August Derleth said M.P. Shiel was ". . . the Grand Viscount of the Grotesque . . . [with a] refulgently fanciful imagination and magical command of the English language." Arthur Machen said, "Here is a wilder wonderland than Poe ever dreamt of . . . It is Poe, perhaps, but Poe with an unearthly radiance." Shapes in the Fire is an extraordinary collection of Shiel"s work: don"t miss it.