We begin to look at Mary's post-Frankenstein fiction.
We’ve
looked—much earlier in this account—at Mary’s early writing: Frankenstein (1818) and her anonymous
travel book about her 1814 elopement with Bysshe (History of a Six Weeks’ Tour, 1817). I’ve written, as well, about
her dramas, her children’s story discovered and published long after her death
(Maurice, or The Fisher’s Cot, 1820;
published in 1998), and her first post-Frankenstein
novel, Valperga, Or The Life of
Castruccio, Prince of Lucca (1823).
But one of
her most startling novels, published in 1826, was The Last Man. (It was originally published semi-anonymously: By the Author of Frankenstein, it says on
the original title page.[1]
Scholars speculate
that Mary might have had the idea for this apocalyptic novel as early as the
fall of 1823, not long after she had returned, bereft, from her long sojourn in
Europe. It is not hard to imagine why her thoughts at the time would have been …
dark. She had lost her husband, some children; her reputation in England was
permanently stained; father-in-law Sir Timothy Shelley was behaving poorly …
you know.
But by
January 1826, she had finished and published the novel—and it remains one of
her most interesting to read today, especially in this time when threats from
infections and biological warfare and end-of-humanity plagues have become more
and more real. And possible. Perhaps even likely.
[1] The Novels and Selected Works of Mary Shelley, vol. 4, eds. Jane
Blumberg with Nora Crook (London: William Pickering, 1996). All subsequent
references to this novel, The Last Man,
unless otherwise noted, are from this edition.
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