'Well, you never saw anyone so singular in personal appearance as my friend, Miss Wilson. Medicine-man as I am, I could never behold her suddenly without a sensation of shock: she suggested so inevitably what we call "the other world," one detecting about her some odour of the worm, with the feeling that here was rather ghost than woman. And yet I can hardly convey to you the why of this, except by dry details as to the contours of her lofty brow, meagre lips, pointed chin, and ashen cheeks. She was tall and deplorably ...
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'Well, you never saw anyone so singular in personal appearance as my friend, Miss Wilson. Medicine-man as I am, I could never behold her suddenly without a sensation of shock: she suggested so inevitably what we call "the other world," one detecting about her some odour of the worm, with the feeling that here was rather ghost than woman. And yet I can hardly convey to you the why of this, except by dry details as to the contours of her lofty brow, meagre lips, pointed chin, and ashen cheeks. She was tall and deplorably emaciated, her whole skeleton, except the thigh-bones, being quite visible. Her eyes were of the bluish hue of cigarette smoke, and had in them the strangest, feeble, unearthly gaze; while at thirty-five her paltry wisp of hair was quite white. 'She was well-to-do, and lived alone in old Wooding Manor-house, five miles from Ash Thomas. As you know, I was "beginning" in these parts at the time, and soon took up my residence at the manor. She insisted that I should devote myself to her alone; and that one patient constituted the most lucrative practice which I ever had.
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Add this copy of The Purple Cloud to cart. $10.36, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2017 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Great book of another story about the end of the world (reccurent to this period of time ~1930)
I just finished reading Earth abides and it is as good as this one, though different.
klarkash
Feb 19, 2008
Mind-bending Prose at the End of the World
This flawed but still magnificent 1901 work was an early "end of the world" novel, exerting an influence on Stephen King's "The Stand" among many others. Shiel's work is distinguished by indescribably ornate prose and a wide range of erudite references. The power of "The Purple Cloud" is also its downfall; the last third of the novel can't match the first sections, in which Shiel paints, with insane visionary power, the enduring modern fantasy of finding oneself the last man alive on earth. The protagonist Adam Jeffson is the first to reach the North Pole, where his presence seems to trigger a bizarre phenomenon of natural vengeance for his hubris- descending by ship from the pole, he finds not a single soul alive, as a lethal cloud of purple poison has spread over the earth, obliterating all life in its path. Jeffson, borne on waves of Shiel's billowing, decadent poetry of the damned, begins his own campaign of obliteration, burning the dead cities of the earth. Shiel achieves a heightened, widescreen glory unencumbered by plausibility- you will love or hate this book depending on your appreciation for verbal audacity and 50-cent words. Fans of Poe, Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith will find much to appreciate here.
