Le Dernier Homme (The Last Man) is an 1805 Epic Science Fantasy novel in the form of a Prose Poem by Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville which is considered the first modern speculative fiction to depict the end of the world.
Currently there exists two English versions of the novel, a poorly translated 1806 version titled Omegarus and Syderia, a Romance in Futurity
and then a second translation by I. F. Clarke and M. Clarke published in 2003.
The story tells the tale of Omegarus, the son of the king of Europe and the last child born in a future where the earth is dying and humanity is loosing the ability to reproduce. Omegarus is then encouraged by the spirit of the earth to travel to Brazil to seek out his future wife, the last fertile woman.
Not to be confused with Mary Shelley’s The Last Man or Y: The Last Man.
Tropes:
- Adam and Eve Plot: Omegarus and Syderia are the last fertile man and woman on earth. However, The biblical Adam himself is actually sent to convince Omegarus to abandon Syderia in order to not prolong humanity.
- End of the World as We Know It: Naturally, since this is the first modern fiction about the apocalypse.
- Elixir of Life A great priest-scientist named Ormus discovers the secret to immortality and creates an elixir which he places inside an urn, after convincing mankind to undertake a great enterprise of farming the soil beneath the oceans, he then reveals this secret to the world and says that it must be an unanimous vote who receives this gift.They vote for him.
- Caught Up in the Rapture:
- Foregone Conclusion: The reader already knows humanity’s fate and that Omegarus and Syderia will fail to repopulate the human race.
- Girl in the Tower: A male example, after Omegarus and his companions arrive in the Brazils Omegarus is locked away in a tower until all the girls from the neighboring counties can be summoned so he can pick his future wife.
- Jerkass Gods: One can’t help but get that feeling by what the biblical God demands of Omegarus, not to mention the Sadistic Choice he gives Adam.
- Last of His Kind: Omegarus. He is not only the last child born in Europe, but by the end of the novel, the last man.
- Nested Story: The framing narrative is told to an unnamed narrator by a spirit, the second narrative within the first one is Omegarus telling Adam about his past and sometimes retelling stories within the second narrative that other characters told Omegarus, making a third narrative.
- Sadistic Choice: Adam is given the choice by an angel named Ithuriel to return to earth to persuade Omergus to make the greatest sacrifice to leave Syderia and keep from prolonging mankind’s existence which god has decided must end, in exchange he will be delivered from guarding the gates of hell where he watches his descendants enter for their sins, but if he doesn’t he will go back to his torture.
- Secret Identity: When Adam first meets Omegarus and Syderia he must keep his identity hidden from them.
