Mary Shelley, The Last Man (1826)

Shelley, Mary. The Last Man [1826]. Ed. Morton D. Paley. Oxford: Oxford World Classics, 1998.

General Remarks

Physical description:

• p.[vi] Acknowledgements
• p.[vii] Introduction
• p.[xxiv] Note on the Text
• p.[xxv] Select Bibliography
• p.[xxvii] A Chronology of Mary Shelley
• p.1 THE LAST MAN
• p.3-165 Volume 1
• p.167-314 Volume 2
• p.315-470 Volume 3
• p.471-479 Explanitory Notes

Volume 1 (p.3-165)

Introduction (p.3-7)

p.3 Visit to Naples, 1818 -- crossed the Bay on Dec. 8 to visit the antiquities, on the shores of Baiae, esp. the Elysian Fields and Avernus, to visit the cavern of the Cumaean Sibyl. Cumaean Sibyl

p.5 They find Sibylline leaves, bark, and other substances in the cave that are traced with written characters, in various languages.

p.6 They return to the cave often to gather the leaves. Since then the narrator has been translating the remains. The narrator presents the public with the latest discoveries from the found Sibylline pages. "The main substance rests on the truths contained in these poetic rhapsodies, and the divine intuition which the Cumaean damsel obtained from heaven."

p.6-7 "Doubtless the leaves of the Cumaean Sibyl have suffered distortion and diminution of interst and excellence in my hands. My only excuse for thus transforming them, is that they were unintelligible in their pristine condition." "The merits of my adaptation and translation must decide how far I have well bestowed my time and imperfect powers, in giving form and substance to the frail and attenuated Leaves of the Sibyl."

Chapter I/1 (p.9-19)

p.9 England has become great and powerful.

p.10-11 The narrator´s father is friends with the sovereign but his father keeps getting into debt. King married to an Austrian princess. The king is of good dispositions and tries to help narrator´s father out of debt, but his father disappoints the king by losing everything by gambling and so is cast off forever, on advice from the Queen who dislikes the gambler. The father moves to Cumberland.

p.12 His father could not forget the loss of the "excitements of pleasure, the admiration of the noble, the luxurious and polished living of the great". He marries, has two children, then dies.

p.13 The narrator believes he is different and superior to his companions, maybe because of the stories he heard from his parents.

p.15-6 Description of Perdita, the narrator's younger sister.

p.18 Narrator hates anyone who is not as wild and rude as himself. He is a shephard and steals game with his comrades and is sometimes imprisoned, which makes him hate everyone even more. "My life was like that of an animal, and my mind was in danger of degenerating into that which informs brute nature. [...] passions [...] had already taken root within me, and were about to shadow with their noxious overgrowth, my path of life."

p.19 Is despised by society and begins to hate himself. "I clung to my ferocious habits, yet half despised them; I continued my war against civilization, and yet entertained a wish to belong to it." The narrator is just about to turn to greater evils when he meets a "stranger influence" that prevents him from doing this.

Chapter II/2 (p.20-35)

p.20 Narrator lives far from the "busy haunts of men". England has "momentous struggles" during his boyhood. The king, his father´s friend, abdicated the throne in 2073 and a republic was created. The king dies shortly after and the ex-queen, who is power hungry, educates her son, Adrian, with the hopes that he will reclaim the crown; however, rumors claim that he supports the republic.

p.22 The narrator's name is Lionel.

p.26 Lionel Verney

p.29 Lionel´s soul is changed - becomes human.

p.32-3 Adrian has a twelve-year-old sister. Aquaintances of the ex-queen: Prince Zaimi, embassador to England of the free States of Greece and his daughter, the young Princess Evadne, 18 years old. Evadne and Adrian are in love.

p.34 "What is there in our nature that is for ever urging us on towards pain and misery? We are not formed for enjoyment; and, however we may be attuned to the reception of pleasurable emotion, disappointment is the never-failing pilot of our life´s bark, and ruthlessly carries us on to the shoals." --a very pessimistic outlook on life

p.34-35 Adrian loves Evadne passionately, but Lionel does not perceive any love in her letters. Perhaps she is waiting for Adrian to have power? Adrian is living in exile in Cumberland; supposedly, his mother does not agree with this love. I believe it possible that she could be using it for her plan to restore her son to power.

Chapter III/3 (p.36-47)

Lionel goes to Vienna and becomes a diplomat. England witnesses the rise of a new great politician: Raymond (too proud to show ambition, a votary of pleasure) who becomes an adventurer in the Greek wars. Evadne falls in Love with Raymond, Adrian grows mad.

p.39 first mention of Lord Raymond

p.41 Reference to changes in Windsor Forest since the beginning of the 19th century.

p.46 Adrian´s letter -- his thoughts on life.

