Reader discussion: The Last Man

Public reader discussion about The Last Man in the WeRead Catalog by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

By FootnoteCat

I just wrapped this up and honestly didn’t think it would grab me this much. The way Shelleys writing kept shifting how I saw the monster was wild—at first I was all hate, but by the end I ended up feeling bad for him and kind of rooting for him. Also, the parts about their love for nature and all that beauty felt super relatable, like I could actually picture it while reading. Overall I loved basically everything, couldn’t put it down. Had to tell other people who get excited about books too.

[Book Club] "Frankenstein; Or the Modern Prometheus" by Mary Shelley: Week 1, Letter I - Chapter VII

By CanyonLavender1985

Link to the original announcement thread. Hey everyone! Welcome to the first thread for the October pick—**Frankenstein; Or the Modern Prometheus** by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. I hope you all were able to grab the book (check the announcement for a link to a public domain copy). If not, it’s still fine to jump in later discussions, but just a heads-up: this one is only going up through **Chapter VI**. Anything after that, please use spoilers. To get things going, here are a few questions you can pick from (or just share your own thoughts): - What are your favorite parts or quotes? Anything confusing, or that you wish had been handled differently? - Where do you think the horror is coming from in this novel? Also, what’s your vibe with horror/gothic stuff, and how much do you know about Classics? - How “necessary” do you think the conditions were for Shelley to write this? Could someone else (even a contemporary author) have written something similar? - Why do you think the story is told through letters and nested tales? Do those choices change how the terror hits? - What role do sickness and dreams seem to play for Shelley and the characters? Do they make the book feel better or do they mainly lean into the existential dread and ambition? - What are your questions/predictions for what comes next? And is there anything you want to ask the group for next week? - BONUS: what song/album/artist would match the reading so far? Also, reminder: the second discussion goes up on **Friday, October 15th**, and covers through **Chapter XVII**.

Is Mary Shelley an icon?

By Mystax

I ended up in a whole argument with my brother about whether Mary Shelley actually counts as an icon or not. I told him yes, like obviously—Frankenstein still gets talked about nonstop, she had all these connections with other big literary names, and she’s basically the actual starting point for science fiction. He pushed back and said Frankenstein is iconic, but Mary isn’t, because she didn’t have a real lasting impact on pop culture. Which, I don’t know… I asked him if he even knew anything about her or how Frankenstein was written, and he said no. So then I’m just standing there like wait, what? Frankenstein is one of the most well-known stories in literary history. I also told him people have written biographies of her, and there are even stuff like Doctor Who and Drunk History episodes covering her and the whole story, so how is that not iconic? He compared her to Emily Dickinson and Shakespeare, but said Shelley doesn’t measure up because she only wrote one book. That doesn’t even feel right to me, and it honestly just made me feel annoyed. Like, that feels unfair to her. I think I got a little too defensive of Mary, but I can’t help it.

A novel about the last man on earth. Themes of profound loneliness and solitude, but also of freedom and clarity

By delta_sail

Hey, I’m looking for a recommendation for something kind of post-apocalyptic, but with zero action in it. Like, just one lonely person drifting around after civilization’s gone, totally without responsibilities or stress, with nothing to lose or gain—more of them just thinking and wandering. I don’t want any interaction, no buddy/animal companion, no face-drawn “friend” or anything like that. And please no zombies, vampires, robots, other survivors, or any big external drama like the sea rising or whatever. I mainly want to follow their internal monologue day to day: reminiscing, daydreaming, doing small things, and trying to figure out what it all means. Any ideas?

I think it's time for the world to appreciate Mary Shelley's The Last Man.

