Last Man, Volume I

The Last Man, published in 1826 by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, is an early post-apocalyptic science fiction novel. The story is set in a future world devastated by a plague and follows Lionel Verney, the son of a nobleman who has fallen into poverty. Volume One introduces Verney's family and the societal conditions leading up to the outbreak of the plague, marking it as one of the first works to explore themes of isolation and human survival in a dystopian setting.