The Last Man

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 1M words
Chapters: 101

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyAuthor: Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Apr 24, 2006

Editor's review

The Last Man is the apocalyptic novel Mary Shelley wrote after Frankenstein and is often regarded by literary history as an important early text of science fiction and disaster narrative. Set against a plague that sweeps the globe, the novel tells of individual loneliness, memory, and emotional struggle as humanity nears extinction. It has a Gothic gloom and also reflects on the fragility of civilization. Shelley's touch is delicate, and she focuses private emotion within vast catastrophe, so that the apocalyptic vision does not remain mere spectacle but becomes a vehicle for exploring love, loss, and hope. This is a public-domain English eBook from Project Gutenberg, suitable as English literature reading material and for readers interested in nineteenth-century fiction or the origins of apocalyptic themes. When reading, pay attention to shifts in the narrator's perspective and to the lyrical passages, and consider how early apocalyptic imagination differs from contemporary works of the same kind. Because the book was written long ago, some passages move slowly; reading with background material is recommended.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy Gothic fiction and nineteenth-century English literature
Science fiction fans interested in the origins of apocalyptic and plague themes
Literature students who want to extend their reading of English classics
Readers studying the development of Mary Shelley's work

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer fast pacing and strong action plots
Those with weak English reading skills who need Chinese annotations
Readers expecting detailed scientific worldbuilding and hard science fiction explanations

Reading tips

Read the preface or learn about the writing background before starting, to better understand Shelley's apocalyptic conception.
Proceed chapter by chapter and briefly note the narrator's emotional shifts and key events after each one.
Read it alongside Frankenstein to observe how the author continues themes of solitude and creation.
Slow down at long lyrical passages and note how they resonate with the disaster narrative.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a sequel to Frankenstein?

No. It is another independent novel by Mary Shelley. Its subject shifts from creating life through science to global plague and human extinction, but it also focuses on solitude, responsibility, and emotion, and can be read alongside Frankenstein.

How difficult is the English?

It is nineteenth-century English literature with long sentences and many lyrical passages. The vocabulary is not especially obscure, but the pace is slow. Readers with university-level English or experience reading English classics will find it easier to enter; beginners should use annotations or a guide.

What does the electronic edition include?

This is a public-domain English eBook published by Project Gutenberg. It mainly provides the novel's text and usually does not include detailed modern scholarly notes or an introduction. The actual formatting and additional information depend on the file.

Why is it worth reading?

It is often regarded as one of the representative early apocalyptic novels. It combines large-scale disaster with private emotion and shows the human psychological state as civilization collapses, offering a useful reference for understanding the later evolution of apocalyptic themes.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851 Author

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851) was an English novelist best known for Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The novel tells the tragedy of a scientist who creates life only to be destroyed by his own creation, and is regarded as a founding work of science fiction with far-reaching influence. Besides this masterpiece, she wrote The Last Man, Mathilda, and several short stories and tales, and edited and annotated the poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her writing often explores loneliness, creation and responsibility, and the boundaries of life, combining a Gothic atmosphere with philosophical reflection. Note that her nationality and dates are marked as unknown in our records, and public information is limited; the above introduction is based mainly on her surviving works.