{"product_id":"the-last-man","title":"The Last Man","description":"\u003cbody\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eTitle: \u003c\/b\u003eThe Last Man\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor: \u003c\/b\u003eRebecca Shelley, Mary; Havard, John; Solnit\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN: \u003c\/b\u003e9780143137900\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher: \u003c\/b\u003ePenguin Classics\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished: \u003c\/b\u003e2024\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding: \u003c\/b\u003ePaperback\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage: \u003c\/b\u003eEnglish\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNumber of Pages: \u003c\/b\u003e512\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Note: \u003c\/b\u003eNew from the publisher\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher Description: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eMary Shelley's landmark novel that invented the human extinction genre and initiated climate fiction, imagining a world where newly-forged communities and reverence for nature rises from the ashes of a pandemic-ravaged society, now for the first time in Penguin Classics, with a foreword by Rebecca Solnit \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA Penguin Classic \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWritten while Mary Shelley was in a self-imposed lockdown after the loss of her husband and children, and in the wake of intersecting crises including the climate-changing Mount Tambora eruption and a raging cholera outbreak, \u003ci\u003eThe Last Man\u003c\/i\u003e (1826) is the first end-of-mankind novel, an early work of climate fiction, and a prophetic depiction of environmental change. Set in the late twenty-first century, the book tells of a deadly pandemic that leaves a lone survivor, and follows his journey through a post-apocalyptic world that's devoid of humanity and reclaimed by nature. But rather than give in to despair, Shelley uses the now-ubiquitous end-times plot to imagine a new world where freshly-formed communities and alternative ways of being stand in for self-important politicians serving corrupt institutions, and where nature reigns mightily over humanity--a timely message for our current era of climate collapse and political upheaval. Brimming with political intrigue and love triangles around characters based on Percy Shelley and scandal-dogged poet Lord Byron, the novel also broaches partisan dysfunction, imperial warfare, refugee crises, and economic collapse--and brings the legacy of her radically progressive parents, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, to bear on present-day questions about making a better world less centered around \"man.\" Shelley's second major novel after \u003ci\u003eFrankenstein\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Last Man\u003c\/i\u003e casts a half-skeptical eye on romantic ideals of utopian perfection and natural plenitude while looking ahead to a greener future in which our species develops new relationships with non-human life and the planet.\u003c\/body\u003e","brand":"Penguin Classics","offers":[{"title":"The Last Man | Rebecca Shelley, Mary; Havard, John; Solnit | Paperback | 9780143137900 | New | Fiction 1592956","offer_id":48163683008664,"sku":"1592956","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0492\/1609\/4360\/files\/81hSmVgjFPL.jpg?v=1771888975","url":"https:\/\/roundaboutbookstore.com\/products\/the-last-man","provider":"Roundabout Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}