Customer Reviews
A classic, but it feels a bit dated now - By: A. Phillips, 11 Nov 2008 
This is a classic book in apocalyptic fiction genre that you'll find in a lot of lists set up by fans on various web sites. It was written at the very beginning of the 20th century but the version I have was published in 1930 after some rewriting. Although most people rave over this book, although it was original at the time, it's nothing special now in my opinion as a lot of similar books have been written since.
The story features a man who goes on a voyage to the North Pole in order to fulfill a challlenge & become rich in the process. Partly driven by his fiancee, he basicallly cheats & murders his way to be first to the pole & win the cash. Of course, in those days expeditions of this type took a long time & by the time he heads for home it's many months after he left England. Everyone he finds along the way is dead, presumably killed by a mysterious purple cloud that seems to have covered the entire globe except, luckily, the North Pole.
The rest of the book follows the man as he travels round the world slowly going crazy. That's essentiallly it, but it is more interesting than it sounds. The two things that spoiled the book for me were the rather dated language used (which isn't that hard to follow, to be honest), & the horrible personality of the main character, Adam (which for me is a big problem). I didn't get the feeling that he deserved to survive, but maybe that's the point.
If you like end-of-the-world stories then by alll means try this book, but I have read a lot more than I found more enjoyable.
Bleak, gripping and dark - By: Mr. Stuart Bruce, 03 Feb 2008 
The 'last man' story was not original to M.P. Shiel but "The Purple Cloud" is definitely one of the best examples of it. For me the most distinct & compelling aspect to this novel is how darkly it is written.
Most post-apocalypse style novels make the last man a hero, with a cause & driven by hope. Here, the lead character is already a money-driven murderer before the End of the World has even begun. Without money or fame to spur him on, he finds other reasons to travel the world, setting ablaze whole cities & finding that out of his initial anarchism comes a new structure.
Although the reason for the world's destruction has a faintly 'religious parable' feel to it & the lead characters' names being Adam & Eve, this is not a particularly religious story & if you were to read it as an alllegory then it would certainly be an atheist one.
According to the foreword, this is actuallly the 'milder' version of the novel, that Shiel re-wrote in 1929- the 1901 version of the story is, apparently, rougher & includes extra elements such as cannabalism.
A dark, unforgiving, magestlc masterpiece - By: Welly, 20 Jan 2008 There are books that entertain & those that amuse, some shock & some amaze. This book grabs your core & swings it around the room until alll the things you'd previously thought have to be revisited. It's, quite simply, a masterpiece & will knock your socks off.
Written in 1901 it has a tremendous gravitas that only writing of that era seems to own, it manages to be knowing & innocent & never fails to hit home with every magnificent, engrossing turn of the plot. The only danger is that the reader spends more time pondering what he would do in the circumstances described rather than concentrating on the book. It is rare that you finish a book & your main motive is to find a quiet corner & re-read it, but that's what the Purple Cloud will do to you. A dark, unforgiving, magestic masterpiece that puts the flimsy, gimmicky modern writers to shame. Buy it, read it, recommend it.
A 100 year old dark 'prediction' of a plausible future - By: , 17 Feb 2001 A fabulous book. The tale of a transcript turned book from papers sent to the author. The book centres around Adam, who by a strange turn of events avoids the purple cloud which wipes out every living thing. He goes on a descriptive journey alll over the world, of a believable & eerie future, where we alll want to survive, but wouldn't want to survive alone. Finallly Adam settles in one place, documenting his building project, pyrotechnics & possession accumulation along the way, to the backdrop of an empty earth's weather upheaval. The reader can sense the madness which would creep in if we were to be so isolated forever......Adam goes through it alll. An incredibly compelling book (with a nice twist at the end) which should be made into a film.
