“The last man! Yes, I may well describe that solitary being, for I am he!”
— Lionel Verney's opening reflection on his unique and tragic status.
Archivist's Choice
The Last Man
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1826)
Genre
Science Fiction
Reading Time
9-10 hours
Key Themes
See below
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In 2100, the last person alive after a global plague wanders a silent Earth, dealing with the horror of human extinction.
Synopsis
In late 21st-century England, Lionel Verney tells the story of humanity's fall due to a global plague. His early life is poor, but he and his sister bond closely. Adrian, the melancholic son of the former King of England, takes them in. Raymond, a Greek hero, joins their group, leading to complicated relationships. Raymond marries Adrian's sister, Perdita, while Lionel marries Idris, Adrian's daughter. Raymond's political ambition makes him Lord Protector of England, but he dies in Greece after a military loss.
The story then turns to the global plague, which slowly kills people. As the plague reaches England, Lionel, Adrian, Idris, and their children try to find safety, moving across Europe to escape the disease. One by one, everyone Lionel loves dies from the plague or accidents. He sees society collapse and humanity disappear. Lionel Verney becomes the only person left. He walks through empty cities, thinking about humanity's fate, before deciding to sail to Rome, accepting his solitary life as the last witness to human history.
Reading time
9-10 hours
Difficulty
Medium
Pacing
Slow
Mood
Melancholic, Apocalyptic, Philosophical, Somber
✓ Read this if...
You enjoy classic gothic literature with a dystopian, apocalyptic theme, are interested in early science fiction, or appreciate philosophical reflections on human existence and society's collapse.
✗ Skip this if...
You prefer fast-paced action, optimistic narratives, or find prolonged descriptions of despair and loss too bleak.
Plot Summary
The Editor's Discovery and Lionel's Early Life
The story begins with an 'Editor' who, in 2090, finds old writings and ruins near Naples. These writings, supposedly by the Cumaean Sibyl, predict humanity's end and are 'translated' to create the story. The plot itself starts with Lionel Verney, the narrator, describing his early life in England. Born into a once-noble family, Lionel and his sister Perdita are orphans, living in poverty and seen as outcasts. Lionel grows up wild and uneducated, often stealing, a sharp contrast to the refined English court.
Raymond's Arrival and the Formation of a New Circle
The English countryside changes with the arrival of Lord Raymond, a famous war hero who gave up royal ambitions for a simpler life. Raymond takes an interest in Lionel, offering him an education and a place in his home. Through Raymond, Lionel meets Adrian, the good and sad son of England's last King, and Adrian's graceful and smart sister, Idris. This new connection greatly alters Lionel's life, moving him from his rough existence to a world of learning and social interaction, though he struggles at first to fit in.
Love, Rivalry, and Marriages
Complicated feelings grow: Raymond loves Idris deeply, but she does not return his feelings, secretly loving Adrian. Adrian, however, has a strong platonic affection for Raymond and sees Raymond's intense love for Idris. To resolve this, Adrian sacrifices his own happiness, convincing Idris to marry Raymond. At the same time, Lionel falls in love with Idris, but seeing her love for Adrian and her coming marriage to Raymond, he steps aside. Instead, Lionel marries Idris's friend, Perdita (his own sister). So, Raymond marries Idris, and Lionel marries Perdita, strengthening the group's bonds. Adrian remains unmarried, his selflessness a key trait.
Raymond's Political Ascent and Downfall
Raymond, wanting glory, becomes Lord Protector of England. He starts well, but his desire for power leads him to a bad war against the Ottoman Empire to free Greece. Despite early wins, the fighting becomes long and bloody, costing England many lives. During this time, Raymond becomes more arrogant and less moral. He dies in battle in Greece, a victim of war and his own unfulfilled goals, leaving Idris a widow and their daughter Clara without a father.
The First Signs of the Plague
After Raymond's death, a new and more terrible threat appears from the East: a devastating plague. It is first reported as a local disease in Constantinople, but its hidden nature and fast spread soon become clear. News of its march across continents, emptying cities and regions, reaches England, causing widespread fear. The plague is a mysterious, incurable illness that kills quickly and randomly, affecting everyone. This begins the apocalyptic events that shape the rest of the story, overshadowing all human concerns.
The Plague's Arrival in England
The plague eventually reaches England, bringing great horror and societal collapse. London, once busy, becomes a ghost town, its streets full of the dead and dying. Panic takes over, leading to lawlessness and the breakdown of all institutions. During this time, Perdita, Lionel's wife, dies from the plague, leaving Lionel devastated. Her death is one of the first major losses for the group, showing the plague's unstoppable power and its indifference to personal ties. The remaining survivors, including Lionel, Adrian, Idris, and Clara, try to keep some order and hope amid the growing chaos.
The Search for a Safe Haven
As the plague continues its spread across England, the remaining characters, led by Adrian, decide to leave the ruined cities and seek safety in the countryside, hoping to avoid infection. They form a small group, trying to live off the land and avoid sick areas. But the plague cannot be escaped. During their hard journey, more of their group die from the disease. Idris, Adrian's sister and Raymond's widow, eventually gets the plague and dies, leaving Adrian and Lionel to care for her young daughter, Clara. The shrinking group and constant threat deepen their despair and loneliness.
