Shelley, M: Last Man

en Limba Engleză Paperback – 16 mar 2020

The first year of the story is 2073 in England. Lionel Verney and Perdita Verney are siblings who struggle to survive after the death of their parents. Adrian, the Earl of Windsor, discovers them and gives them a place to live. Raymond is in love with Perdita and asks her to marry him. She loves Raymond intensely, and they marry. Lionel deeply loves Adrian's sister Idris, and when she comes to Lionel to save her from being taken to Germany, he rescues her and they marry. Adrian has been ill in Scotland since Evadne left England, but he returns to England and regains his health. The extended family lives together for five happy years. Children are born to the couples, and their lives are blissful. When it is time for a new Lord Protector of England to be elected, Raymond decides to leave Windsor with his family to live in London. He becomes the new Lord Protector, and he is full of plans to improve the country. But he grows bored, and his life begins to fall apart. He leaves for Greece with Adrian, and when Perdita learns that Raymond is missing in Greece, she immediately leaves to find him. Lionel goes with her. Lionel Verney, Perdita Verney, and Raymond's daughter Clara go to Greece to find Raymond. He wants to retake command of the Greek army and defeat the Turks who rule over Greece. He leads the army to victory in Rodosto and then proceeds to Constantinople to claim that city for the Greeks. The plague has entered the city, and all its inhabitants are dead. Raymond enters the city to place the Greek flag at the top of St. Sophia, but he dies from the plague. His wife commits suicide. When Lionel and Clara return to England, life at Windsor proceeds without immediate threat from the plague. Adrian becomes energized and takes over the protectorate. He encourages the aristocracy to allow their lands to be farmed for food. When the plague reaches Italy and France, immigrants come north to England. Lionel and his family take care of many of them at Windsor. The approach of summer in England inspires a decision in Lionel. He wants to take his family south and out of England. Many English people arrive at the coast to go to France, but there is a storm that detains them for three days. A group of English people arrives from Paris to tell them they should not go there. In Paris there are only about a hundred survivors. Adrian, Lionel, and their group of about 1,500 survivors leave Versailles for a colder climate where they believe the plague will not be as virulent. They travel to Switzerland, but by the time they reach the Alps there are only 50 people remaining in the group. There are no survivors in Switzerland. The plague has lasted for seven years. Eventually, there are only four remaining survivors including Lionel, Adrian, Clara, and Evelyn. The four of them travel to Lake Como in Italy where Evelyn dies. Lionel, Adrian, and Clara leave Lake Como for Rome. The three survivors travel through Venice and decide to go by boat to Greece instead of going to Rome. There is a ferocious storm, and Adrian and Clara drown. Lionel is able to swim to shore. He realizes he is the last man on earth.

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Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin; 30 August 1797 - 1 February 1851) was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein (1818). 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 feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. After Wollstonecraft's death less than a month after her daughter Mary was born, Mary was raised by Godwin, who was able to provide his daughter with a rich, if informal, education, encouraging her to adhere to his own liberal political theories. When Mary was four, her father married a neighbour, with whom, as her stepmother, Mary came to have a troubled relationship. In 1814, Mary began a romance with one of her father's political followers, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was already married. Together with Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont, Mary and Shelley left for France and travelled through Europe. Upon their return to England, Mary was pregnant with Percy's child. In 1816, the couple famously spent a summer with Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and Claire Clairmont near Geneva, Switzerland, where Mary conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein. The Shelleys left Britain in 1818 for Italy, where Mary Shelley gave birth to a son. A year later, Mary Shelley returned to England and from then on devoted herself to the upbringing of her son and a career as a professional author.