Author : Mary Mary Shelley
Publisher :
Page : 90 pages
File Size : 14,7 MB
Release : 2021-05-06
Category :
ISBN :
Book Description
With two settings--one three centuries in the future and the other contemporary with Mary Shelley's own time--The Last Man combines elements of science fiction and fantasy. Lionel Verney, writing in the year 2100, believes he is the last human being left alive. Having completed a record of the events leading to the plague that wiped out humankind, he plans to set off alone, not knowing if others might survive in some distant land. (In the introduction, Mary Shelley states that these writings were found in 1818 in a cave where the sybils are thought to have lived. Thus, the "ancient history" documented therein also somehow occurs in the future.) Lionel's memoir recounts his life at court in England's monarchy--and its abrupt end when the king dies and the queen banishes his family. The young outcast and his sister, Perdita, meet and befriend Prince Adrian, a bond that remains strong. Lionel later marries Adrian's sister, Idris, and Perdita marries Lord Raymond, who fought in a war between Greece and Turkey. Lionel, Adrian, and Raymond take up the Greek freedom fighters' cause and are lauded as heroes when they return. Raymond is found to be unfaithful, however, and then dies; the distraught Perdita kills herself. In contrast, Lionel and Idris have several children and a harmonious family life.