Shiel

MATTHEW PHIPPS SHIEL (1865 - 1947)

A fantasy writer of considerable stylistic interest, Shiel produced his masterpiece The Purple Cloud in 1901. In it, the explorer Adam Jeffson returns from the North Pole to find mammalian life has been exterminated by a volcanic gas. Jeffson's home is said to be near Rokeby, and the surrounding district is described in some topographical detail. Jeffson spends three hours brooding at the top of the fortress in Barnard Castle.

The narrative goes on to describe in brilliantly vivid prose, Jeffson's frantic search for survivors down mines all over the country, including the Yorkshire Dales, Alston Moor and Allendale. The mine descriptions and the obsessive tone of the writing in this section of the novel are oddly reminiscent of Auden's (q.v.) fascination with lead mining in the same area some 20 years later.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
MATTHEW PHIPPS SHIEL (1865 - 1947) A fantasy writer of considerable stylistic interest, Shiel produced his masterpiece The Purple Cloud in 1901. In it, the explorer Adam Jeffson returns from the North Pole to find mammalian life has been exterminated by a volcanic gas. Jeffson's home is said to be near Rokeby, and the surrounding district is described in some topographical detail. Jeffson spends three hours brooding at the top of the fortress in Barnard Castle. The narrative goes on to describe in brilliantly vivid prose, Jeffson's frantic search for survivors down mines all over the country, including the Yorkshire Dales, Alston Moor and Allendale. The mine descriptions and the obsessive tone of the writing in this section of the novel are oddly reminiscent of Auden's (q.v.) fascination with lead mining in the same area some 20 years later.
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