The Last Man - Pre-read Chit Chat

[Gem , Moderator]

We'll be starting the Group Read for The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley on August 2. I'll be posting the background information tomorrow.

Has anyone ever read this selection before? Did you enjoy it? (No spoilers please just overview or general information.) Was it as good a Frankenstein?

[Rosemarie, Moderator]

I read this a few years ago and think it is comparable to Frankenstein, although a longer read.

[Robin P, Moderator]

It didn't get a great reception at the time. I am interested to read it because it wasn't "improved" by Percy as Frankenstein was. (He made everything more formal and longwinded, in my opinion.) At this point in her life, although she was still fairly young, Mary had lost several children and her husband, as well as some other family members and friends, so she felt like the last person on earth.

[Gem , Moderator]

Robin P wrote: "It didn't get a great reception at the time."

I knew that.

"I am interested to read it because it wasn't "improved" by Percy as Frankenstein was. (He made everything more formal and longwinded, in my opinion.)"

That I did not know.

At this point in her life, although she was still fairly young, Mary had lost several children and her husband, as well as some other family members and friends, so she felt like the last person on earth.

This is one of the reasons I love this group. I knew she lost children and her husband but did not draw the line to how she was feeling.

I wish I wasn't so literal.

[Rafael]

I read it and I really enjoyed it. My advice is: do not quit it! It could be quite slow paced at the beginning but not quit it. Keep going! The first volume is important to the rest of the story.

[Rosemarie, Moderator]

Good advice, Rafael!

[Robin P, Moderator]

You may want to be careful about electronic editions of this book. I downloaded one from Kindle. It was probably free because the book is in public domain. But as I began to read it, there were many sentences that didn't quite make sense and some odd words, like the word "hyperlink" was used, which didn't exist. It seems like the text was translated into some other language and translated back, or translated by machine. I went to another source that draws directly from Project Gutenberg and that one is fine.

[Lori, Moderator]

Robin, did you get it from Amazon?

[Robin P, Moderator]

I got the defective one from Amazon. I looked it up and found out I had paid something like 3.99. I was able to return it, saying "defective content". I wanted to give them more feedback but there wasn't really a place to do that.

I have an iPad app called Megareader that I have used ever since we did the Dickens project. It cost a few dollars but it contains the whole Gutenberg database as well as several others. It sometimes includes the illustrations as well. I'm not sure that app is still available. The copy of The Last Man I downloaded from there was fine. For some reason I thought they didn't have it so I bought the Amazon one but when I checked again, I found it.

[Janice (JG)]

I have had this book on my shelf forever, and never thought I would get around to it. I am really looking forward to this reading, and the discussions.