Shillong: Mary Shelley published The Last Man in 1826. Set in the late 21st century, the three-volume work tracks a world destroyed by war and a human-made plague. The story remains relevant today. It echoes concerns about extreme weather, pandemics, and extinction.
Volume I begins as a romance at Windsor Castle. Personal and political infidelities eventually destabilize England’s democracy. In Volume II, leaders Lord Raymond and the former prince Adrian travel to fight in the war of Greek independence against Turkey. A lethal contagion emerges from the battlefield near Constantinople, spreading globally. By Volume III, governments fail and society collapses. Lionel Verney, the narrator, stands as the lone survivor.
Shelley wrote the book following profound personal tragedy. In 1822, her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, drowned at age 29. She lost three of their four children. She documented this grief in her Journal of Sorrow. She later noted that Lord Raymond was an avatar for Lord Byron, while Adrian represented her late husband. She viewed the fictional plague as a mirror for the human-made tragedies that decimated her own circle.
The novel warns that unchecked conflict leads to catastrophe. In describing the end of humanity, Shelley wrote, "(T)he vessel of society was wrecked, and the shattered raft, which carried the few survivors over the sea of misery, was riven and tempest tost. Man existed by twos and threes; man, the individual who might sleep, and wake, and perform the animal functions; but man … the queller of the elements, the lord of created nature, the peer of demi-gods, existed no longer."
Despite the grim themes, the book offers a sliver of optimism. Verney survives in the ruins of Rome and sets sail into the South Indian Ocean. He hopes to find other survivors and build new, humane communities. His journey features only his dog and the works of Shakespeare and Homer. The book has influenced modern culture, including shows like The Last of Us, Midnight Mass, and Station Eleven, as well as films like I Am Legend and 28 Days Later.
Comments