The Last Man

‘'A solitary being is by instinct a wanderer, and that I would become. A hope of amelioration always attends on change of place, which would even lighten the burthen of my life... Tiber, the road which is spread by nature's own hand, threading her continent, was at my feet, and many a boat was tethered to the banks. I would with a few books, provisions and my dog embark in one of these and float down the current of the stream into the sea; and then, keeping near land. I would coast the beauteous shores and sunny promontories of the blue Mediterranean...Thus around the shores of deserted earth, while the sun is high, and the moon waxes and wanes, angels, the spirits of the dead, and the ever-open eye of the Supreme, will behold the tiny bark, freighted with Verney, the LAST MAN.''

Love you Mary Shelly

I don't feel like I read this as much as survived it, as one would survive plodding through safely shallow quicksand, not deep enough to be dangerous, just a seemingly never-ending, snail paced trudge though annoyance. For some reason “Plodding” is word that comes to mind. It's not all bad, parts are quite good actually, but they a buried in the shear mass of the book.

Also, I am sure it is mostly due to the period it was written, but the characters can be ridiculously irritating at times, Perdita became extremely tiresome for me.

Adding to my disappointment, was that I was hoping for more of a post-apocalyptic story than this was, there was very little actual struggle for survival, just some people not dying while other people did.

If this book has taught me anything, it's that life is too short to waste on books that are a chore to read. At nearly a quarter of the way through, the only thing that I've read so far is a droning chronology of how five people became friends, married up and had babies. The “story” moved in a predictable pattern of “I totally hated this person before I met them, and then I met them and they turned out to be the most wonderful person ever.” Sorry Mary Shelley, I love you dearly, but I just can't with this one.

This was a good read. Although I have to say I think I'm not very fond of Victorian novels. So much happens. At one point I thought that I was either reading a flashback or dreamworld.

oh well. tough read but good