Chapter IV/4 (p.48-61)

Meeting of Raymond, Perdita and Lionel, meeting of Perdita, Idris and Raymond. Perdita loves Raymond who is designs to marry Adrian's sister: She will love him once they marry (so his thought) and he might attempt to gain England's crown. Lionel and Raymond go to London to pursue political plans. Debate at parliament Ryland (republican) vs. Raymond, Raymond wins the audience.

p.49-50 On the political situation between the Royalists and Republicans.

p.51 The name of Adrian´s sister is Idris.

p.57 Raymond hints that he has more plans than just becoming king.

p.58 Ryland, Raymond´s opposition, introduced.

Chapter IV(a)/5 (p.62-76)

Raymond marries Perdita, they leave for the continent. Lionel visits Adrain in his madness, Adrian's mother (with picture of her character) their enemy. Adrian, Lionel and Idris travel through England, Adrain has a long speech in praise of god.

p.62 Lionel has fallen in love with Idris. Idris, however, is supposed to marry Raymond, even though they don´t love each other. Raymond wants to use her position to become king.

p.65-66 On philosophy, nature, and passions.

p.70-1 Lionel takes a "sailing balloon" with feathers to visit Adrian in Scotland. --technological advance? invention of the hot air balloon in 1783, France

p.72 Adrian´s fever goes away. Description of the ex-queen, or Countess of Windsor.

p.73 Lionel, the narrator, describes the Countess´s body as a machine that is useful to reach goals, "but whose senses formed no part of her enjoyment. There is something fearful in one who can thus conquer the animal part of our nature, if the victory be not the effect of consummate virtue..."

p.76 Adrian´s hope for mankind.

Chapter V/6 (p.77-89)

Idris' and Adrian's mother opposes Idris' plans to marry Lionel and plans to kidnap her daughter and to abduct her to Germany. Idris manages not to drink the sleeping potion she is supposed to drink and flees to Lionel and with him to London. Adrian protects his sister against his mother - who (defeated and humiliated) leaves England for Cologne. (Quite a conventional romance plot...)

p.77 Perdita and Raymond marry. Lionel is "allied to one of the richest individuals in England, and was bound by the most intimate friendship to its chiefest noble, I experienced the greatest excess of poverty that I have ever known."

p.80 Lionel tells Idris of his love for her. Lionel is 22, Idris 17.

p.82 Reference to the future Lionel, that he is alone. "...since to know that Adrian felt thus, brings joy even now to my lone heart." --Lionel/narrator at the time of writing.

p.89 Idris and Lionel finally marry.

Chapter VI/7 (p.90-104)

Happy period, the two couples and Adrain live together at Windsor. England is to vote for a new Lord Protector. Raymond wants to propose Adrian, he votes for Raymond who is finally voted into the office. Intense parliamentary debates.

p.92 The main characters all live together at Windsor for five years in harmony, after which they are woken from a pleasant dream.

p.93 Foreboding: They are on their way to London and Perdita is "fearful that some evil will betide them".

p.99 Raymond runs for Lord Protector. Parliament decides on the winning candidate.

p.101-2 Raymond becomes Lord Protector

Chapter VII/8 (p.105-117)

Raymond eager to gain immortal fame - civilisation not war. Evadne manages to offer a plan for a new museum - concealing her identity. Raymond discovers her in poverty. Her story - she is still in love with Raymond who conceals this meeting to his wife, Perdita.

p.106-7 Raymond´s big plans for England.

p.111 War between Greece and Turkey.

p.113 Evadne loved Raymond.

p.117 Concerning Raymond: "while he looked forward to entire dominion over the elements and the mind of man, the territory of his own heart escaped his notice..."

Chapter VIII/9 (p.118-136)

Marriage crisis Raymond (now 33) and Perdita (23) (caused by his secret encounter with Evadne), protagonists motivated by pride and unable to communicate with each other.

p.118-9 On the way in which Perdita´s mind works: "Happiness is in its highest degree the sister of goodness. [...] but the religion which springs from happiness is a lovlier growth. [...] Such happiness, goodness, and religion inhabited the mind of Perdita."

p.120 Raymond is Lord Protectorate for three years.

Chapter IX/10 (p.137-154)

The friends are led into Raymond's and Perdita's - irreperable- marriage problems. Perdita returns to the country. Raymond, having satisfied his lust, leaves for Greece (and hopes he will be able to reunite with Perdita at a later stage). Adrian is asked to come with him - he abdicates his Lord Protectorate.

p.138 Clara (Perdita and Raymond´s daughter), Alfred (Lionel and Idris´s son).

p.149 Raymond has changed. Perdita asks Adrian and Lionel to remedy the "encreasing evil" in London. Perdita claims that she will leave and Raymond will never have to see her again.

p.150 Adrian and Lionel´s opinion "the steady adherence to principle was the only road to honour; a ceaseless observance of the laws of general utility, the only conscientious aim of human ambition." Adrian admits that "the principles that I laid down were the best; but he denied that they were the only ones [...]" and "insisted that the modes of becoming good or great, varied as much as the dispositions of men, of whom it might be said, as of the leaves of the forest, there were no two alike."

p.153 Raymond: "But we must live, and not act our lives; pursuing the shadow, I lost the reality -- now I renounce both." Raymond and Adrian decide to go to Greece to be soldiers for the Greeks.

