The Last Man

The novel begins with an imagined discovery of prophetic writings in the cave of the Cumaean Sibyl. The person who arranges those fragments admits to reshaping them. Lionel’s history therefore arrives as both a survivor’s record and a work of reconstruction.

Before plague dominates the story, Shelley gives considerable space to friendship, courtship and government. Adrian’s republican convictions oppose his mother’s hopes of restoring the monarchy. Lord Raymond seeks distinction in English politics and the Greek wars. Lionel, once a poacher, gains education and social standing through Adrian’s friendship.

As disease spreads, public decisions and domestic care become inseparable. Leaders must provide food, organize movement and respond to panic; families must nurse the ill and endure repeated losses. Lionel’s affectionate account also reveals errors, prejudice and attempts to control other people for their supposed good.

Adrian befriends Lionel and helps him enter an educated social world. Lionel marries Adrian’s sister Idris, while his own sister Perdita marries Raymond and the mother of Clara. Raymond’s pursuit of glory leads him back to Greece and into Constantinople, where Lionel later recovers his body from the devastated city.

Perdita wishes to remain beside Raymond’s tomb near Athens. Lionel secretly drugs her and takes her aboard a ship for England, believing that he can restore her happiness. She dies by suicide during the voyage. He recognizes his coercion as a disastrous failure of judgment and takes responsibility for Clara.

When plague reaches London, Adrian undertakes relief work and becomes deputy to the Lord Protector. The surviving population eventually prepares to leave England. Lionel recovers from the disease, but his son Alfred dies; Idris, already exhausted, dies during a winter journey. The emigrants continue through France toward Italy.