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
