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''Le Dernier Homme'' (English: ''The Last Man'') is a French
science fantasy file:Warhammer40kcosplay.jpg, Cosplay of a character from the ''Warhammer 40,000'' tabletop game; one critic has characterized the game's setting as "action-oriented science-fantasy." Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction ...
novel in the form of a
prose poem Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form while otherwise deferring to poetic devices to make meaning. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associated with poetry. However, it make ...
. Written by
Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville Jean-Baptiste () is a male French name, originating with Saint John the Baptist, and sometimes shortened to Baptiste. The name may refer to any of the following: Persons * Charles XIV John of Sweden, born Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, was K ...
and published in 1805, it was the first story of modern
speculative fiction Speculative fiction is an umbrella term, umbrella genre of fiction that encompasses all the subgenres that depart from Realism (arts), realism, or strictly imitating everyday reality, instead presenting fantastical, supernatural, futuristic, or ...
to depict the end of the world. Considered a seminal early work of science fantasy, specifically of the Dying Earth genre, it has been described by Gary K. Wolfe as "A crucial document in the early history... of what became science fiction". ''Le Dernier Homme'' was translated into English in 1806 – poorly, and neither credited to de Grainville nor described as a translation from a French original – under the title ''Omegarus and Syderia, a Romance in Futurity''. This translation remained the only English version available until 2003, when a new translation by I. F. Clarke and Margaret Clarke was published.


Creation and publication

De Grainville was inspired by Milton's epic poem ''
Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...
''. Where Milton's work featured the first couple,
Adam and Eve Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...
, de Grainville writes of the last couple – Omegarus and Syderia. Influences from the Biblical
Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...
are also seen in the concept that the earth has a predestined day of ending. The influence of
Malthusian Malthusianism is a theory that population growth is potentially exponential, according to the Malthusian growth model, while the growth of the food supply or other resources is linear, which eventually reduces living standards to the point of trig ...
ideas is also seen, as de Grainville writes at one point of an earth out of balance, population outstripping resources. The work was published in 1805 due to the advocacy of the French literary figure Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, who persuaded the Paris publisher Deterville to offer the book. By the time the book was published, de Grainville was dead, a suicide in February of that year.* The first publication failed to attract any critical notice or sales, but was championed by Herbert Croft, who published a second edition in two volumes, in 1811. This second edition did garner the attention of critics, who praised it.


Plot

The story is told by a spirit to a young man who comes upon its cave while traveling in
Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
. The protagonist, Omegarus, is the son of the King of Europe and the last child born there in a far future in which the earth is becoming sterile and the human ability to reproduce is fading. He sees a vision of Syderia, the last fertile woman. She lives in
Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
, so he travels there in an airship. After various adventures there, including meeting Ormus, the Spirit of Earth, who urges the two to begin a rebirth of the human race, Omegarus returns to Europe with Syderia by his side. There they meet
Adam Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam ...
, the first man, who has been condemned by God to watch all the damned among his descendants enter Hell, and who is now charged with persuading Omegarus and Syderia not to prolong the life of humanity, which God has determined must now end. He succeeds in having Omegarus leave Syderia, who then dies. Ormus, who cannot survive without humanity, despairs, and the world begins to end and the graves of all the dead to open, initiating the eventual
Rapture The Rapture is an Christian eschatology, eschatological position held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an end-time event when all dead Christian believers will be resurrected and, joined with Chr ...
and the events described in the
Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...
.


Works inspired

''Le Dernier Homme'' inspired three other works. *''Le Dernier Homme, poème imité de Grainville'' (''The Last Man, a Poem Inspired by Grainville'') is an 1832 work by
Auguste Creuzé de Lesser Auguste may refer to: People Surname * Arsène Auguste (1951–1993), Haitian footballer * Donna Auguste (born 1958), African-American businesswoman * Georges Auguste (born 1933), Haitian painter * Henri Auguste (1759–1816), Parisian gol ...
, which expands on Grainville's original, describing aerial cities and a failed attempt at leaving Earth to colonize another planet. *''L’Unitéide ou la Femme messie'' (''The Unitéide, or the Female Messiah''), a mammoth and epic philosophical poem by Etienne-Paulin Gagne published in 1858, sees the return of the character of Omegarus (under the name Omegar). In the work (set in the year 2000), God sends a female messiah to save the world. *''Omégar ou le Dernier Homme'' (''Omegare, or the Last Man''), published the following year by Gagne's wife Élise Gagne, is another poetic epic about the final days of the Earth. The work known as ''Omegarus and Syderia'' did circulate somewhat in London, and several contemporary reviewers noticed resemblances between it and subsequent
eschatological Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of present age, human history, or the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that negative world ...
works: Byron's "
Darkness Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination, or an absence of visible light. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina a ...
" (1816) and Mary Shelley's '' The Last Man'' (1826). Whether Byron or Shelly were indeed influenced by, or even read, ''Omegarus and Syderia'' is not known.


References

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Further reading

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External links


Short selections from ''Le Dernier Homme'' (1806 London translation)

Complete copy of the 1805 first edition, in facsimile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dernier Homme 1805 French novels 1800s fantasy novels 1805 science fiction novels Science fantasy novels French science fiction novels French fantasy novels Dying Earth (genre) Apocalyptic novels Religion in science fiction Cultural depictions of Adam and Eve