I Am Legend
Richard Matheson‘s 1954 ‘I Am Legend‘ influenced the work of Stephen King and spawned a number of cinematic loose ‘adaptations’, such as George Romero‘s ‘Night of the Living Dead‘ (1968), which we won’t be discussing in this article. There are spoilers for the novel.
Matheson’s novel follows the world of the late 1970s, where a pandemic has turned the rest of the population into vampires. Robert Neville, an ordinary Los Angeles man, is the apparent sole survivor, immune to the bacteria that has spread through dust storms and mosquitoes. The reader follows Neville in his daily routine of reinforcing the defences around his house, killing vampires during their daytime inactivity, and drinking himself into flashbacks. Three years after the incident, Neville is still coming to terms with the loss of his wife and daughter to the plague, and is hunted by swarms of vampires who wait with bloodlust outside his house.
Matheson’s vampires retain some traditional traits from folklore and literature; they can be killed with stakes, abhor mirrors, garlic and crucifixes but also are affected by sunlight and water. There are two types – the original vampires and the living dead of the infection, and they are fast and intelligent. It’s refreshing that Matheson attempts scientific plausibility for his apocalypse. Neville begins researching the germ responsible and deducing the method of the infection spreading, as well as exploring psychological reasons for the vampire’s behaviour. This is one of the strongest points in the novel; the method is heavy-handed but I enjoyed the biological puzzles that Neville attempted to solve.
The novel is great at building a sense of Neville’s isolation and yearning for companionship; my favourite passages involved the heart-breaking interactions with the dog and the dynamic with Ruth. Unsurprisingly, Ruth turns out to be an infected, and she ambiguously explains that the original vampires have gained immunity to sunlight, are learning to control the bacteria, and plan to create a new society. She has been sent to spy on Neville, but pities him and advises him to escape before they come to hunt him down.
The creatures do eventually apprehend Robert Neville and Ruth explains that the new society is baying for his blood, not to drain him, but to execute him. There is a gorgeous realisation of this ultimate isolation; looking at the new world void of humans, Neville is confronted with the fact he is the minority, a strange legendary creature that is abnormal. He is a relic of a former world that no longer has a place; he has become the other and he is alone.
Told in free indirect discourse, I found the narrative style could have worked better if the writing hadn’t broke my immersion. Furthermore, the novel hasn’t dated well; there are racist and sexist views that are possibly a troubling product of the era in which the novel was written, or may be included for other reasons. Neville is supposed to be a hero with a troubled past, but his brooding makes him dislikeable and therefore a difficult protagonist with which the reader can empathise. Overall though, I can see why this would have been a revelation at the time of publication. Matheson is successful in creating a sense of hopelessness, desolation and loss of identity and the marrying of Horror and Sci-Fi elements is innovative and effective.