Science Fiction Shiel, M.P.: The Lord Of The Sea. v1. 09 Jan 09

[Dr. Drib]

A Sci-Fi novel by M.P. Shiel.

John D. Squires writes, in "Rediscovering M.P. Shiel":

"Each [novel] purports to be the transcription of notes by a doctor of the statements of Mary Wilson, a patient who "witnesses" future events while under hypnotic trance. (It is possible that this framing devise may have been suggested to Shiel by W. T. Stead, who strongly believed in spiritualism and spirit writing.) In his introduction to the Gregg Press edition of The Purple Cloud (1977-- the first and so far only publication of the 1901 text in America) David Hartwell identifies the three novels as the first future history in science fiction, suggesting that they were probably written, and should be read, in order of the numbering of the notebooks identified in each prologue (I, The Last Miracle, II, The Lord of the Sea, and III, The Purple Cloud) rather than in order of publication. The numbers of the notebooks correspond to the relative distance in the future in which each novel presumably occurs."

One writer, on Amazon, has this:

"The book was called The Lord of the Sea, 'Hammett wrote, 'and had to do with a stong, tough and violent fellow named Hogarth, whose modest plan was to hold the world in one hand. There were plots and counterplots, kidnapings, murders, prisonbreakings, forgeries and burglaries, diamonds large as hats and floating forts larger than Couffignal. It sounds dizzy here, but in the book it was as real as a dime.'"

Like all the books I assemble on MobileRead, this too was assembled to reflect human intervention and artistic judgment.

I hope you enjoy it.

Don

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