post-apocalyptic Novels
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced