The Last Man, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
The Last Man, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
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The Last Man
Experience Mary Shelley's visionary Science Fiction / Apocalyptic masterpiece. A haunting prophetic tale of power, love, and a devastating plague that wipes out humanity.

Author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Narrator: Darrell Taylor

Unabridged: 20 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Darrell Taylor

Published: 04/05/2026

Synopsis

A visionary prophecy of humanity's final days, where political ambition, tragic romance, and an unstoppable plague seal the fate of the world.

In the late 21st century, England has cast off its monarchy to become a republic, ushering in an era of precarious peace. Lionel Verney, an orphaned outcast living a wild and lawless life, finds his world forever changed when he is taken in by Adrian, the brilliant and sensitive former Earl of Windsor. As Lionel is introduced to the high-stakes realm of philosophy, politics, and power, he is drawn into the orbit of Lord Raymond, a fiercely ambitious military genius with secret dreams of rebuilding the crown.But while humanity schemes, loves, and wages its petty wars, an invisible, insurmountable enemy awakens in the East. As a devastating, world-spanning pandemic begins its relentless march across the globe, empires will fall, alliances will shatter, and Lionel must face a future darker than any dystopia. Who will survive when nature reclaims her ultimate dominion over civilization?
Why you will love this: If you crave sweeping Science Fiction / Apocalyptic epics, you will be utterly gripped by this classic post-apocalyptic narrative. Combining a sprawling dystopian setting with profound philosophical themes, tense survival tropes, and gothic romanticism, this definitive sci-fi masterpiece remains startlingly relevant today. A breathtaking journey into the end of times.
About the Author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851) was a legendary English novelist best known for creating Frankenstein. With The Last Man, she boldly pioneered the post-apocalyptic genre, weaving profound personal tragedies into a dark, prophetic vision of mankind's ultimate extinction.

About Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, the ardent feminist and author of A Vindication on the Right of Women, and William Goodwin, the radical-anarchist philosopher and author of Lives of the Necromancers, Mary Goodwin was born into a free-thinking, revolutionary household in London on August 30, 1797. Educated mainly by her intellectual surroundings, she had little formal schooling, and at age sixteen, she eloped with the young poet Percy Bysshe Shelly; they eventually married in 1816.

Mary Shelly's life had many tragic elements: her mother died giving birth to Mary; her half-sister committed suicide; Percy's wife Harriet Shelly drowned herself and her unborn child after he ran off with Mary; William Goodwin disowned Mary and Shelly after the elopement but, heavily in debt, recanted and came to them for money; Mary's first child died soon after its birth; and in 1822 Percy Shelly drowned in the Gulf of La Spezia—Mary was not quite twenty-five then.

Mary did not begin to write seriously until the summer of 1816, when she and Shelly were living in Switzerland, neighbors to Lord Byron. One night following a contest to compose ghost stories, Mary conceived her masterpiece, Frankenstein. After her husband's death, she continued to write, publishing Valperga, The Last Man, Ladore, and Faulkner between 1823 and 1837, in addition to editing Percy's works. In 1838 she began to work on his biography, but due to poor health she completed only a fragment.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sean Barrs on March 01, 2021

Revisiting this during a global pandemic seems rather unnerving because this is a book in which the entirety of humanity dies after succumbing to plague. And the more I read it the more I take from it. This is my third time round. The first was for enjoyment and the second two were for research purp......more

Goodreads review by J.G. Keely on June 12, 2016

I don't really like reading, which must strain credulity, since I devote so much of my time and energy to doing it. But reading, for me, is never an easy thing. Only rarely do I get caught up and find myself turning pages heedlessly, plunging into the text. More often, I am well aware of what page I......more

Goodreads review by Henry on April 23, 2026

You are the last person on the face of the Earth every desire can be easily obtained, the best of the best shelter, food , clothes, toys, transportation an endless vacation go anywhere do anything , nobody can stop it the enormous world is all yours...Only one little problem the animals have inherit......more

Goodreads review by Althea on February 14, 2015

I'm glad I read this book. As a fan of the post-apocalyptic genre, I felt like it was a must. Shelley didn't originate the concepts found here, but this is still arguably, the first actual post-apocalyptic novel, as such. It was quite fascinating to see how many of the common tropes we find in so mu......more

Goodreads review by David on October 02, 2015

Shelley's apocalypse 13 December 2013 Being a lover of older books and science-fiction when I discover a book that is in effect both I become really interested, so when I discovered that Mary Shelley (of Frankenstein fame) wrote a book about the last man left alive on Earth (or as she puts it in her......more

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