I Am Legend

“Come out, Neville.”
― Richard Matheson, I Am Legend and Other Stories

I Am Legend is a 1954 horror fiction novel by American writer Richard Matheson. I listened to a nine-part abridged BBC reading of the novel performed by Angus MacInnes. In the story Robert Neville is the apparent sole survivor of a pandemic whose symptoms resemble vampirism. It is said that the pandemic was caused by a war, and that it was spread by dust storms in the cities and an explosion in the mosquito population. The narrative details Neville's daily life in Los Angeles as he attempts to comprehend, research, and possibly cure the disease, to which he is immune. Neville's past is revealed through flashbacks; the disease claimed his wife and daughter, and he was forced to kill his wife after she seemingly rose from the dead as a vampire and attacked him.Neville survives by barricading himself by sunset inside his house, further protected by garlic, mirrors, and crucifixes. Swarms of vampires, led by Neville's neighbour, Ben Cortman, regularly surround his house, trying to find ways to get inside. During the day, he scavenges for supplies and searches out the inactive vampires, driving stakes into their hearts to kill them. He finds brief solace in a stray dog that finds its way to his house. Desperate for company, Neville slowly earns the dog's trust with food and brings it into the house. Despite his efforts, the dog proves to be infected and dies a week later.After bouts of depression and alcoholism, Neville decides to find out the scientific cause of the pandemic. He obtains books and other research materials from a library, and through painstaking research discovers the root of the disease in a strain of bacteria capable of infecting both deceased and living hosts. He also discovers that the vampires are affected by the garlic, mirrors, and crosses because of "hysterical blindness", the result of previous psychological conditioning of the infected. Driven insane by the disease, the infected now react as they believe they should when confronted with these items. Even then, their reaction is constrained to the beliefs of the particular person; for example, a Christian vampire would fear the cross, but a Jewish vampire would not.Neville also discovers more efficient means of killing the vampires, other than just driving a stake into their hearts. This includes exposing them to direct sunlight (which kills the bacteria) or inflicting deep wounds on their bodies so that the bacteria switch from being anaerobic symbionts to aerobic parasites, rapidly consuming their hosts when exposed to air. He is now killing such large numbers of vampires in his daily forays that his nightly visitors have diminished significantly.After three years, Neville sees an apparently uninfected woman, Ruth, in broad daylight, and captures her. After some convincing, Ruth tells him her story of how she and her husband survived the pandemic (though her husband was killed two weeks earlier). Neville is puzzled by the fact that she is upset when he speaks of killing vampires; he thinks that if her story of survival was true, she would have become hardened to the act. He attempts to test whether she is a vampire by exposing her to garlic, which causes her to recoil violently. At night Neville is startled awake and finds Ruth fully clothed at the front door of the house. Suspicious, he questions her motives, but relates the trauma of his past, whereupon they comfort each other. Ruth reluctantly allows him to take a blood sample but knocks him unconscious when the sample reveals that she is infected.When he wakes, Neville discovers a note from Ruth confessing that she is actually infected and that Neville was responsible for her husband's death. Ruth admits that she was sent to spy on him. The infected have slowly overcome their disease until they can spend short periods of time in sunlight, and are attempting to build a new society. They have developed medication which helps them to overcome the most severe symptoms of the infection. Ruth warns Neville that her people will attempt to capture him, and that he should leave his house and escape to the mountains.Neville cannot bring himself to leave his house, however, and assumes that he will be captured and treated fairly by the new society. Infected members of the new society eventually attack the house. During the attack, the members of the new society violently dispatch the other feral vampires outside the house, and Neville becomes alarmed at the grim enjoyment they appear to take from this task. Realising that the intention of the attackers may be to kill him rather than to capture him he tries to defend himself with a pistol, leading to one of the infected shooting and badly injuring him.Neville wakes in a barred cell where he is visited by Ruth, who informs him that she is a ranking member of the new society but, unlike the others, does not resent him. Ruth attempts to present a façade of indifference to Neville, but is unable to maintain it during her discussion with him. After discussing the effects of Neville's vampire killing activities on the new society, she acknowledges the need for Neville's execution and gives him pills, claiming they will "make it easier". Fatally injured, Neville accepts his fate and asks Ruth not to let this society become heartless. Ruth kisses him and leaves.Neville goes to his prison window and sees the infected waiting for his execution. He now sees that the infected view him with the same hatred and fear that he once felt for the vampires; he realizes that he, a remnant of old humanity, is now a legend to the new race born of the infection. He recognises that their desire to kill him is not something he can condemn. As the pills take effect, he thinks: "[I am] a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend."

