Children of the Wind by M. P. Shiel

Children of the Wind - Adventure novel in which a lost heiress takes over an African tribe.

Children of the Wind - A story of adventure in South Central Africa. An English scientist learns that the "White Queen" of the Wa-Ngwanyas is his own cousin and heiress to a fortune of which she is being kept in ignorance.

A pre-pubescent white girl shipwrecked in Africa becomes the merciless queen of the fictional kingdom of Wo'Ngwanya. She is also the heir to a fortune so upon learning where she is, her exceptionally dim-witted cousin goes in search of her.

Believe it or not her people have given her the name Speciewegiehotiu, which Cobby, her cousin, shortens to 'Hot Spice.' That really tells you all you need to know about the tone and quality of this stupid and sordid excrescence of a novel.

Of course the teenage queen acts like a coquettish brat even as she orders death and destruction; of course Cobby and Macray, the villain who has stolen her inheritance, alternately patronise and lech over her; and of course she has a similarly young, black lesbian lover named Suella, just for the sheer prurience of it.

Matthew Phipps Shiel (1865–1947) was a prolific British writer of West Indian descent.

M. P. Shiel is remembered mostly for supernatural and scientific romances. His work published as serials, novels, and as short stories. The Purple Cloud (1901) remains his most famous and often reprinted novel.

The Evil That Men Do by M. P. Shiel

The Evil That Men Do - A Novel of Mystery.

The Evil That Men Do - A Novel of Mystery about Hartwell from birth, does he inherit his fathers traits? Do great men have great sons and how much does one's own life's experiences cause variance to this question?

Although Mr. Shiol as usual indulges in a fantastic situation, his book is at least free from the glaring faults of taste which have disfigured some of his former writings. To the ordinary reader there will seem (until his marvellously sudden " conversion ") very little in point of morality to choose between Robert Harts-ell and the villainous millionaire whom a strange facial resemblance enables him to impersonate. Mr. Shiel does not, and probably does not aspire to, draw pictures of everyday life as it is. But there is always something ingenious in his situations, and in this book, at any rate, he has contrived to avoid the developments which disfigured at least one of his earlier novels.

Matthew Phipps Shiel (1865–1947) was a prolific British writer of West Indian descent.

M. P. Shiel is remembered mostly for supernatural and scientific romances. His work published serials, novels, and short stories. The Purple Cloud (1901) remains his most famous and often reprinted novel.

The Lost Viol by M. P. Shiel

The Lost Viol - A Fantasy classic.

The Lost Viol - A classic tale by author of classic SF novel, "The Purple Cloud".

Matthew Phipps Shiel (1865–1947) was a prolific British writer of West Indian descent.

M. P. Shiel is remembered mostly for supernatural and scientific romances. His work was published as serials, novels, and as short stories. The Purple Cloud (1901) remains his most famous and often reprinted novel.

Excerpt:
Kathleen now went up a lane on the left leading to her own place, "The Hill," while Sir Peter and the footman went on down yew and hawthorn hedges, till the light of Woodside Farm appeared; and great was the wonder of the old farmer and of Mrs. Langler when they saw Sir Peter come to see Hannah, for the baronet was a rather crusty and rusty type — tall, with a stoop and an asthmatic chest — from whom a jerk of the head was about all that people on the estate expected in the way of friendliness.

Sir Peter saw Hannah, who lay unconscious from her drenching, stayed a little with the old couple and old Dr. Williams, and then trudged back to the Hall.

He sat up so late that night, sniffing his three dried apples, that Bentley, his old house-steward, became uneasy. He was writing a long letter; for his discovery that night that Hannah Langler was twenty-four, not twenty-three, as he had somehow thought, was now hurrying him to an action which for fifteen years had lain planned in his heart.

The Pale Ape by M. P. Shiel

The Pale Ape - a ghost story.

The Pale Ape - a ghost story with a tragic denouement set in an English country house, and also a magnificently atmospheric adventure of confused identity and abnormal psychology.

Sharing much with the atmospheric terror of the traditional ghost story, wherein established reality is invaded by outside forces -- albeit with a vastly different style and approach. "The Pale Ape" is a minor supernatural masterwork, mirroring in its tragic plot and emotional authenticity a sense of helplessness.

