BEAUTY IN SORROW
Ikram DJAOUD
Every now and then in a lifetime, you come upon a book that speaks to your very soul: rich in
terms of plot, detailed and oddly personal when it comes to character development, in such a way
that you nourish a peculiar intimacy with each character portrayed throughout the tale; an attach-
ment often fatal to our souls, when the object of our admiration brutally joins the choir invisible.
W
ho isn’t familiar with Frankenstein? Mary
Shelley’s most distinguishable work, molding
horror and awe in their most odious and
abominable shapes. Mary’s feather however did not quit
producing after acquiring fame. This time, she resolved
to wretch our hearts in a different, yet no less doleful
manner; proving thus that creativity she did not lack.
Let us take a moment and attempt to envision
the worst misery that could possibly befall a mortal.
Some will say the loss of health: a most precious, albeit
non-renewable resource. Many will plead in favour of a
brilliant career: a vocation one worked excessively hard
for, in vain. Others will claim nothing equals in agony
the perdition of a tender lover, an affectionate parent
or a delicate child. However, elements that can awaken
woe in a human spirit vary in a wider manner than
we care to admit. From the loss of a faithful friend: a
brother to the soul, to whom one turns in their hour
of need; to the fading of hope, the decay of purpose
and the decadence of what once was an unshakeable
belief; to the ultimate loss: that of one’s self, the
withering of one’s identity in the tumult of inner and
outer trepidation. All of which are to a surprisingly
high degree accurately portrayed between the fine
lines of the seemingly endless pages of the massive
triple volume novel in hand: The Last Man (1826) by
one of the world’s most regrettably underrated authors,
although a prominent pre-Victorian literary romantic
novelist and poet, Mary Shelley.
The Last Man is a post-apocalyptic fantasy set in the
2090’s, which –along with her earlier novel Frankenstein-
makes of Mary Shelley, one of the very first writers of the
futuristic science fiction genre. She spends the entire
first volume, describing the development of the main
characters. Lionel, orphan at the age of five, is initially
reckless and wild, baring untamed resentfulness to the
nobility for discarding his father, causing him and his
sister of two: Perdita, to subsist in pitiable poverty and
therefore seek employment at such an early age and
live off charity. During his thoughtless youth, causing
trouble in the village and protecting his calm and
self-sufficient sibling Perdita seemed to be his sole
occupations. Until Adrian -former prince of England
and currently earl of Windsor- made his appearance,
befriended the helpless and lawless Verneys and tamed
their savageness. Through Adrian, Lionel learns to be a
polished young man; he develops thirst for knowledge
and bestows a refined taste in arts and music. Perdita,
on the other hand, learns to be much more open to
the outside world after she was isolated in her own
little bubble; thanks to Idris, Adrian’s younger sister
and Lionel’s future affectionate spouse and devoted
life companion.
Raymond, a national hero who led the Greek
troops into victory, conquered not only Turkey but
also Perdita’s heart. The glorious warrior did not
lack aspiration, for ambition was his eminent trait.
Raymond’s popularity permitted him to win the
latest elections against the other candidates. All five
companions got along extremely well and lived in
complete harmony and delightful bliss through serene,
peaceful and unruffled days of absolute ecstasy in an
Edenic paradise, for roughly five years. At the term of
which, a series of misfortunes started to rain on their
hitherto cloudless brows.
It is of utter relevance to appreciate the degree
of implication of Shelley’s private life in her text and
the reflection of her personal experiences in the lives
of her semi-fictional characters. Indeed; Lionel, Adrian
and Raymond are respectively based on herself, her
husband Percy Shelley and their friend Lord Byron. The
three of them were influential leading figures in the
movement of romanticism during the early XVIII th
century.
The second and third volumes of the novel are
much darker. Raymond’s ambitious nature, his passion
and thrive for action took him back to Greece where
he ardently fought and nobly lost his life, stabbed not
by the hand of man, but by that of a greater fiend; an
enemy to all humanity, a sinister pestilence that discerns
not the virtuous from the wicked, the good from the
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