While the book, at first glance, is about vampires it isn't. Its about being alone. And I mean, really alone. The last man alive. The novel is unrelenting in its psychological insights into hopelessness. No companionship. Nobody to trust, love, laugh along with. Nothing. It also explores the idea that when there is nothing to live for, why do we want to survive?

Thought provoking and deep. An unforgettable insight into the human condition which leaves a dark, heavy feeling on your soul.

WHAT
A very short psychological horror story about the last man alive in a post-apocalyptic monster dominated world. By day Robert Neville hunts vampires while they sleep, by night he hides in his house, fearing for his life and his sanity. His greatest battle is an inner one, against feelings of depression brought down by loneliness and the knowledge that things are not going to get any better.

TLDR
- too short to be considered a proper novel
- not a fan of horror stories: reliance on emotions and ambiance over an intricate plot
+ involving narrative
+ sorta interesting ending

I like the book better than the movie; more realistic, darker. The movie's loosely based on the book.

When the movie came out, I couldn't help but hear people comparing it to the book. I hadn't realized the book was much more of a short story than a full novel. The movie touches on a number of even more emotional deep moments, including the inclusion of the dog. The book much more humanizes the vampires, as well as going deeper into the science side of things. By having a main character who also isn't a scientist, it helps show the passage of time more as he learns what he needs to learn. The endings are of course drastically different – even from the alternate ending.

I loved this book more than I thought I would. I found it interesting how Neville was surviving in a world all alone with vampires coming at night. I liked how the book began, but I didn't like the ending too well. I have seen the movie that is based off this book and I must say that I liked the movie way better because I feel like it has a better ending.

It was interesting how Neville figured out what was going on with the vampires even though he was really no doctor like in the movies.

I want to begin this review by saying that I really lost count of the times the author used the word ‘jerked' in this book.

Now that I've put that out of my mind, the book felt monotonous. I do have the notion that the repetitive pattern of descriptions of what the character did could be a way of emphasizing and transmitting to the reader the feeling that the man is living a pretty boring life.

However, there were too many drinking glasses broken... or too many descriptions of the drinks he had. Some things were left out, like how the sickness of his daughter progressed (and there are only some descriptions here and there about his wife...).

The book also had little action, besides one or another walk out of the house that the character had.

One point I would like to address is the dog. At least in this part of the story, the main character felt very human and its situation very real. I really pitied and rooted for him.

In the end, the book forced me to think about how stubborn the main character is. Come on... Get out of there already! Oh.. Now you're having regrets... (Yes, I know that this made him very human and this is a positive point of the book. I can see myself having many of the attitudes the man had if I were in his situation).

All in all, I recommend this book. Probably, it is best to read it in one go.

Definitely an interesting take on the genre though it did not really work for me in any way. Even the prose was a bit too obscure, which is the one attribute that authors usually get right. Nevertheless, it was still a decent read.
The movie was significantly better...

3.6 stars “Full circle, he thought while the final lethargy crept into his limbs. Full circle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am Legend.”

I have been meaning to read this ever since seeing the Will Smith movie adaptation. I must say that this book has a much more powerful message. The movie reversed the message for whatever reason (Hollywood formula?) and I now consider “I Am Legend” a good zombie / vampire / whatever flick, but nothing more.

When I read the actual words “I Am Legend” in the text, it had a huge impact. It was one of those WTF moments that is really rare. I would consider this a “classic” as many others have already done. The internal struggle of Robert Neville about what he is doing to these “creatures” and his justification along the way is very well done.

I wish the movie had explored that instead of just making it another “Zombie” movie.

