The Rajah's Sapphire: 'I have, or had, something—a favor—to ask you''
By M P Shiel
()
About this ebook
Matthew Phipps Shiell was born in Montserrat in the West Indies on the 21st July 1865 and was believed to be illegitimate.
He was educated at Harrison College, Barbados before moving to Englsand in 1885 to work as a teacher and translator. He soon began to write and published a series of short stories in The Strand magazine and other periodicals. Some of his works were as a writer for hire and it seems probable that even his first novel ‘The Rajah's Sapphire’ (1896) was one of these.
Perhaps his best-known work was ‘The Purple Cloud’ (1901) and it is still considered an important early work of British science fiction.
His first marriage to the Parisian-Spaniard, Carolina Garcia Gomez in 1898 provided him a muse for a character in ‘Cold Steel’ (1900) and several short stories. They separated around 1903 and his daughter was taken to Spain after Lina died the following year. Money seemed to be at the heart of the marriage’s problems.
Shiel, like many writers wanted to write literature but his finances needed more commercial fare. With his more artistic efforts failing to provide he collaborated with Louis Tracy on a series of romantic mystery novels.
In 1902, Shiel published in book form ‘The Weird o'It’ which he described as a "true Bible or Holy Book" for modern times and its attempt to present "Christianity in a radical way."
Soon after Shiel turned his pen to contemporary themes with an historical novel about the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. But he faced declining sales and tried to boost them by returning to a previous success ‘The Yellow Danger’. These efforts failed to capture any meaningful sales.
By 1914 Shiel was in prison for "indecently assaulting and carnally knowing" his 12-year-old de facto stepdaughter. He served sixteen months of hard labour.
Over the next decade Shiel wrote five plays, dabbled in radical politics and translated pamphlets for the Workers Socialist Federation. In 1919, he married Esther Lydia Jewson. The marriage lasted a decade but fell apart over his sexual interest in and possible abuse of his wife’s young female relatives.
Financially life was difficult, but he was helped in 1931 to obtain a Civil List pension despite his criminal record.
Shiel published 25 novels, several collections of short stories, essays poems and plays.
M P Sheil died on the 17th February 1947. He was 81.
Read more from M P Shiel
The Purple Cloud: 'She would emit a stream of sounds'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrince Zaleski: 'I reached the gloomy abode of my friend'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChildren of the Wind: 'Why are you and he bad friends?'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Short Stories: 'I was simply astounded'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost Viol: ''A letter bitter to the point of invective'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShapes in the Fire: 'They parted lingeringly late in the night'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Man Stealers: 'The Hero, murdered, becomes a Saint'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Evil That Men Do: 'No one would question the fact of heredity'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Miracle: 'Am I a saint, then? At least a hero?'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Rajah's Sapphire
Related ebooks
Delphi Collected Works of M. P. Shiel (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rajah's Sapphire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Corsican Brothers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rajah’s Sapphire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOld Valentines: A Love Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Gentleman-at-arms: Being passages in the life of Sir Christopher Rudd, Knight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Betrothed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBohemian Days: Three American Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Marquis Of Carabas Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Essential Novelists - James Payn: sensible reflection upon familiar topics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShapes in the Fire: 'They parted lingeringly late in the night'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Agony Column Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Salt of the Earth: "From what you say, you are flying from justice" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Agony Column (Serapis Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ghostly Tales - Volume I of V Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPieces of Eight: "A critic is a man created to praise greater men than himself, but he is never able to find them." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe King of Alsander Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEighteenth Century Vignettes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLittle Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWaiting for Sunrise: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Allan Ramsay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Return of the Sorcerer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Corinne; or, Italy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove in the Night Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wizard's Daughter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe King of Alsander: "For the spear was a desert physician, That cured not a few of ambition" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEast Lynne: “True love is ever timid” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGorsky: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMrs. Mary Robinson, Written by Herself, With the lives of the Duchesses of Gordon and Devonshire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Slave of the Lamp Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Classics For You
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden (Original Classic Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mythos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun Also Rises: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Count of Monte-Cristo English and French Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Women (Seasons Edition -- Winter) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Rajah's Sapphire
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Rajah's Sapphire - M P Shiel
The Rajah’s Sapphire by M P Shiel
Matthew Phipps Shiell was born in Montserrat in the West Indies on the 21st July 1865 and was believed to be illegitimate.
