Four film adaptations from the book have occurred through the decades. The book many consider almost as influential as Bram Stoker’s Dracula is under the microscope, I Am Legend. Published by Matheson and Gold Medal books in 1954 (hmm…the year of my birth), which took the themes of ‘vampirism’ and ‘the last man left’ in breakthrough directions. She suggested a science-fiction classic for 2014, while I offered one of his horror novels for October to complete the triumvirate of story.Īs usual, the wordy one will examine the text of the novel later adapted to film, which I will review.

Rachel and I did a parallel post for one his fantasy novels more than three years ago. Richard Matheson, the recently deceased American author and screenwriter, primarily of the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. The blogger otherwise known as the Scientist Gone Wordy and I, rejoin for another famed title by a renowned writer. The normally cold and wet time for us in the southland befits this month’s duo post of something a little bleak. Thus, as the novel comes to a close, Neville seems to see the world through the eyes of a vampire: he is the monster, the antagonist, and the “legend.As I’ve reached a milestone this week, February has finally begun to act like…well, February. However, after he meets Ruth, a “living vampire,” Neville begins to see the truth: from the perspective of the vampires, Neville is a hideous monster, who spends his waking life killing vampires in their sleep (just as vampires are said to spend their waking lives killing slumbering humans). Throughout the book, Neville expresses his fear and hatred for the vampires, and it’s his goal to rid the city of vampires altogether.

He also battles depression and alcoholism-without anyone left to talk to, whiskey is one of the few pleasures left to him. Over the course of the book, Neville tries to understand the causes of the vampire plague. While his friends and family become vampires, Neville converts his house into a fortress, and spends his days traveling around the city, killing any sleeping vampires he can find. The main character of I Am Legend, Robert Neville is the last human being to survive after a vampire plague hits Los Angeles in the year 1975.

I am legend monsters in group