Video: Best reading for a pandemic: 19th century author of Frankenstein wrote a prophetic novel about coronavirus
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Mary Shelley best known for one of her novels, the first of which she wrote - "Frankenstein" (1819). The book has come a long way towards its popularity. Some people still argue about whether the novel actually belongs to Mary or not. Even now, Frankenstein speaks to us about our fears of scientific achievement, about our difficulties in recognizing our common humanity. Shelley has one nearly forgotten 1826 novel, The Last Man. This book hides prophetic details about our present time, the global crisis and the global pandemic.
Mary Shelley's The Last Man is a classic of apocalyptic science fiction. This novel is perfect to read during a pandemic. Its main theme is nature, which rises to suppress human influence. The book is truly troubling, even a couple of centuries after it was written.
The main character, Lionel Verney, is a simple country boy living in the year 2100. He and his friends learn about the impending plague epidemic. The disease sweeps across the planet, claiming millions of human lives, until in the end there is only one Verni left. Lionel does not believe that he was left alone on the planet and goes on a boat to try to find other survivors. This tragic story, told in three volumes, is full of drama and international intrigue.
At a time when natural disasters, wars, diseases, it would seem, predetermined the death of all mankind, many thought about it. In the early 19th century, cholera was rampant in the British colonies. The discovery of dinosaur remains during these years made scientists think that humans, too, could become an extinct species.
By the time Mary Shelley got the idea to write a novel like this, everyone she loved except one of her children was dead. Mary was once part of the most significant social circle of second-generation romantic intellectual poets. Now she was left almost alone in this huge empty world. Just as the author in the book kills the characters one by one, The Last Man recreates this story of loss along with Mary's crushing sense of loneliness.
Many writers of the time depicted literary portraits of impending disaster and general despair. Shelley's novel was among the rest. Today it is considered the first dystopian post-apocalyptic novel written in English. However, it looked like the last zombie movie now.
Despite the fact that in those days this story was overlooked and received devastating criticism, it was later overrated. Reprinted in the 1960s, Verney's exploits at the end of time echoed the contemporary problems of humanity. One of the radical messages in Shelley's novel was the environmental dimension of the story. The story describes a world in which people are dying out, and it is getting better, turning into a kind of global Eden. All this makes the last survivor question his very right to exist.
World politicians come together to find a solution to a problem, but ultimately fail to provide answers. The Last Man was written during the crisis of global famine following the eruption of Tambora and the first known cholera pandemic in 1817-1824. Cholera spread like wildfire throughout the Indian subcontinent and throughout Asia until its horrific tread stopped in the Middle East.
England did not react in any way to the alarm bells at the beginning of the epidemic. Most of all, the British worried about the economy. The mass loss of life made bankers and merchants of the British colonies bankrupt. The society was shaken by massive financial losses. Under these conditions, racial superiority flourished. Throughout the story, Mary Shelley has shown us that this is unreasonable: all people are mortal, everyone can get sick and die. No amount of money, power, privilege, can give immunity to the plague.
In The Last Man, the heroes manage to maintain a huge amount of optimism to the end. They don't know they are going to die. All of them are held captive by the naive hopes that this global catastrophe will create some new absolutely wonderful forms of life. They see a new, just world with wonderful kind people who sympathize with each other. In fact, all this is a mirage. People do not change. They make absolutely no effort to revive civilization. Instead, they become prisoners of pleasures and forbidden pleasures. The writer very vividly describes in the novel how quickly the world becomes godless. How it resonates with modern times!
Ultimately, the author of the novel leads us to the fact that our humanity is not determined at all by art, faith or politics, but solely by our sense of compassion and love. In addition, a person should think about appreciating what God has given them, and not just mindlessly consuming the gifts of nature, destroying it.
The Last Man is a novel that was far ahead of its time and now the times are coming when we can fully appreciate Mary Shelley's creative foresight …
Read more about the life of a writer in our other article. Mary Shelley: the ups and downs of the girl who wrote the story of Frankenstein.
Recommended:
Behind the scenes of the film "The One": How the plot became prophetic for Vladimir Vysotsky and Valery Zolotukhin
45 years ago, in 1976, the film "The Only One" by Joseph Kheifits was released. An uncomplicated, at first glance, story of love, infidelity and forgiveness was so fond of the audience that the film became one of the leaders in distribution, gathering 32.5 million people at the cinema screens. The main roles were played by Elena Proklova, Valery Zolotukhin and Vladimir Vysotsky. In the film, the heroes of the actors were the main competitors, fighting for the heart of one woman, and soon after filming, the actors themselves became competitors in real life
The mysterious artist Arseny Meshchersky, who studied painting from the age of 3 and became one of the best landscape painters of the 19th century
There are many artists in the history of art, whose life has been studied by historians up and down, documented and witnessed by eyewitnesses. But there are also people like Arseny Ivanovich Meshchersky - a mysterious person, part of whose biography is shrouded in secrets and riddles. And what is interesting at all - Arseny Ivanovich always considered himself a "draftsman" of nature, and not a painter, as is customary
12 best books of the twentieth century according to the version of the New York Public Library, which are worth reading for cultural people
The New York Public Library is one of the largest in the world with an extensive network and access to the best books. During the preparation of the exhibition "The Best Books of the 20th Century", a list of the most significant printed publications was compiled, while the creators divided the books into thematic sections. In total, 175 books were shown at the exhibition, and in our today's review 12 of them are presented
Mary Shelley: the ups and downs of the girl who wrote the story of Frankenstein
For several decades in a row, the story of Frankenstein has not lost its popularity. Filmmakers often look to this image. But few people know that the fragile sophisticated 19-year-old girl Mary Shelley became the author of the story about the revived monster. Her work was written on a dispute and marked the beginning of a new literary genre - the Gothic novel. The writer "put" her thoughts and experiences into the hero's head, which arose as a result of her difficult life twists and turns
The best family sagas of the 21st century: 10 books you won't get bored of reading
Family sagas are a slightly open door to other people's lives. Books written in this genre have always been popular, one has only to remember "The Thorn Birds" by Colin McCullough or "The Forsyte Saga" by John Galsworthy. Modern writers also do not ignore this topic, offering narratives about the passage of time within the same family. Sometimes it seems that the author seemed to have spied on the life of the reader himself and now invites him to look from the outside at himself