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  • The Purple Cloud

  • Penguin Classics
  • By: M P Shiel
  • Narrated by: Clifford Samuel
  • Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
  • 3.0 out of 5 stars (4 ratings)

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The Purple Cloud

By: M P Shiel
Narrated by: Clifford Samuel
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Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Clifford Samuel. This definitive recording includes an introduction by John Sutherland.

The Purple Cloud tells the grandly bleak story of Adam Jeffson: the first man to reach the North Pole and the last man left alive on earth. A sweet-smelling, deadly cloud of poisonous gas has devastated the world, and as Jeffson travels the stricken globe in search of human life, he slowly succumbs to madness, and unleashes fire and destruction on his planet. Dark, desolate and fantastical, The Purple Cloud was a pioneer in the genre of apocalyptic novels, and the first great science fiction work of the twentieth century.

©2020 M P Shiel (P)2020 Penguin Audio
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Critic reviews

Delivered with a skill and artistry falling little short of actual majesty (H P Lovecraft)
The first great science fiction novel of the science fiction century (John Clute)

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One of the worst books I've Ever Read

A real piece of garbage. The prose is over wroght and too flowery for the subject matter. The framing device is laughable and completely abandoned after it's established. Many supernatural elements are hinted at... but never resolved. The plot just continutes to repeat and repeat and I kept waiting for that repetition to have some kind of pay off... but it never did. This book could EASILY have been 1/3 the length and been just as successful.

If I had a time machine, I would warn my past-self not to read this book.

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