Chapter X/11 (p.155-165)

Journey Lionel, Idris and Perdita through Scotland and Ireland. Adrian - injured - returns from Greece. The behaviour of his own nation as war party has disillusioned him. Raymond is reported missing. Perdita and Lionel depart for Greece to search for him.

p.155-6 Changes at Windsor-- Perdita does not like to accept change.

p.157 The importance of literature and acquiring knowledge to Lionel and the significance of writing. He explains how he and his sister occupied their time in the past and now, and how he tries to help his sister to get over the loss of Raymond´s love.

p.159 We cannot predict man´s actions. "But man is a strange animal. We cannot calculate on his forces like that of an engine; and, though an impulse draw with a forty-horse power at what appears willing to yield to one, yet in contempt of calculation the movement is not effected."

p.160-1 Adrian returns after a year in Greece. He was injured so his health slowly worsens. War between the Turks and Greeks. The European nation is interested in Greek success because of commercial relations. Is the narrator against war and the resulting death, etc.?

p.163 "The Greeks were strongly attached to their commercial pursuits." This war seems to be about commercial control.

p.163-5 Raymond disappears during a decisive battle. He is missed by all and it seems to only add to his fame in England and in Greece. Perdita does not believe he is dead and decides to go to Greece to find him. Lionel and Clara go as well.

Volume 2 (p.167-314)

Chapter I/12 (p.167-182)

The Turks release Raymond. Moving reunion of Raymond, Lionel and Perdita. New military campaign against the Turks (Raymond fights again, Lionel and Perdita are rather obeservers), victorious battle. Lionel discovers Evadne (disguised as a male soldier) dying from her mortal wounds and foretelling the plague and Raymond's end. First news of the epidemic spreading among the Turks.

Chapter II/13 (p.183-201)

Lionel reveals Evadne's last predictions to Raymond: he his going to die of plague, fire and war. Raymond has decided to ride into Constantinople (the capital ravished by the plague) and to accept his fate. (Present year: 2092.)

Chapter III/14 (p.202-217)

Lionel discovers Raymond's dead body under a wall that collapsed and killed him (a trap the dead inhabitants had left). Perdita choses a place for her husband's burial on Greek soil, and decides to stay there. Lionel uses a sleeping potion to get her on board of a ship heading to England. She commits suicide on the journey. A daughter of hers and her deceased husband remains under Lionel's custody. Land passage to England and news of plague spreading in America. First pest cases in England

Chapter IV/15 (p.218-228)

Next summer (2093) Ryland is determined to abolish aristocracy. Lionel retreats to the countryside. His son Alfred attends school at Eaton. Perspective on a new upcoming generation mixed with first scenes of decay.

Chapter V/16 (p.229-238)

The plague has taken possession of the whole globe. England attracts greater numbers of refugees. Food shortage. Parks used to accommodate the refugees. Relief when many of them leave with the plague abating in winter. (Parallels: French revolution.)

Chapter VI/17 (p.239-256)

2094: The plague has reached England. Ryland proves a coward. Adrain becomes new Lord Protector. Lionel tries everything to prevent his friend's political career and to gain the post himself - he is afraid his physically weak friend will not survive the responsibility. Adrian misinterprets the political move as a plot against him and suspects Lionel of personal ambition.

Chapter VII/18 (p.257-266)

The plague reaches the English countryside. Lionel defends Windsor and leaves Adrian alone in London. Panic is spreading (all with hint at De Foe's book on the plague in England).

Chapter VIII/19 (p.267-294)

Authorial reflections (how did I write this story?). Lionel back in London witnesses a desolate situation and acts of heroism. Reports from rest of the country. New hopes with new spring. Man himself seems to regenerate, yet no end of pestilence in sight. London's Drury Lane plays tragedies (longer report of Macbeth performance) rather than comedies. The old queen returns to England, Americans conquer Ireland and England.

Chapter IX/20 (p.295-314)

Volume 3 (p.315-470)

Chapter 21 (p.315-324)

Chapter 22 (p.325-341)

Chapter 23 (p.342-361)

Chapter 24 (p.362-382)

Chapter 25 (p.383-393)

Chapter 26 (p.394-407)

Chapter 27 (p.408-422)

Chapter 28 (p.423-436)

Chapter 29 (p.437-450)

Chapter 30 (p.451-470)