The Last Man is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, which was first published in 1826. The book tells of a future world that has been ravaged by a plague. The novel was harshly reviewed at the time, and was virtually unknown until a scholarly revival beginning in the 1960s. It is notable in part for its semi-biographical portraits of Romantic figures in Shelley's circle, particularly Shelley's late husband Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.

In 1794, Captain Walton leads a troubled expedition to reach the North Pole. While their ship is trapped in the ice of the Arctic Sea, the crew discovers a man, Victor Frankenstein, traveling across the Arctic on his own. Victor proceeds to tell Walton and the crew his life story. Victor grows up in Geneva with his adopted sister, Elizabeth Lavenza, who will become the love of his life. Before he leaves for the university at Ingolstadt, Victor's mother dies giving birth to his brother William. Victor vows on his mother's grave that he will find a way to conquer death.

Le roman est une reflexion sur les dangers d'une ambition effrenee et les conflits entre cette ambition et les lois civiles et morales. C'est aussi un manifeste feministe, car il exalte la liberte d'une femme jusqu'a la licence. Cependant, Defoe prend garde de temperer cette tendance en faisant de son heroine une criminelle: en un ultime desir de respectabilite, Roxana epouse un titre de noblesse et rencontre peu apres sa fille qui a ete temoin de ses frasques passees. Alors, afin de ne pas voir son nouveau statut reduit a neant, elle laisse sans vergogne ni remords son alter ego Amy la...

La madre di Moll e una reclusa nella prigione di Newgate che riceve un rinvio "appellandosi al ventre," ovvero invocando la consuetudine di rimandare l'esecuzione per le criminali incinte. La madre viene poi deportata in America e Moll Flanders (questo, lei sottolinea, non e il suo vero nome, che non rivela mai) e allevata fino all'adolescenza da una buona madre adottiva; poi decide di andare a lavorare come serva presso una famiglia, dove viene amata da entrambi i figli.

Moll Flanders est l'histoire d'une jeune femme nee et abandonnee dans la prison de Newgate (prison de Londres au xviiie siecle), et qui est forcee de se debrouiller seule pour faire sa vie. Ainsi, elle se mariera cinq fois dans l'espoir a chaque fois d'acquerir une certaine securite, notamment economique, partira s'installer dans la colonie britannique de Virginie, en Amerique, et, decouvrant que par un hasard malencontreux, elle s'est mariee a son propre frere, elle reviendra en Angleterre, et entamera une vie de voleuse des bas-fonds londoniens du xviiie siecle.

Moll's mother is a convict in Newgate Prison in London who is given a reprieve by "pleading her belly," a reference to the custom of staying the executions of pregnant criminals. Her mother is eventually transported to America, and Moll Flanders (not her birth name, she emphasises, taking care not to reveal it) is raised until adolescence by a goodly foster mother. Thereafter she gets attached to a household as a servant where she is loved by both sons, the elder of whom convinces her to "act like they were married" in bed. Unwilling to marry her, he persuades her to marry his younger...

The book starts with the statement about Crusoe's marriage in England. He bought a little farm in Bedford and had three children: two sons and one daughter. Our hero suffered a distemper and a desire to see "his island." He could talk of nothing else, and one can imagine that no one took his stories seriously, except his wife. She told, in tears, "I will go with you, but I won't leave you." But in the middle of this felicity, Providence unhinged him at once, with the loss of his wife.

Robinson Crusoe e figlio di un mercante di Brema (il cui nome originale e Kreutznaer) emigrato in Inghilterra. Nato nel 1632 nella citta portuale di York, il padre lo educa severamente alla nuova condizione di rappresentante cadetto della classe media e vuole che in futuro diventi un avvocato; il giovane pero, da sempre fortemente appassionato alla vita di mare, decide appena compiuti diciannove anni di andar contro le direttive paterne, fermamente contrarie ai suoi 'istinti di viaggio', e quindi d'imbarcarsi.

En 1651, Robinson Crusoe quitte York, en Angleterre, contre la volonte de ses parents qui voulaient qu'il devienne avocat, pour naviguer. Le navire est arraisonne par des pirates de Sale (les fameux Sallee Rovers) et Crusoe devient l'esclave d'un Maure. Il parvient a s'echapper sur un bateau et ne doit son salut qu'a un navire portugais qui passe au large de la cote ouest de l'Afrique. Arrive au Bresil, Crusoe devient le proprietaire d'une plantation grace au materiel qu'il y avait sur le bateau.

Crusoe (the family name corrupted from the German name "Kreutznaer") sets sail from the Queen's Dock in Hull on a sea voyage in August 1651, against the wishes of his parents, who want him to pursue a career, possibly in law. After a tumultuous journey where his ship is wrecked in a storm, his lust for the sea remains so strong that he sets out to sea again. This journey, too, ends in disaster, as the ship is taken over by Sale pirates (the Sale Rovers) and Crusoe is enslaved by a Moor. Two years later, he escapes in a boat with a boy named Xury; a captain of a Portuguese ship off the west...