Last Men in London
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.
William Olaf Stapledon
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION:THE FUTURE’S CONCERN WITH THE PAST
Chapter 1
2. MEN AND MAN
3. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Chapter 2
2. DIFFICULTIES AND DANGERS
3. INFLUENCING PAST MINDS
4. HOVERING OVER TIME
5. DESCENT AMONG THE FIRST MEN
6. IN THE STREETS OF LONDON
Chapter 3
2. THE CHILD PAUL
3. EARLY EXPERIMENTS ON PAUL
4. PAUL’S CHANGING WORLD
Chapter 4
2. PAUL DEVOUT
3. PAUL FACES THE FACTS
Chapter 5
2. THE PHILOSOPHICAL LEMURS
3. PREHISTORIC ORIGINS OF THE WAR
4. THE HISTORICAL PERIOD
Chapter 6
2. EUROPE CHOOSES WAR
3. EUROPE AT WAR
4. PAUL IN THE WAR
Chapter 7
2. PAUL GATHERS UP THE THREADS
3. PAUL COMES TO TERMS WITH WOMAN
4. LONDON AND THE SPIRIT
Chapter 8
2. THE RESEARCH
3. FRUITS OF THE RESEARCH
4. PAUL SETTLES DOWN
Chapter 9
2. PAUL AND HUMPTY
3. BACK TO NEPTUNE
4. EPILOGUE BY THE TERRESTRIAL AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK
About Stapledon: