In our own time, when the dark threat of a dystopian world is not an alien or avoidable concept, The Last Man (1826) is revealed as a trailblazing novel. With a truly global view, Mary Shelley’s futuristic romain à clef – containing portraits of her husband Percy (Adrian), Lord Byron (Raymond) and several others – spearheaded the apocalyptic genre for an intimidated 19th-century readership that rejected her ‘diseased imagination’ and ‘polluted taste’. In the wake of COVID-19, the ravaging of a plague pandemic and its connection with politics has fascinating resonance. Told by Lionel, a wild child from Cumberland, the story begins in 2073 and sets out a horrifying future while creating an idealised past. From the political machinations of Westminster in London to the secluded Apennines in Rome, it covers an ongoing war between Greece and Turkey, the futility of the imagination, the dashing of hopes and expectations, and ultimately the survival of the human race. This superb recording by Justin Avoth ensures The Last Man’s place as Shelley’s most important work after Frankenstein.