Mary Shelley&nbsp;states in the introduction that in 1818 she discovered, in the Sibyl&#39;s cave near&nbsp;Naples, a collection of&nbsp;prophetic writings&nbsp;painted on leaves by the&nbsp;Cumaean Sibyl. She has edited these writings into the current narrative, the first-person narrative of a man living at the end of the 21st century, commencing in 2073 and concluding in 2100. Despite the futuristic setting, the world of&nbsp;<i>The Last Man</i>&nbsp;appears to be relatively similar to the era in which it was written.