Prince Zaleski

by M. P. Shiel, Paul Fox (Introduction)

Overview

Prince Zaleski, an exiled Russian nobleman, inhabits a half-ruined abbey in Wales, where he spends most of his time smoking cannabis and opium, reading from his library of medieval books, or admiring his collection of rare curios dating from ancient antiquity. His retirement from the world is occasionally interrupted by his friend Shiel, who comes to seek Zaleski's help in solving mysteries that have baffled the greatest minds in Britain.

In "The Race of Orven," Zaleski must unravel a case involving a burglary, a murder, a floating phantasm, and three severed fingers. In "The Stone of the Edmundsbury Monks," the prince races against time to solve the mystery of a jewel from the Crusades that may cause a man's death. And in the final story in the collection, "The S.S.," an inexplicable wave of thousands of apparent suicides puts Zaleski to the ultimate test and leads to a deeply disturbing conclusion.

Originally appearing in 1895 as the seventh entry in John Lane's provocative

Keynotes

series,

Prince Zaleski

incorporated two of the popular trends in 1890s literature: Decadence and detective stories. Influenced by Poe, Huysmans, and Wilde, Shiel's Decadent detective remains one of the most intriguing creations of fin de siècle British fiction. This edition includes the unabridged text of the original edition and features a new introduction by Paul Fox.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781934555033
Publisher:	Valancourt Books
Publication date:	11/17/2009
Pages:	106
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.27(d)

About the Author

Matthew Phipps Shiell (1865 - 1947) - 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 horror and scientific romances. His work was published as serials, novels and as short stories. The Purple Cloud (1901, revised 1929) remains his most famous and often reprinted novel. Around 1899-1900 Shiel conceived a loosely linked trilogy of novels which were described by David G. Hartwell in his introduction to the Gregg Press edition of The Purple Cloud as possibly the first future history series in science fiction. Each was linked by similar introductory frame purporting to show that the novels were visions of progressively more distant futures glimpsed by a clairvoyant in a trance. Notebook I of the series had been plotted at least by 1898, but would not see print until published as The Last Miracle (1906). Notebook II became The Lord of the Sea (1901), which was recognized by contemporary readers as a critique of private ownership of land based on the theories of Henry George.