By AlfaquiHeron1984

I’ve been into Mary Shelley for a long time, though I’m definitely not an expert. I just really try to keep up with her stuff—her writing, and also what her life was like. Lately that’s gotten me super curious on the more personal/creative side of things. Reading her diaries and then actually going to places connected to her has honestly been some of the coolest experiences of my life. People can keep going on about how great Frankenstein is (and yeah, it is), but I feel like we don’t always look deep enough into her other work. My favorite of hers—like, genuinely my top pick—is *The Last Man*. It first came out in 1826 and it’s set in 2073, which already feels wild. It’s got this mix of love, betrayal, and redemption, and it kind of mirrors a lot of the stuff that was going on around Mary’s life too. So at least for the first part, it feels almost personal, like it’s drawing from her. The first half is mostly about aristocratic families and people basically falling out of favor. I can’t lie, the thing I love most there is the future she imagines. I always picture it as something like *Final Fantasy XV*, but with more steampunk-y vibes. It’s a really interesting future to think about on its own. Then the second half is where it starts to feel like it goes hard in a totally different direction. It becomes post-apocalyptic, like the same kind of vibe as things people talk about now—*The Walking Dead* meets *Fallout*—but way earlier than that style became a thing in pop culture. Some of the character relationship stuff can drag a bit, but I’m willing to forgive it because you can see how they change and how they respond to the world. By the end, none of them are really the same. And honestly, the last chapters are the best. Without spoiling anything, it gets really focused on loneliness, a kind of “lost world” feeling, and finding something like hope even in the dark. We see that kind of theme everywhere now, but back then it apparently didn’t land. Which is why I’m sad to say a lot of critics didn’t get it. From what I’ve read, people basically didn’t like the idea of solitude, and they straight-up said so in reviews. It’s kind of crazy—like the stuff we praise now was being torn apart back then, and nobody seemed to understand what Mary was trying to say. It also makes me think it must have hurt her, especially with everything tragic going on in her life at the same time. I’ve seen that she claimed *The Last Man* was one of her favorite works (if not her absolute favorite). Anyway, sorry if this is rambling and doesn’t quite make sense—I just wanted to ask people to give it a chance. I genuinely think it deserves attention, especially in the world we’re in now. If not for later stories that came after it, then at least for Mary. She put so much into this, and it feels like it should be loved. Edit: I’m happy people are getting inspired to read it. That’s the kind of “magic” Mary would’ve wanted. And sorry for the formatting issues—I wrote it late and didn’t really check. Edit 2: The book is free here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18247

Suggest me a last man on earth or most of humanity isn't around style novel

By dragon-paperback

I’m kind of looking for books like the title too—stuff where most (or all) of humanity isn’t really there anymore. Invasions/viruses/monsters are fine, but I mainly want something focused on just one person or a super small group. Books I’ve already read or had suggested that match this: The Stand Swan Song The Martian Extinction Point Island of the blue dolphins The 5th Wave I Am Legend Earth Abides Good morning midnight Bird Box On the beach The last ship

I think I am going to "Did Not Finish" Mary Shelley's "The Last Man." Again...

By Wandering-Enzyme2006

I try to go into books as blind as possible. I’d only seen the blurb for Mary Shelley’s *The Last Man* saying it’s apocalyptic/dystopian sci-fi, first published in 1826, so I figured it definitely wasn’t going to be like Stephen King or anything like that… but I still expected some big, fun chaos. After getting through Volume One, though, I started having that “wait, I’ve read this before” feeling. I’m pretty sure I started it once before and didn’t make it far, but I honestly don’t remember why. Just finished Volume One after about a week of pretty intense reading, and so far… no apocalypse. No real supernatural or sci-fi stuff either. Unless you count one character traveling by hot-air balloon, which is kind of a stretch. That said, the writing is really, really good. The characters’ inner thoughts get a ton of attention, and the language is genuinely beautiful. Mary Shelley is an amazing writer, no question. I read *Frankenstein* earlier and enjoyed it a lot—especially how the “monster” is actually articulate on the page, unlike the movies where it’s mostly just noise. I’m usually patient with older books too. I’ve read *Moby-Dick*, *Don Quixote*, *Les Misérables*, *Crime and Punishment*—I can handle slow classics. Those usually keep me interested. I guess I’m posting because I’m torn: should I keep going with *The Last Man*, or just let it go? The weird part is I’m kind of embarrassed to DNF the same book twice. Classics are totally hit-or-miss for me. Some feel super fresh and relevant; others just don’t click. So—has anyone else read *The Last Man*? Do you think the whole setup/build-up is really slow? Or am I missing the point and it actually kicks off later? Also please try not to spoil too much if you can…

