The Last Man - Mary Shelley

 

Of course, like any horror fan of my age, the Frankenstein tale and, naturally, the classic movie, has always resonated with me. Having seen the movie before reading the book - the same as with Dracula - the film is my preferred version, but the novel is a part of my life, as well. I never did explore any of Shelley's other works so when I discovered this, a dystopian, pandemic-themed story, I was interested in finding out how she would tackle this theme.

Interestingly, the story is set in the future - later this century, in fact - but there is little in the narrative that alludes to any time other than Shelley's period. They travel by horses - occasionally by hot air balloon, the one concession to a different future - and live in castles and battle with swords. It's somewhat odd that the woman with the imagination to create Frankenstein's monster could not contemplate any type of future innovations. This combined with her old fashioned dialect does not lend itself to futuristic fantasies.

On top of this, half way through the book there is still no indication of the plague that is the basis for the tale. The story is basically a soap opera of relationships - not bad in any way, but again, not the "advertised" story line. By the second "volume" of the book the plague is introduced, along with increasing weather disruptions - shades of climate change! Funnily, in this fantasy, the wealthy work hard - literally they help till the land - to help those in need in the times of pestilence with food and shelter, unlike our current times. Of course, as the ravages continue, times are increasingly harder - although food continues to be plentiful due to the decrease in population - and the survivors try to decide what is a proper course of action, if any. The plague continues to run its course until there is only one, 'the last man".

Certainly a compelling theme and Shelley brings up some intriguing points throughout the story (when there are only a handful of people left, it actually doesn't sound so bad to be able to travel with your friends wherever you want, to have plentiful food and to be able to sleep in palaces and enjoy works of art at your leisure), but again, the antiquated language tends to make the reading slow and the futuristic setting was essentially unnecessary.