The Purple Cloud cover art

The Purple Cloud

Penguin Classics

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Purple Cloud

By: M P Shiel
Narrated by: Clifford Samuel
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Clifford Samuel. This definitive recording includes an introduction by John Sutherland.

The Purple Cloud tells the grandly bleak story of Adam Jeffson: the first man to reach the North Pole and the last man left alive on earth. A sweet-smelling, deadly cloud of poisonous gas has devastated the world, and as Jeffson travels the stricken globe in search of human life, he slowly succumbs to madness, and unleashes fire and destruction on his planet. Dark, desolate and fantastical, The Purple Cloud was a pioneer in the genre of apocalyptic novels, and the first great science fiction work of the twentieth century.

©2020 M P Shiel (P)2020 Penguin Audio Adventure Classics Fiction Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Classic Tales of the Paranormal cover art
Around the World In 80 Days cover art
In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe cover art
Within the Tides cover art
Weird Women cover art
The Black Bell Buoy cover art
HorrorBabble's Vampires cover art
The Three Impostors and Other Weird Tales cover art
The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion cover art
The Damned & Other Stories of the Macabre cover art
Quick Classics Collection: Gothic: Turn of the Screw, Dracula, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (Argo Classics) cover art
Don Quixote cover art
Dracula: The Original Manuscript cover art
Typhoon cover art
Youth and Heart of Darkness cover art
H.G. Wells Fiction Collection cover art

Critic reviews

Delivered with a skill and artistry falling little short of actual majesty (H P Lovecraft)
The first great science fiction novel of the science fiction century (John Clute)
No reviews yet