The Last Man
by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
The Last Man is Mary Shelley's apocalyptic sci-fi novel published in 1826. It portrays a future ravaged by plague and famine in which technology, religion and hope are wiped away. Shelley is the first to conceive of a future apocalypse as a literary device, and would influence many writers to come.
The Last Man is set in England between 2070 and 2100. Though it doesn't look a whole lot different from the 1820s (sans cars, telephones, internets), we can can imagine it is an alternate future. In it, Lionel Verney describes how he was taken in by a noblemen and he and his younger sister would come to mix with the upper crust of the art world.
Eventually a plague overtakes the land: bodies lying all about, and a total breakdown of order. Despite the chaos and carnage, the main characters act heroically. Gradually everyone dies, and only a few remain. Shelley's prose is obviously old school, with romantical flourishes reminiscent of Wordsworth and Byron. In fact, the characters in The Last Man are semi-autobiographical of Romantic age heavyweights like Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Bryon.
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Public Domain Information: The Last Man is identified by us as a public-domain work in the United States based on its publication history and applicable copyright terms. Copyright status can differ between countries, so readers should consider the laws applicable to their location.
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