Prince Zaleski (Dodo Press) [Abridged] [Paperback]

M. P. Shiel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 8, 2008

Matthew Phipps Shiel (1865-1947), was a prolific British writer of fantastic fiction, remembered mostly for supernatural and scientific romances, published as novels, short stories and as serials. He wrote under the pen name Gordon Holmes. After working as a teacher and translator he broke into the fiction market with a series of short stories published in The Strand and other magazines. His early literary reputation was based on two collections of short stories influenced by Poe published in the Keynote series by John Lane, Prince Zaleski (1895) and Shapes in the Fire (1896), considered by some critics as the most flamboyant of the English decadent movement. His first novel was The Rajah's Sapphire (1896), based on a plot by William Thomas Stead, who probably hired Shiel to write the novel. Shiel's lasting literary reputation is largely based on Notebook III of the series which was serialized in The Royal Magazine in abridged form before book publication that autumn as The Purple Cloud (1901). He also wrote The Lord of the Sea (1901).

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About the Author

One of ten children, Matthew Phipps Shiel was born in the West Indies on July 21, 1865. His mother was a mulatto and his father worked as a shopkeeper and as a lay Methodist minister. Shiel received his education at Harrison College in Barbados. Shiel received the most critical acclaim for his sci-ence-fiction novel titled The Purple Cloud. This book, pub-lished in 1901, describes a tragic and brutal world in which most human life has been eliminated by a toxic purple gas. The book became a movie in 1959 after being retitled The World, the Flesh, and the Devil. This dark and controversial film starred Harry Belafonte, Mel Ferrer, and Inger Stevens. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 92 pages
• Publisher: Dodo Press; abridged edition edition (February 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1406569925
• ISBN-13: 978-1406569926
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,481,329 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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