Matthew Phipps Shiell, also known as M. P. Shiel, was a prolific British writer of West Indian descent. His legal surname remained "Shiell" though he adopted the shorter version as a de facto pen name. He is remembered mostly for supernatural and scientific romances. His work was published as serials, novels, and as short stories. The Purple Cloud (1901; 1929) remains his most famous and often reprinted novel.

Excerpt:
Yesterday again I stood and looked at Hargen Hall from the lake; and it is this that has brought me to write of my life in it. Wintry winds were whistling through the withered bracken and the branches, whirling withered birch-leaves about the south quadrangle; and no birds sang.
When I first entered it I was a girl, one might say—gay enough; but now I have known what one never forgets; and the days and the hairs grow grey together.

The Yellow Danger by M. P. Shiel

The Yellow Danger - Shiel's most successful book during his lifetime.

The Yellow Danger - a part of a relatively new literary genre, the British speculative future war novel. Interpretated in many ways - fin-de-siecle, technophobia, critiques of British imperialism - they anticipated modern science fiction.

The book takes great pains to explain the “character” of the Chinese and Japanese. Much made of the Chinese love of money, nationalism, and cruelty (the later becomes key when we get to the invasion of Europe) and the idea that a single race must dominate the Earth. The British character explored too, in more glowing terms, our hero a genius sailor named John Hardy who also has a meteoric rise.

Much of the book blown on sea-battles in the English channel, which I guess are supposed to display Hardy's tactical genius. Despite diagrams and a lot of ship stats, you might say I was “all at sea” during these parts.

Aside from the expected racism in this kind of text, a real new level of cringe reached. When John Hardy finally meets Dr. Yen How and tries to talk to him in “pidgin-english”, even after How speaks to him in proper English. It makes some of the torture scene that follow pretty sweet.

Unto the Third Generation by M. P. Shiel

Unto the Third Generation - the history of Edward Denman, heir to a treasure.

Unto the Third Generation compounded of distinct elements of mystery. Adventure, and romance narrative. The history of the efforts of the ubiquitous Hagen clan to seize Denman's hidden treasure.

Barnes, a railroad engineer, a martyr to the romance. He suffers meekly thru the fabulous antics of his social superiors. The Denman treasure walled in a vault with literally countless doors of impregnable construction. It proves impossible to locate the treasure by breaking open the doors. Hagens concentrate on finding the hidden code showing the number of the vault which holds the jewels. Their machinations involve marriages of convenience, mayhem, and train - wrecks. The maimings, and schemings against obstacles galore.

Excerpt:
‘ Never. I fancy the question has been on the tip of his tongue several times, but he has never asked it. Pride, I s’pose.’
‘ He may guess though that you know. Suppose he has you followed when you come to see me ?’
‘Have no fear of that, Lucy. You know already my views about your leaving your husband, however good your reasons may have been, but inasmuch as you have bound me over to secrecy, no one is ever going to find you out through me : I’m too old a hand for that, by a long way.

Love’s Dazzling Glitter by May Agnes Fleming

Love’s Dazzling Glitter - A sequel to "Carried by storm"

Love’s Dazzling Glitter - A novel by May Agnes Fleming. Author of "Wedded, Yet no Wife," "A Wonderful Woman," "Silent and True," "Norine's Revenge," "Carried by Storm." The ideal romances of American life, published in the New Eagle Series.

Excerpt:
With the rising of the morning's frosty sun, Joanna's new life in the city may be fairly said to begin.
It was rather late. She descended to the room with cooking stove, which the kitchen, parlor, dining room, and children's sleeping room inclusive. The little black stove so superheated it that the windows were open. Two or three pots of hardy rose geraniums flourished on the sills. They made a pleasant spot of color to the country girl's eyes, with their vivid green leaves and pink blossoms. Sunlight found the room tidy as lamplight. Mrs. Gibbs stood over a tub in the corner, washing, a little boy and girl of five toddled about, each with a doll made out of a bottle. This the home scene that greeted Joanna.
"Good morning," Mrs. Gibbs said. "How did you rest, my dear?"