He was educated at Harrison College, Barbados before moving to England in 1885 to work as a teacher and translator. He soon began to write and published a series of short stories in The Strand magazine and other periodicals. Some of his works were as a writer for hire and it seems probable that even his first novel ‘The Rajah's Sapphire’ (1896) was one of these.
Perhaps his best-known work was ‘The Purple Cloud’ (1901) and it is still considered an important early work of British science fiction.
His first marriage to the Parisian-Spaniard, Carolina Garcia Gomez in 1898 provided him a muse for a character in ‘Cold Steel’ (1900) and several short stories. They separated around 1903 and his daughter was taken to Spain after Lina died the following year. Money seemed to be at the heart of the marriage’s problems.
Shiel, like many writers wanted to write literature but his finances needed more commercial fare. With his more artistic efforts failing to provide he collaborated with Louis Tracy on a series of romantic mystery novels.
In 1902, Shiel published in book form ‘The Weird o'It’ which he described as a true Bible or Holy Book
for modern times and its attempt to present Christianity in a radical way.
Soon after Shiel turned his pen to contemporary themes with an historical novel about the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. But he faced declining sales and tried to boost them by returning to a previous success ‘The Yellow Danger’. These efforts failed to capture any meaningful sales.
By 1914 Shiel was in prison for indecently assaulting and carnally knowing
his 12-year-old de facto stepdaughter. He served sixteen months of hard labour.
Over the next decade Shiel wrote five plays, dabbled in radical politics and translated pamphlets for the Workers Socialist Federation. In 1919, he married Esther Lydia Jewson. The marriage lasted a decade but fell apart over his sexual interest in and possible abuse of his wife’s young female relatives.
Financially life was difficult, but he was helped in 1931 to obtain a Civil List pension despite his criminal record.
Shiel published 25 novels, several collections of short stories, essays poems and plays.
M P Sheil died on the 17th February 1947. He was 81.
Index of Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
CHAPTER I
The Markgraf Stefan von Reutlingen, that rising son of the corps diplomatique, was not in the best of spirits. He felt as if he lacked part of himself, like an animal whose tail has been decapitated; for, while his handsome, knit body was in close attendance on the Kaiser at the Zeughaus, in Berlin, on the particular Sunday afternoon in question, the most important organ of that same handsome body was away truant in a certain western English county. Now, a frame without a heart is like an egg without salt; and thus it was that the Kaiser frowned more than once during the day to find his brilliant protege insipid to his taste, wearing an absent look, and giving spiritless answers to the spirited questions of his volcanic sovereign.
It was the 27th of January, in this year of grace 1895, and so, of course, the birthday of Wilhelm. Stefan's first task for the day had been to attend in the train of his young master at the Palast-kapelle to hear divine service. The soldier-emperor is nothing if not devout, and the days wound up with wine-libations to Mars are usually begun by him with the payment of his respects to the Nazarene carpenter. Stefan, too, like most sons of noble, old German races, had a tincture of a certain haughty piety in his composition. He rose early, full of the great day and all its details, sighed the name of a certain Ada Macdonald, called down with genuine feeling a blessing on the turbulent head of his young master, and, having ensconced his feet in the fur of a pair of wrought slippers and his back in the fur of a dressing-gown of scarlet velvet, sat down to the white napery and the silver service of a dainty private breakfast.
Fritz, the trusty, his right-hand man, the only living being who could satisfactorily wax the sweeping, diplomatic semi-circles of the young Markgraf's radiant moustache, placed gingerly by his right hand the privileged letters of the morning, and it was the very first of these which the Markgraf opened that sealed the fate of his good spirits for the rest of that day. Stefan had a trick of tapping lightly with his knuckles on the nearest convenient surface in moments of high impatience, and for a full quarter of an hour after reading this letter he gazed vaguely before him, and the table sounded forth a gentle, mechanical tattoo under his tapping hand. The note was short, and ran:
"Dearest,—All is fixed. The ball will be, after all, on the 6th. and you are going to be there. Do not tell me about diplomacy, do not tell me about your too absurd, little Kaiser! If trifles such as these keep you from me at a time when I specially require, and demand, your presence—what am I to think? No, no, you must come. It will be no ball to your Ada if you are not there; I think you appreciate the compliment. And there