I Am Legend (novel)
| File:Iamlegend.jpg | |
| Author | Richard Matheson |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | sci-fi/horror/thriller |
| Publisher | Fawcett Gold Medal |
Publication date | 1954 |
| Publication place | USA |
| Media type | Paperback |
| Pages | 160 (1954 edition) 317 (1995 edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 031286504X (1995 edition) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
I Am Legend is a 1954 science fiction novel by Richard Matheson about the last man alive in a future Los Angeles, California. It is notable as influential on the developing modern vampire genre as well as the zombie genre, in popularizing the fictional concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease, and in exploring the notion of vampirism as a disease. The novel was a success and was adapted to film as The Last Man on Earth in 1964, as The Omega Man in 1971, and again in 2007 as I Am Legend.
Later releases of the novel include several of Matheson's short stories to increase the page length: Buried Talents, The Near Departed, Prey, Witch War, Dance of the Dead, Dress of White Silk, Mad House, Funeral, From Shadowed Places, and Person to Person.
Plot
The story takes place between January 1976 and January 1979 in Los Angeles. The novel opens with the monotony and horror of the daily life of the protagonist, Robert Neville. Neville is apparently the only survivor of an apocalypse caused by a pandemic of bacteria, the symptoms of which are similar to vampirism. He spends every day repairing his house, boarding up windows, stringing and hanging garlic, disposing of vampire corpses on his lawn and going out to gather any additional supplies needed for hunting and killing more vampires.
Much of the story is devoted to Neville's struggles to understand the plague that has divided those around him into the walking dead - vampires - and the still-living infected. The novel details his research into the nature of vampirism, as the symptoms explain their legendary aversion to garlic, sunlight, and so on.
One day a dog appears in the neighborhood. Neville spends weeks trying to win its trust and domesticate it. He eventually traps the terrified dog and wins it over, but it dies from the infection a week later.
Neville encounters an apparently uninfected woman named Ruth; startled, she runs away. Neville chases her and after a struggle drags her back to his house. Suspicious that she is infected, Neville questions her. He reveals that as well as vampires, he kills the infected, believing that sooner or later they will die and come after him. Despite their mistrust, Neville and Ruth share an evening of platonic love.
However, when Neville performs a blood test on her, her infection is revealed. Ruth knocks him out and escapes, but leaves a note, explaining that she was a spy from a primitive new society; her people are infected but have discovered a means to hold the disease at bay. She warns him to leave before they come to destroy him. Neville decides to stay.
Months later, hunters from the new society capture Neville, and take him for public execution. Before he can be executed, Ruth provides him with pills so that he will feel no pain. Neville takes the pills; before he is executed he reflects on how the new society regards him as a monster. Just as vampires were regarded as legendary monsters that preyed on the vulnerable humans in their beds, Neville has become a mythical figure that kills both vampires and the still-living while they are sleeping, thus the book ends with his final revelation: "I am legend."
Influence
I Am Legend influenced the zombie genre and popularized the fictional concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to a disease. Although classified as a vampire story and referred to as "the first modern vampire novel",[1] I Am Legend made an impression on the zombie genre by way of film director George A. Romero. Romero has acknowledged the influence of the novel and its 1964 adaptation on his 1968 film Night of the Living Dead.[2][3][4] Critics have also picked up on similarities between Night of the Living Dead and Last Man on Earth.[5][6]
Stephen King said, "without Richard Matheson I wouldn’t be around."[7] Some film critics have noted that the 2002 British film 28 Days Later and its sequel 28 Weeks Later, which feature a rabies-like plague that ravages Great Britain, are similar to the scenario in I Am Legend.[8] The recasting of undead creatures as disease victims is also comparable to recent zombie media such as the Resident Evil series, the Blade trilogy, the 1984 B movie Night of the Comet and, to the extent that addiction is a disease, the 1995 Abel Ferrara film The Addiction.
Adaptations
I Am Legend has been adapted to a feature-length film three times. The book has also been adapted into a graphic novel titled Richard Matheson's I Am Legend by Steve Niles and Elman Brown.[9]
A nine-part reading of the novel performed by Angus McInnes was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4.[10]
The Last Man on Earth
In 1964, Vincent Price starred as Dr. Robert Morgan (rather than "Neville") in The Last Man on Earth (the original title of this Italian production was L'Ultimo Uomo della Terra). Matheson wrote the screenplay for this adaptation, but due to later rewrites he did not wish his name to appear in the credits; as a result, Matheson is credited under the pseudonym "Logan Swanson."
The Omega Man
In 1971, a far different version appeared as The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston (as Robert Neville) and Anthony Zerbe. Matheson had no influence on the screenplay for this film; it deviates from the novel's story in several ways, completely removing the vampirical elements except sensitivity to light.
I Am Legend
[Will Smith] stars in the film directed by Francis Lawrence, released on December 14, 2007. This movie also deviates from the original novel. The infection is caused by a virus originally intended to cure cancer. However, some vampiric elements are retained, such as sensitivity to UV light and attraction to blood.
Tributes in Music
Italian Metal band Stormlord recorded the song "I Am Legend" on their 2001 album "At the Gates of Utopia". There's also a videoclip of the song in which Neville is seen fighting the Infected and hiding in his house while waiting for the sun to rise.
On the 2005 album Doomsday Machine by the melodic death metal band Arch Enemy contains the track "I am Legend - Out for blood", based on the novel.
White Zombie's album "La Sexorcisto; Devil Music Volume 1" contains a song entitled "I Am Legend", and the song's lyrics are based on the book, along with elements of movie adaptations "The Last Man On Earth" and "Omega Man"
North Carolina southern-hardcore band He Is Legend have been quoted as saying that their name is derived from the book
New Jersey hardcore band The Banner have a song titled "I Am Legend" on their release "Each Breath Haunted"
Static-x's video for the song "Cold" lead singer Wayne Static plays as Neville.
See also
References
- ^ David Carroll and Kyla Ward, The Horror Timeline Burnt Toast No. 13 http://www.tabula-rasa.info/DarkAges/Timeline2.html
- ^ House of Horrors Presents: The Night of the Living Dead
- ^ Steve Biodrowski, Night of the Living Dead: The classic film that launched the modern zombiegenre
- ^ Richard Matheson interview, in Tom Weaver, Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: The Mutant Melding of Two Volumes of Classic Interviews (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1999), p. 307, ISBN 0-7864-0755-7.
- ^ Thomas Scalzo, The Last Man on Earth (film review)
- ^ Danel Griffin The Last Man on Earth (film review)
- ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-2278832,00.html
- ^ http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/film.jsp?id=109016
- ^ http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071223/STYLE/225372455/-1/style
- ^ http://www.mininova.org/tor/1057926