The Purple Cloud

The Purple Cloud is a "last man" novel by British writer M.P. Shiel published in 1901. H.P. Lovecraft praised it as exemplary weird fiction, "delivered with a skill & artistry falling little short of actual majesty." Frank Belknap Long deemed it "the most unutterably terrible book ever written".

The novel exists in three distinct texts. It was first published as a serial, illustrated by J.J. Cameron, in The Royal Magazine, Vol. V, 27-30, Vol. VI, 31-32, January to June 1901. This, the shortest version, was photo-offset in Vol. I of A. Reynolds Morse's monumental series, The Works of M.P. Shiel (1979-83). The original book text, the longest version, was published in London by Chatto & Windus in September 1901. The 1901 text was reprinted in London by Tartarus Press in 2004 in a superb edition with all the Cameron illustrations from the serial and a new Introduction by Brian Stableford. Hippocampus Press included the 1901 text, but without illustrations, in an omnibus volume, The House of Sounds & Others, edited by S.T. Joshi (2005). Shiel revised the novel in the '20s, by tightening the language, not changing the plot. This version was 1st published in London by Victor Gollancz Ltd (1929) and in New York by Vanguard Press (1930). This final version was the text most commonly reprinted in numerous subsequent editions. It's also been published in French, Italian, and German.