Mary 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 A Penguin Classic Written 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, The Last Man (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 Frankenstein, The Last Man 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.
Sobre o autor(a)
Shelley, Mary
Mary Shelley, foi uma romancista britânica, contista, dramaturga, ensaísta, biógrafa, escritora de viagens e editora das obras d seu marido, o poeta romântico e filósofo Percy Bysshe Shelley. Era filha do filósofo político Willian Godwin e da escritora filósofa e feminista Mary Wollstonecraft. Nasceu e morreu em Londres (1797 - 1851). Incentivada pelo pai, começou a escrever ainda criança e produziu o best-seller Frankenstein aos dezenove anos. Pioneira do gênero que mistura ficção científica e terror, Mary Shelley teve uma vida pessoal conturbada. Aos quatorze anos iniciou um relacionamento com um homem famoso e casado com quem se casou após o suicídio da esposa dele, em 1816. Teve cinco filhos, mas apenas o último sobreviveu. Seu marido se afogou em um naufrágio em 1822. Mary Shelley morreu aos 53 anos, devido a um tumor cerebral. |
| ISBN | 9780143137900 |
| Autor(a) | Shelley, Mary |
| Editora | Penguin Classics |
| Ano de edição | 2024 |
| Páginas | 512 |
| Acabamento | Brochura |
| Dimensões | 19,10 X 12,70 |