Lessons for the 21st century from Mary Shelley’s 1826 novel ‘The Last Man’

Even if you have never read it, you know the story of Mary Shelley’s second great work of political science fiction after Frankenstein. The Last Man, published in 1826 but set in the late 21st century, tells the tale of a lethal contagion spread by human conflict and war that sweeps the world and seemingly leaves one sole human survivor.

With wars and climate catastrophes hitting a world still reeling from 7 million deaths caused by Covid-19, Shelley’s pandemic novel has perhaps never felt so relevant.

And the book’s influence is widespread. The tropes and themes of The Last Man have shaped the genre of postapocalyptic fiction in the two centuries since its release. In Shelley’s Frankenstein and the many stories, films and TV shows it has inspired, the abandoned monster becomes a plague upon his creator.

In The Last Man and the countless books and movies on its themes that followed, a human-made epidemic becomes the mega-monster that threatens the extinction of humanity itself.

Some of the recent television series that explore these themes are The Last of Us, Midnight Mass, and Station Eleven. They follow classic films such as I Am Legend, 28 Days Later, and The Last Man on Earth.

Regardless of how many zombie-invasion or vampire-apocalypse movies you have seen, if you haven’t read The Last Man, I recommend you do. And if you have, perhaps read it again.

I have...

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