{"product_id":"the-last-man","title":"The Last Man","description":"\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.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0143137905\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780143137900\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Shelley, Mary, Havard, John, Solnit, Rebecca\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Penguin Classics\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Classics","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Apr 2024)","offer_id":45660127789253,"sku":"9780143137900","price":18.05,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780143137900.jpg?v=1768918485","url":"https:\/\/www.inveni.store\/products\/the-last-man","provider":"Inveni","version":"1.0","type":"link"}