Mary Shelley The Last Man PercyByssheShelley The last man! Yes, I may well describe that solitary being s feelings, feeling myself as the last relic o

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1 Matsuyama University StudiesinLanguageandLiterature Vol. No. March

2 Mary Shelley The Last Man PercyByssheShelley The last man! Yes, I may well describe that solitary being s feelings, feeling myself as the last relic of a beloved race, my companions, extinct before me Journal Idonotremembereverhavingbeensocompletely miserable as I am tonight Journal I never prayed so heartily for death as now Journal

3 GeorgeGordonByron LynnWells As has been noted, Mary Shelley s TheLastMansuffered from extreme critical neglect, to the point of near extinction, until its rescue from obsolescence. Frankenstein Valperga:or, thelifeandadventuresofcastruccio, PrinceofLucca LeeSterrenburg A PaulA.Cantor AnneK.Mellor AudreyA.Fisch J FionaJ.Stafford

4 The world had changed for ever and the Revolution in France serves as a watershed. In the difficult years of the early nineteenth century when Revolution and war were followed by severe economic depression, both radicalsandconservativeslookedbacktothe stofindforcausesfortheir miseryandhopelessness. Robert Southey Thalaba Walter Scott TheLayoftheLastMinstrel Sydney, Lady Morgan? TheWildIrishGirl Stafford Jean-Baptiste François Xavier Cousin de Grainville LeDernierHomme The Last Man:A Romance in Futurity Stafford Paley

5 ThomasCampbell NewMonthlyMagazine TheLast Man Darkness Edinburgh Review TheTimes Thomas Lovell Beddoes ThomasHood JohnMartin Francis Jeffery thelakeschoolpoetry Stafford JohnKeats

6 Themechanizationofsocietywasnotmerelyamatterofcoalmines and cotton-mills, but a process that seemed to be altering the structure of society and theverymindsofmen. Stafford LionelVerney Perdita AdrianWinsor Idris LordRaymond Evadne Zaimi

9 Theintroduction, then, repeatsthesameduplexpattern as the narrative it circumscribes: writing begins as a response to loss, with the absent companion reconstituted textually, and in turn transfigured, resurrected as a newobjectofdesire, theprojectedreader. Wells Doubtless the leaves of the Cumæan Sibyl have suffereddistortionanddiminutionofinterestandexcellenceinmyhands. Myonly excuse for thus transforming them, is that they were unintelligible in their pristine condition. TheLastMan J J.Hillis Miller X Y

10 I visited Naples in theyear. Onthe thofdecemberofthatyear, mycompanionandicrossed thebay, tovisittheantiquitieswhicharescatteredontheshoresofbaiæ... The LastMan The Bay of Baiaeisbeautifulbutwearedisappointedbythevaruousplaceswevisit. Journal Forawhilemylabourswerenotsolitary; butthattimeisgone;and, withthe

11 selected and matchless companion of my toils, their dearest reward is also lost tome... Mylabourshavecheeredlonghoursofsolitude, andtakenmeout ofaworld, whichhasaverteditsoncebenignantfacefromme, tooneglowing withimaginationandpower. TheLastMan In psychological terms, the novel enabled Mary Shelley to gain distance from and some control over her profoundangerandloss. Mellor

12 Sigmund Freud Wecouldmakeoutlittlebythedimlight, buttheyseemedtocontainprophecies,

13 detailed relations of events but lately passed;names, now well known, but of moderndate. TheLastMan Whatappearedtousmoreastonishing, wasthatthesewritingswereexpressed invariouslanguages:someunknowntomycompanion, ancientchaldee, and Egyptian hieroglyphics, old as the Pyramids. Stranger still, some were in modern dialects, English and Italian... We made a hasty selection of the leaves, whosewritingoneatleastofuscouldunderstand. TheLastMan Ipresentthepublicwith my latest discoveries in the slight Sibylline pages. Scattered and unconnected as theywere, Ihavebeenobligedtoaddlinks, andmodeltheworkintoaconsistent form. TheLastMan Sometime I have thought, that, obscureandchaoticastheyare, theyowetheirpresentformtome, their decipherer. The Last Man

15 I had used this history as an opiate;while it described my beloved friends, fresh with life and glowing with hope, active assistantsonthescene, Iwassoothed; therewillbeamoremelancholypleasurein paintingtheendofall. Shelley Time and experience have placed me on an height from which I can comprehendthepastasawhole;andinthiswayimustdescribeit, bringing forwardtheleadingincidents, anddisposinglightandshadesoastoforma pictureinwhoseverydarknesstherewillbeharmony... Thevastannihilation thathasswallowedallthings thevoicelesssolitudeoftheoncebusyearth the lonely state of singleness which hems me in, has deprived even such details of their stinging reality, and mellowing the lurid tints of past anguish with poetic hues, I am able to escape from the mosaic of circumstance, by perceivingandreflectingbackthegroupingandcombinedcolouringofthepast. Shelley

