The Purple Cloud

About this book

When Adam Jeffson returns from an expedition to the North Pole, the world has fallen silent. A mysterious poisonous cloud has swept across the earth, leaving cities intact and their inhabitants dead. He wanders through a civilisation that no longer has anyone to govern it.

M. P. Shiel follows his solitary survivor through abandoned streets, immense fortunes and episodes of destruction, as loneliness distorts his judgement. Jeffson can possess almost anything humanity has made, yet finds little reason to preserve it. The novel's apocalyptic spectacle gradually narrows to a question about whether he can bear to share the world again.