The Last Man by Mary Shelley. A powerful, post-apocalyptic tale and precurser to the much later science fiction novels of H.G. Wells, George Orwell, Phillip K. Dick and Harlan Ellison amongst others. Overshadowed by the titanic success of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley's neglected masterpiece tells of a future laid waste by plague. Lionel Varney, an indolent nobleman, is immune to the savage effects of the disease having been bitten by an early victim. Varney is forced to watch the long decline of civilisation as humanity sinks slowly into extinction. The Last Man is an apocalyptic science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, which was first published in 1826. The book tells of a future world that has been ravaged by a plague. The novel was harshly reviewed at the time, and was virtually unknown until a scholarly revival beginning in the 1960s. It is notable in part for its semi-biographical portraits of Romantic figures in Shelley's circle, particularly Shelley's late husband Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.