The Purple Cloud

M.P. Shiel

The Purple Cloud, The Lord of the Sea (both 1901), and The Last Miracle (1906) is a trilogy of science fiction; and at least the first two are considered early masterpieces in the genre. The Purple Cloud is widely hailed as a masterpiece of science fiction and one of the best last man novels ever written. A deadly purple vapor passes over the world and annihilates all living creatures except one man, Adam Jeffson. Adam adventures to the North Pole; on returning he realizes the entire population of the world has been destroyed by a cloud of cyanogen; he tours with world as master of all he sees, reveling and destroying as he will.

The Rajahs Sapphire

M.P. Shiel

The M. P. Shiels second book and first novel. The Rajahs Sapphire is a story of the final chapter in the history of a famous gem that haunts all who chance to own it. M. P. Shiel wrote twenty-five novels and dozens of short stories, most of them romantic mysteries or fast-paced adventures, several dealing with world conquest. Others are distinctly supernatural or border on science fiction. Most are interspersed with discourses on his philosophy and sociology of the Overman. And most, regardless of genre, were written in Shiels patented poetic prose.

The Yellow Danger

M.P. Shiel

Not all invasion threats were purported to come from the Germans, the French or from Anarchists: in M.P. Shiels Yellow Danger it is an army of Chinese who invade Europe. In The Yellow Danger Mr. Shiel described in lurid colors the possibilities of the overwhelming of the white world by the yellow man, a possibility for the imagining of, which he claimed no originality. The Yellow Danger has been the bugbear of the Russians ever since the days of Tamerlane. But it must be admitted that in his new story. This made Shiels popular reputation and was almost certainly the most commercially successful of the twenty books published during his first creative period, 1889-1913.