false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179872743m/966835.jpg 966835 39 'The last man! I may well describe that solitary being's feelings, feeling myself as the last relic of a beloved race, my companions extinct before me.' Mary Shelley, Journal (May 1824). Best remembered as the author of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley wrote The Last Man eight years later, on returning to England from Italy after her husband's death. It is the twenty-first century, and England is a republic governed by a ruling elite, one of whom, Adrian, Earl of Windsor, has introduced a Cumbrian boy to the circle. This outsider, Lionel Verney, narrates the story, a tale of complicated, tragic love, and of the gradual extermination of the human race by plague. The Last Man also functions as an intriguing roman a clef, for the saintly Adrian is a monument to Percy Bysshe Shelley, and his friend Lord Raymond is a portrait of Byron. The novel offers a vision of the future that expresses a reaction against Romanticism, as Shelley demonstrates the failure of the imagination and of art to redeem her doomed characters. 835097 1967 The Last Man (Oxford World's Classics) total:169|5:36|4:55|3:47|2:20|1:11| 169 592 425 29 5 4 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Fri Feb 29 15:21:15 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 04 19:30:47 -0800 2008 The Last Man! One of the (many)books perpetually on my re-read list.

This later work from Shelly shows her talent as a mature innovative writer and secures a literary legacy outside of her husband's shadow. Written four years after Percy's death and some ten years after the publicatio...more...]]> 3 1 false false Wed Aug 20 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 21 11:57:13 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 29 12:52:18 -0700 2008
Pro - the note...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Feb 04 06:50:40 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 04 06:55:56 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Mar 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 19 21:21:34 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 30 11:39:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Nov 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Aug 11 14:25:53 -0700 2009 Wed Nov 04 19:51:58 -0800 2009 Badelynge
It seems like I've been reading Mary Shelley's The Last Man all year. I'm not the fastest of readers but whenever I read poetry I read even slower. The Last Man isn't poetry but it is written using poetic prose, which keeps tricking me into thinking I'm reading an epic poe...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 11:01:37 -0800 2009 Thu Apr 02 08:20:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Fri Jun 13 21:41:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 28 20:57:39 -0700 2009 The Last Man are ludicrous, but the plot itself is interesting. The novel is set after 2070 in a Europe remarkably similar to the one known by Mary Shelly except that the last king of England has given up the throne in ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Nov 25 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 20 15:47:05 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 25 17:04:57 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Nov 06 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Aug 07 18:49:15 -0700 2008 Thu Nov 06 07:08:05 -0800 2008
The first two volumes detail the life of the main character, as he grows up, meets his enduring friends, and settles down with his wife and children. ...more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Jul 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 23 04:40:28 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 23 04:40:28 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Oct 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 05:26:39 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 26 05:33:12 -0700 2009 The Road. It's sort of like what McCarthy might write if he had lived in the 19th century.]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1992 Mon Dec 22 11:31:07 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 22 11:32:03 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Wed May 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jan 14 14:50:39 -0800 2008 Wed May 14 11:52:37 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Sep 24 06:34:03 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 24 06:39:44 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 0 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 17 05:47:15 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 30 06:17:09 -0700 2008
The writing was very flowery, which would have been charming if it hadn't made the book ten times longer than it should have been. To quote from the book: "The silence of midnight, to...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 08 06:55:01 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 16 15:02:03 -0800 2008 Frankenstein. The Last Man, a tale of armegeddon, unfortunately is very slowly drawn out and dated. Overall themes of isolation and global disasters are certainly applicable today, but with themes of...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jul 20 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 16 06:42:24 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 21 08:58:37 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Sun Oct 19 14:30:47 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 25 05:04:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Mar 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Dec 20 14:32:09 -0800 2008 Thu Mar 12 15:06:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Tue Mar 31 14:48:21 -0700 2009 Fri May 01 14:55:23 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=966835