Finished We 12/14/16, the day before my colonoscopy at the Springfield Clinic. It probably only took me three sessions to finish the novel and it was my second book from my over-sized paperback, "THE PARANOID FIFTIES- Three Classic Science Fiction Novels by John Wyndham, Richard Matheson and Philip K. Dick".
This is probably the strangest novel about vampires that I've read. The protagonist, Robert Neville, is in the midst of a world-wide vampire epidemic, and although he is not infected, he searches for a cure for the condition. Part of his motivation might be to bring his wife back since she was infected and is not quite dead and buried.
Neville also employs and examines various legends, myths, and superstitions about vampires- such as garlic, mirrors, transmutation, and stakes through the heart. He learns, but does not understand why, some of these phenomena work and some do not.
It doesn't make clear in the novel, but Robert Neville might have had some background in medical science since he doesn't seem out of his element perusing medical texts and trying his hand at advanced microscopes.
The novel is set in Los Angeles, CA
Robert Neville's wife is Virginia and they had a young daughter, Kathy, who was probably between five and eight years old. Kathy succumbs to the disease of vampirism.
Robert guesses that the reason he has not been infected is that when he was stationed in Panama during the war, he was bitten by a vampire bat and this inoculated him to the condition.
Although he lives in a fortified compound, and is relatively safe from the vampires, he is intensely lonely. One of his friends, Ben Cortman, is a portly vampire and cries out for Robert to 'come out' every night. Cortman reminds Robert of Oliver Hardy.
Near the end of the novel, Robert notices a dog that has not been infected. Apparently, all living creatures have been effected by the virus (or bacteria). He spends several days feeding and trying to approach the dog, and when he finally makes friends, the dog dies.
Then, he meets Ruth. This woman is also very apprehensive of befriending Robert. Soon, it is revealed that she is working for a new race of infected humans that must kill all existing humans.
I wasn't exactly clear to me as to why the humans and the 'proto-humans' could not peaceably co-exist.
But, at Robert's execution he realizes that he, and the humans that he represents, will become a myth or legend to the new race of human beings. That is what he means when he proclaims, "I am legend".
From the Amazon.com Editorial Reviews-
"One of the most influential vampire novels of the 20th century, I Am Legend regularly appears on the "10 Best" lists of numerous critical studies of the horror genre. As Richard Matheson's third novel, it was first marketed as science fiction (for although written in 1954, the story takes place in a future 1976). A terrible plague has decimated the world, and those who were unfortunate enough to survive have been transformed into blood-thirsty creatures of the night. Except, that is, for Robert Neville. He alone appears to be immune to this disease, but the grim irony is that now he is the outsider. He is the legendary monster who must be destroyed because he is different from everyone else. Employing a stark, almost documentary style, Richard Matheson was one of the first writers to convince us that the undead can lurk in a local supermarket freezer as well as a remote Gothic castle. His influence on a generation of bestselling authors--including Stephen King and Dean Koontz--who first read him in their youth is, well, legendary. --Stanley Wiater"
Amazon reviews-
https://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Legend-Richard-Matheson/dp/0765357151
The author's page at wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Matheson
The novel's page at wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Legend_(novel)
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