This Norton Critical Edition includes:

• The 1826 Henry Colburn edition of the novel, the only one approved by Mary Shelley.
• Introduction and explanatory footnotes by Chris Washington.
• A rich selection of contextual documents—twenty-six in all—pertaining to The Last Man’s background and sources, reception and impact, other related works by Shelley, and other “Last Man” texts.
• Fourteen carefully chosen critical assessments on the novel’s major themes.
• A chronology of Mary Shelley’s life and work and a selected bibliography