Migration to Europe and Further Losses
Believing England is lost to the plague, Adrian, Lionel, and Clara, with a few others, decide to travel across the English Channel to mainland Europe, hoping to find a less affected area. They face huge problems, including storms, low supplies, and the constant mental burden of being among the last people. During their sea voyage, a strong storm hits their ship. Adrian, in a selfless act, tries to save Clara, but both drown in the rough water. Lionel is left as the only survivor, seeing the final, terrible loss of his loved ones.
Lionel Verney: The Last Man
Lionel Verney, now truly the 'Last Man,' lands in Italy, where he continues his lonely travels. He walks through empty cities like Rome and Venice, seeing only the decaying remains of human civilization and dead bodies. He fully realizes he is utterly alone, the last living human on Earth. He deals with great grief, despair, and a huge sense of isolation. His attempts to find anyone else are useless, confirming his unique and frightening status. He thinks about how short human life is and how pointless ambition is, finding comfort only in nature and the memory of those he lost.
The Final Journey and Reflection
Having accepted his fate as the last man, Lionel Verney decides to spend his remaining days recording the story of humanity's end, so their history is not completely lost. He sails from Italy to various empty regions, thinking about the beauty of the natural world that remains, untouched by human suffering. He makes a final trip to Rome, where he writes his story among the ruins, becoming the historian of a vanished species. The novel ends with Lionel sailing from Ostia in a small boat, with only his dog, planning to travel the world, a lonely wanderer and the final witness to an era's end, leaving his manuscript for any future intelligent life to find.
Principal Figures
Lionel Verney
The Protagonist
From a wild, uneducated outcast, he evolves into a refined and philosophical observer, ultimately becoming the melancholic chronicler of humanity's final days.
Adrian
The Supporting
He remains consistently virtuous and selfless, acting as humanity's moral center until his tragic, heroic death.
Lord Raymond
The Supporting
From a revered war hero and mentor, he succumbs to ambition and pride, leading to a tragic end in a foreign war.
Idris
The Supporting
She navigates complex emotional loyalties with grace and duty, ultimately succumbing to the plague with dignity.
Perdita
The Supporting
Her character arc is marked by unrequited love and melancholia, culminating in an early death from the plague.
Clara
The Supporting
As a child, she embodies the fleeting hope for humanity's future, tragically perishing before the full extent of the apocalypse.
The Editor
The Mentioned
Serves as a framing device, discovering and presenting the narrative, with no personal arc within the main story.
Ryland
The Supporting
He attempts to lead and organize survivors but ultimately fails against the plague's unstoppable force.
Themes & Insights
Isolation and Solitude
Loneliness is a main theme, ending with Lionel Verney as 'The Last Man.' The novel details the mental cost of losing people, from being an outcast in youth to the deep, existential loneliness of being the only survivor. Lionel's walks through empty cities like Rome and Venice show the emptiness left by humanity. His final boat journey represents a permanent state of being completely alone in a world made for company, showing the human need for connection and the heavy weight of its absence.
“I am alone in the world! The waves moan, and the winds sigh, and the animals weep, but I am alone!”
The Fragility of Human Civilization
Shelley shows how quickly human civilization, with all its progress, can fall apart when faced with a huge threat. The plague destroys social structures, laws, and morals, reducing humanity to a desperate fight for survival. Lord Raymond's ambition, political schemes, and human artistic achievements become meaningless. Cities become ruins, and the organized society dissolves into chaos, showing that human successes are temporary when facing nature's overwhelming power.
“The earth was no longer for man; the last trace of him was about to vanish.”
The Futility of Ambition and Power
Lord Raymond's story best shows this theme. His constant pursuit of glory, first as a war hero and then as Lord Protector, leads to a terrible war and his death, all before the plague makes such ambitions pointless. The novel suggests that human striving for power, wealth, or fame is ultimately meaningless in the larger scope of existence. Even Adrian's attempts to organize survivors, though good, are powerless against the plague. The focus shifts from human action to human weakness, showing how pointless earthly desires are when facing destruction.
“How vain are human projects! How weak the arm of man! A breath, a pestilence, has swept away a world.”
Grief and Loss
The story is full of grief and loss, as Lionel Verney sees the slow, painful extinction of everyone he loves and, eventually, all of humanity. Each death—Perdita, Idris, Raymond, Adrian, Clara—is a personal blow that deepens Lionel's despair. The total effect of these losses is not just sadness, but a burden on his existence. The novel explores the mental process of mourning on a global scale, where grief has no shared outlet and becomes a deeply solitary experience, forcing Lionel to face the meaning of life when all life around him has gone.
“I was alone. The last survivor of a perished race.”
