Book Review: The Last Man

The Last Man by Mary Shelley
Release Date: February 1826
Publisher: Henry Colburn
Audience: Everyone
Pages: 432
Read the Book Here: Project Gutenberg
Buy the Book: Amazon
Book Rating: 2.5/5









A lesser known title by Mary Shelley and regarded as one of her weaker works, The Last Man follows a group of individuals (generally understood to operate as roman à cléf for Shelley and her circle of literary friends) as they flee across Europe to escape a plague that is wiping out mankind.

This book also fits the definition of dystopian literature in that Mary Shelley sets her novel in the year 2100. If one could make a definitive argument that Frankenstein is not a dystopian novel, they would be hard pressed to make a similar argument about this novel. You have social order breaking apart, with new social groups emerging as they react to the plague and attempt to survive, and, well, you have a clearly defined apocalypse. Much like a natural disaster movie in the same vein, you follow a group of people as they navigate a crumbling world and try to make sense of it all.

I have only read this book once as I have somehow misplaced my copy of The Last Man and, to be honest, it took me awhile to get through it as it moves much slower than Frankenstein and I sat it aside a couple times to read something else as well. I think the problem is sometimes it gets mired down in details of day to day and, in all honesty, extensive monologues reflecting upon the apocalypse cast in 19th century language can get tedious at times. Not to mention the blood and chaos we typically think of if the apocalypse occurred today isn't there in The Last Man. Yes, you do have some of it, and it has been several years since I read it, but I just don't recall much other than the group traveling from place to place with people dying en masse across Europe.

For those who read contemporary dystopian literature, the offerings of the 19th century are a fascinating departure from today's offerings in that ideas concerning the end of the world 100+ years ago and the general mindset was quite different. There was a lot of exploration of the idea of the end of the world and the 19th century is really worth an exploration of to see what is has to offer. As far as The Last Man is concerned, I would recommend checking your local library to check it out or, if you see it for a couple bucks, it can't hurt to pick it up, but it takes it time telling its story (to the detriment of the novel I feel) and it may lose the readers attention.