A review by dalynch_0803
The Purple Cloud by M.P. Shiel

4.0

Get ready for the Big Weird. Protagonist Adam Jeffson, spurred on by his greedy fiance, connives and murders his way to being the first man at the North Pole (a theme that still belonged to the realm of science fiction at the time of the novel's first publication in 1901). Once there he discovers a mysterious something in the center of a warm lake fed by geothermal springs and, overcome by the Enormity Of It All, faints dead away like many a Lovecraft protagonist. Meanwhile, half a world away a massive supervolcano erupts spewing forth the eponymous Purple Cloud (the language used to describe these events, it must be said, is also quite Purple). Said cloud then crawls across the face of the globe, suffocating everything it comes into contact with and leaving Jeffson to wander aimlessly through a planet-sized tomb, occasionally indulging in the arson of Mankind's greatest cities and the odd bit of necrophilia to pass the time.

If you've a taste for the weird, then there are certainly points where The Purple Cloud delivers in spades. Just be prepared for the narrative to lag in certain spots (the first third, in particular, contains enough impenetrable maritime jargon to fill three Horatio Hornblower novels). I also strongly recommend getting the Penguin Classics edition for it's excellent introduction and notes.