16 Scatteredandunconnectedasthey were, Ihavebeenobligedtoaddlinks, andmodeltheworkintoaconsistentform. TheLastMan Willmy readers ask how I could find solace from the narration of misery and woeful change? Thisisoneofthemysteriesofournature, whichholdsfullswayover me, andfromwhoseinfluenceicannotescape. TheLastMan

17 Mother of the world! Servant of the Omnipotent! eternal, changeless Necessity! who with busy fingers sittest ever weaving the indissoluble chain of events! I will not murmur at thy acts. If my human mind cannot acknowledge that all that is, is right;yet since what is, must be, I will sit amidsttheruinsandsmile. Shelley E KariE.Lokke

18 Both Evadne and Raymond incarnate a death drive, a will to power, in its most explicit and destructiveform limitlessambition, untamedpride, anduncontrollablepassion. Lokke

19 Thatland, saidadrian, tingedwiththelastgloriesoftheday, isgreece. Greece! The sound had a responsive chord in the bosom of Clara. She vehementlyremindedusthatwehadpromisedtotakeheronceagaintogreece, to the tomb of her parents... I objected the dangers of ocean,... Adrian, whowasdelightedwithclara sproposal, obviatedtheseobjections... Adrian said, Well, though it is not exactly what you wish, yet consent, to please me Icouldnolongerrefuse... TheLastMan Do you fear, sweet girl? O, do not fear, we shall soon be on shore! The Last Man I was myself an excellentswimmer... Adrianalsocouldswim buttheweaknessofhisframe prevented him from feeling pleasure in the exercise, or acquiring any great expertness. The Last Man

20 Thelightningshewedmethepoorgirlhalfburiedin thewateratthebottomoftheboat;asshewassinkinginitadriancaughtherup, andsustainedherinhisarms. TheLastMan Iendeavouredduringeachflashtodiscoverany appearanceofmycompanions. IthoughtIsawAdrianatnogreatdistancefrom me, clingingtoanoar; TheLastMan Asthathopefailed, instinctiveloveof life animated me, and feelings of contention, as if a hostile will combated with mine. TheLastMan DEDICATION/TOTHEILLUSTRIOUSDEAD./SHADOWS, ARISE, ANDREADYOURFALL!/BEHOLDTHEHISTORYOFTHELASTMAN. TheLastMan

21 A hope of amelioration always attends on change of place, which would even lighten the burthen of my life. I had been a fool to remaininromeallthistime. TheLastMan insomeplaceitouchat, Imayfindwhat Iseek acompanion TheLastMan thelast MAN The Last Man Thus around the shores of desertedearth, whilethesunishigh, andthe moon waxes or wanes, angels, the spiritsofthedead, andtheever-openeyeofthesupreme, willbeholdthetinybark, freightedwithverney TheLastMan Frankenstein;or the Modern Prometheus

22 Virgil TheAeneid

23 Brewer, WilliamD. MaryShelleyontheTerapeuticValueofLanguage. PLL. :. Print. Conger, Syndy M. et al. Iconoclastic Departures: Mary Shelley After Frankenstein. London: AssociatedUniversityPresses,. Print. Fisch, AudreyA. PlaguingPolitics:AIDS, Deconstruction, andthelastman. Fisch. Fisch, Audrey A. et. al. The Other Mary Shelley: Beyond Frankenstein. Oxford: Oxford UP,. Lokke, Kari E. The Last Man. The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley. Ed.Esther Schor. Cambridge:CambridgeUP,.. Print. Mellor, Anne K. Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters. New York: Routledge,. Print. Paley, MortonD. TheLastMan :ApocalypseWithoutMillenuium. Fisch.. Shelley, Mary. TheJournalsofMaryShelley. Eds. PaulaR.FeldmanandDiana Scott-Kilvert. BaltimoreandLondon:JohnsHopkinsUP,. Print.. The Last Man. The Novels and Selected Works of Mary Shelley. Vol.. Eds. JaneBlumbergandNoraCrook. London:Pickering,. Print. Stafford, Fiona J. The Last of the Race:The Growth of a Myth from Milton to Darwin. Oxford:ClarendonP,. Print. Sterrenburg,Lee. The Last Man: Anatomy of Failed Revolution. Nineteenth-Century Fiction. :. Print. Wells,Lynn. Triumph of Death:Reading and Narrative in Mary Shelley s The Last Man. Conger. J

24 D WilliamD.Brewer TheLastMan The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, allaloneinanun-inhabitedislandonthecoastofamerica, nearthemouthofthegreat RiverofOroonoque;HavingbeencastonShorebyShipwreck,whereinalltheMenperished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver d by Pyrates TheJournalofSorrow Begun ButformyChilditcouldnot Endtoosoon. FrontPageoftheJournal, BookIVJournal

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