It’s hard for me to quantify my thoughts about the last man. On the one hand, I appreciate its sincere depiction of the dissolving of self and ideal in a world increasingly without hope, and the descriptions of the slow but unstoppable wheel of time crushing any idea of man being the most important being that controls everything around it. But I also find it quite dull to read, and Shelley either takes multiple paragraphs on something with no clear purpose, or quickly skims over something super essential.

But I cannot dislike something with such unique usage of a trope we now are all too familiar with, and there are some very nice passages in here once it gets going.

My mistake was thinking of it as a book about a plague, when in reality it’s about the ending of idealism, and a lament for the people who Shelley watched die, then saw their philosophy vanish into the air. So it’s a different kind of sadness I guess.

I dunno, I’m just happy that this book did go through a critical reassessment, and Shelley can now not only be called one of the creators of science fiction and gothic literature, but also be credited for popularity of the post-apocalyptic dystopian. Basically every YA book ever owes its existence to this woman it seems.