Nature's Indifference and Endurance
In contrast to the dying human world, nature stays beautiful and completely uncaring about human suffering. As cities fall silent and human life stops, the sun still rises, rivers still flow, and plants keep growing. Lionel often sees nature's lasting beauty—the Italian sky, the Mediterranean Sea—which serves as a sad background to human tragedy. This theme highlights humanity's place in the natural order, suggesting that while human life is short, the earth itself continues, vast and indifferent, after its most dominant species is gone.
“The earth still bloomed, and the sun still shone; but the earth was a tomb, and the sun illuminated the dead.”
Plot Devices & Literary Techniques
Framing Device (Sibylline Leaves)
The narrative is presented as a translation of ancient prophetic leaves.
The novel opens with an 'Editor' in the year 2090 discovering ancient Sibylline leaves and claiming to have translated them into the story of Lionel Verney. This device serves several purposes: it provides a futuristic context for the apocalyptic narrative, lending it an air of prophecy and historical authenticity. It also creates a sense of detachment, allowing the reader to perceive the events as a recounted history rather than immediate fiction, thus amplifying the emotional impact of humanity's demise as a foretold and inevitable event. This frame also suggests the cyclical nature of prophecy and history.
First-Person Narration (Lionel Verney)
The entire story is told through the subjective lens of the protagonist.
The entire narrative is recounted by Lionel Verney, the 'Last Man,' in the first person. This subjective perspective allows for an intimate exploration of his psychological journey through profound loss and ultimate solitude. It forces the reader to experience the incremental devastation of the plague and the emotional impact of each character's death directly through his eyes and reflections. This device intensifies the feeling of isolation and despair, as the reader is confined to Lionel's mind, witnessing the world's end alongside him, making his grief and final solitude deeply personal and immediate.
The Plague
A relentless, incurable disease that serves as the primary antagonist.
The plague is not merely a plot catalyst but functions as the central antagonist of the novel. It is an abstract, inexorable force of nature, embodying ultimate destruction. Unlike a human antagonist, it cannot be reasoned with, fought, or defeated. Its slow, relentless advance across the globe, its indiscriminate nature, and its incurability highlight humanity's vulnerability and the futility of its scientific and social efforts. The plague strips away all pretense of human control, forcing characters to confront their mortality and the inherent fragility of their existence, ultimately leading to total annihilation.
Pastoral vs. Urban Settings
Contrasting environments highlight humanity's decline and nature's endurance.
Shelley frequently contrasts the idyllic, often pastoral settings of early England and the serene beauty of the natural world (e.g., the Thames, the Mediterranean) with the decaying, plague-ridden urban centers (e.g., London, Rome, Venice). Initially, the English countryside offers a refuge and a backdrop for the characters' personal lives and ambitions. As the plague spreads, these once-vibrant cities become desolate tombs, emphasizing the collapse of human civilization. Conversely, nature endures, indifferent and beautiful, providing a stark reminder of humanity's transience against the backdrop of an eternal, untouched world, underscoring the novel's themes of nature's power and human insignificance.
Critical analysis
Notable Quotes
“The wind of death has swept over the earth, and I alone am left to tell the tale.”
— Verney contemplating the plague's devastation and his role as chronicler.
“Humanity, what art thou? A tree, a flower, a blade of grass, that decayeth and is no more.”
— Verney's philosophical musing on the transience of human existence.
“We were not made to live alone, and the last of mankind is a monster.”
— Verney grappling with the psychological burden of absolute solitude.
“The glory of the human race has departed, and its place is filled by the silence of the tomb.”
— A reflection on the complete extinction of humanity's achievements.
“Love, friendship, and the sweet ties of kindred, once the solace of my life, are now but names.”
— Verney lamenting the loss of all personal connections.
“My mind, like a desolate mansion, echoes with the voices of the departed.”
— Verney describing his internal state, haunted by memories.
“Is there no God in heaven to look down on this desolation and pity the last of his creatures?”
— Verney questioning divine presence and compassion in the face of universal death.
“The world was a tomb, and I was its solitary tenant.”
— A stark summary of Verney's existence on a depopulated Earth.
“I was a ruin amidst ruins, a living monument to universal death.”
— Verney seeing himself as a symbol of the world's destruction.
“The spirit of man, unconquerable even in death, still seemed to hover over the scene.”
— A brief moment of reflection on humanity's enduring spirit despite its physical demise.
“Rome, thou art fallen! My own country, thou art fallen! The world itself is fallen!”
— Verney observing the decay of great cities and extending the tragedy to the entire planet.
“To be alone, utterly alone, with the wide world as my sepulchre.”
— A concise and powerful expression of Verney's ultimate isolation.
“I am the only witness to the last of human kind.”
— Verney reiterating his unique and burdensome role as the sole observer of humanity's end.
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Key Questions (FAQ)
'The Last Man' by Mary Shelley chronicles the devastating impact of a global plague that gradually eradicates humanity, leaving only one survivor, Lionel Verney. The story is presented as a posthumous manuscript discovered in the year 2073, detailing Verney's life from early 19th-century England through the 21st century as he witnesses the collapse of civilization and the agonizing loss of every loved one.
About the author
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction and one of her best-known works. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin and her mother was the philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft.
