Last Men in London

William Olaf Stapledon

Genre(s)Science fiction, Novel

Last Men in London (1932) is a science fiction novel by Olaf Stapledon.
The narrator is the same member of the eighteenth and final human species who purportedly induced Stapledon to write Last and First Men. Last Men in London is the story of this being's exploration of the consciousness of a present-day Englishman named Paul, from childhood through service with an ambulance crew in the First World War (mirroring Stapledon's own personal history) to adult life as a schoolteacher faced with a "submerged superman" in his class nicknamed Humpty. The inadequacies of Paul's character, the various dilemmas he has to face during his life, and the occasional influence of the advanced being who shares his experiences, provide Stapledon with a semi-autobiographical platform on which to expound his philosophical and moral beliefs.

Olaf Stapledon Books (Sunday Classic)

Darkness and the Light
Last and First Men
Last Men in London
Odd John A Story between Jest and Earnest
Sirius A Fantasy of Love and Discord
Star Maker
The Flames
The Flames