Le mythe du vampire est revisité de façon magistrale dans ce roman à mi-chemin entre la science-fiction et l'horreur. Je découvre ce roman bien tard mais c'est un chef d'oeuvre de la science-fiction que j'aurais dû lire il y a bien longtemps.

Full review at sff book review

This was surprisingly terrifying.
The vampires didn't scare me as much as Robert Neville's utter loneliness did. Being the last man in the world who's not infected by the vampire virus? The idea chilled me to the bone. As short as the story was, I was stuck in that world for the duration of it. Highly recommended!

Well, I finally read the book after watching that Hollywood blockbuster years ago. I must say... I didn't realise how different they were. Sure, the gist of it was there, but it's quite different.

I liked the prose in the book - it shows the thought patterns of Robert Neville, as well as his psychological state. It tries to portray what happens to a person's mind when left all alone for so long, and I think it's a fair portrayal. This is something the movie absolutely failed to capture - it's hard to capture the emotions and the pain.

You have to realise that this book was written in the 1950s, about the 1970s, twenty years into the future. The rational explanations and the use of science to explain the situation actually felt quite plausible. The vampires themselves were actually not as important as in the movie, Robert Neville was on the centre stage - the vampires were just part of the situation he's in. It's definitely not a zombie/vampire tale like the movie seems to imply it is.

And I finally understood what the phrase “I Am Legend” meant.

A phenomenal and stunning work that serves as a marked departure in the sci-fi genre. A must read for anyone with a passing interest in the evolution of zombie fiction and a remarkable work of literature that deserves to be placed up there with the greatest works of our time.

Much, much better than the movie of the same name, although considering how awful the movie is, that doesn't really give a good idea of the quality of Matheson's novella. The movie is about goofy looking CGI monsters that roar at the Fresh Prince. The novella is about vampires and the efforts of the last man on Earth (thankfully not the Fresh Prince) to stop them. While the movie focuses on the conflict between the Fresh Prince and scary things that jump out of nowhere and roar, the novella focuses more with the internal conflicts that plague the last man on Earth. The main character has to deal with feelings of boredom, depression, hopelessness, and a passionate zeal for “solving” the vampire problem. The movie wants you to be scared of what's outside the house trying to get in, whereas the novella makes it clear that the real terror is the isolation of being the last man on Earth, which makes the novella infinitely more interesting and enjoyable than the movie.

Much, much better than the movie of the same name, although considering how awful the movie is, that doesn't really give a good idea of the quality of Matheson's novella. The movie is about goofy looking CGI monsters that roar at the Fresh Prince. The novella is about vampires and the efforts of the last man on Earth (thankfully not the Fresh Prince) to stop them. While the movie focuses on the conflict between the Fresh Prince and scary things that jump out of nowhere and roar, the novella focuses more with the internal conflicts that plague the last man on Earth. The main character has to deal with feelings of boredom, depression, hopelessness, and a passionate zeal for “solving” the vampire problem. The movie wants you to be scared of what's outside the house trying to get in, whereas the novella makes it clear that the real terror is the isolation of being the last man on Earth, which makes the novella infinitely more interesting and enjoyable than the movie.

An amazing read. The author creates an atmosphere that really pulls you in.

I read this in 2000. I remember enjoying the story... great concept. Then I saw the movie and that sucked (and not in a good way.) – Hang on... I dug up my review from my archives:

Stephen King credits Matheson as being the writer who most influenced his own writings and Arnold Schwarzenegger is (or was) interested in making a movie out of this story (starring himself). So, I wanted to check out what they were so jazzed about. Matheson is perhaps better known as the author of What Dreams May Come, which was turned into a mediocre movie starring Robin Williams as a man who journeys to the afterlife in search of his wife. I Am Legend is about Robert Neville, who, though he's the last man on Earth, isn't necessarily alone. Every other man, woman, and child on the planet has either succumbed to a mysterious plague or has been turned into a vampire. By day Neville travels around the area driving stakes into the hearts of the sleeping vampires. By night he barricades himself in his protected house, surrounded by garlands of garlic. Bummer, huh? This brief novel was written in 1954 and takes place in the future of 1976. It's entertaining enough and has a couple of good plot twists, nothing great though. But I think the story would translate well — in an updated fashion — to a modern horror movie.