Which Romantic author wrote the apocalyptic novel 'The Last Man'?

Mary Shelley wrote the apocalyptic novel “The Last Man.” First published in 1826, the novel imagines a plague sweeping across a future Europe and eventually reducing humanity to near-extinction. Its narrator, Lionel Verney, looks back on the collapse of civilisation as one of the last surviving people.

Shelley frames the story as an edited translation of prophetic writings supposedly discovered in a cave near Naples by the Cumaean Sibyl. The action begins in 2073 and ends in 2100, making the book an unusually early example of future-set dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction. The plague is not merely a backdrop: it tests friendship, political ideals, family loyalty, and the possibility of preserving culture after society breaks down.

Several characters reflect people from Mary Shelley’s own circle. Adrian, Earl of Windsor, resembles her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, while Lord Raymond echoes Lord Byron. This biographical layer explains why the novel is often read as Mary Shelley’s meditation on grief and loss. Readers sometimes confuse it with Frankenstein, but “The Last Man” is a separate novel and one of Shelley’s most ambitious works.