The Last Man

First published in 1826, this novel is cast as a manuscript from the late twenty-first century. Lionel Verney, a shepherd who enters the circle of the idealistic Adrian, Earl of Windsor, recounts republican politics, a Greek war, and the career of the ambitious Lord Raymond. A plague then spreads from the east, emptying cities and finally England. The remnant wanders through a depopulated Europe as governments and households collapse. The book is a future history of friendship and extinction, not a medical treatise.

Bound in brown cloth, cover blocked in maroon, gilt and white with a design by Neil Gower. Brown slipcase and endpapers.