Mary Shelley's religious views

By door_rusty92

Is anyone actually familiar with enough of Mary Shelley’s writing to say for sure whether she was a real Christian? I’ve picked up that in *Frankenstein* religion kind of messes things up, but then I’ve also seen claims that she was pretty devout, even though her friends and her husband seemed to be on totally different pages. And then there’s that quote about how she’s really focused on the human soul and what happens after death, and that her diaries show she was fully committed to believing in an eternal soul. I’m just not sure what to make of it all. This feels like a weird question, sorry if it’s not a good fit here.

[Meta] The results for the 'Best Books of 2014' are in!

By blue-beaver

We put out a vote for everyone to pick what they thought were the best books of 2014, and for the most part it went over really well. We kept the votes open until the second week of January because even though there are way more subs than people, it’s pretty chill traffic-wise, so it doesn’t get the same kind of constant activity as some bigger places. After the voting ended, it still took us almost two weeks just to go through and sort everything. Anyway, here are the results: Category — Winner — % of Votes Best Children’s Literature of 2014 — Brown Girl Dreaming (Jacqueline Woodson) — 28% Best Fantasy of 2014 — Words of Radiance (Brandon Sanderson) — 42% Best Fiction Book of 2014 — Landline (Rainbow Rowell) — 24% Best General YA of 2014 — We Were Liars (E. Lockhart) — 50% Best Graphic Novel/Comic of 2014 — Saga, Volume 3 (Brian K. Vaughan) — 28% Best Historical Fiction of 2014 — All The Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr) — 50% Best Horror of 2014 — The Girl With All The Gifts (M.R. Carey) — 30% Best Humor Book of 2014 — Yes Please (Amy Poehler) — 39% Best Mystery And Thriller of 2014 — Mr Mercedes (Stephen King) — 44% Best NonFiction of 2014 — What If? (Randall Munroe) — 15% Best Romance Book of 2014 — The King (J.R Ward) — 29% Best SciFi of 2014 — The Martian (Andy Weir) — 64% Best YA Fantasy and SciFi of 2014 — Blood of Olympus (Rick Riordan) — 35% There’s also a full list with runner-ups (and yeah, a bunch of these were pretty close, so it’s worth checking out). Huge thanks to u/MooseRuse for helping put it all together and making that visualization—he definitely got a lot of headaches from us fixing errors over and over.

I just finished Frankenstein, the first piece of classic literature I’ve ever read, and it was spectacular

By HawkBirch2001

What really stood out to me in the whole novel is how clearly it shows how much trauma can mess with a person. I was honestly blown away when Elizabeth is worried about Justine and talks to Victor about how it isn’t just about questioning a guy’s motives—it’s also about how you start questioning your own past and what you’ve been through. That’s exactly how I felt about someone who hurt me, and the way Shelley put it into words was so spot-on and really well done. Now I’m even more hyped to read more Victorian and gothic stuff—like, I can’t wait. 10/10!

Thought Doomsday Book by Connie Willis was a recent work based on its description of a pandemic, until I discovered it was written in 1992...

By Orchid89

That part with the American bell ringer protesting like, basically, “I’m not used to my rights being taken away like this—back home nobody would ever tell you where you can and can’t go.” And then it hit me that way of thinking ended up costing so many people later on, and it made me pause. Honestly, a couple lines in the book gave me this really intense COVID vibe, and I was genuinely surprised to learn it was written almost 30 years before COVID. I don’t know, maybe Americans have always been like that 😂 Edit: I’m American.