Lionel Verney is the protagonist and narrator of The Last Man, a book he has written recounting all the years of his life leading up to his isolation as the last living person on earth.

After the death of his parents and what he believes to be a betrayal by his father’s former best friend, the King of England, Lionel works as a shepherd boy and has great contempt for human society. Although he cares for Perdita, his younger sister, and has some companions who engage in petty crime with him, the young Lionel is an angry and lonely figure.

Lionel’s resentment quickly changes to a thirst for knowledge and self-improvement once he meets Adrian, who teaches him about the world outside of his town in Cumberland. One of Lionel’s most notable characteristics is this obsession with knowledge: He devotes whatever time he can to studying literature, believing that “no man’s faculties could be developed, no man’s moral principle be enlarged and liberal, without an extensive acquaintance with books” (174). Lionel’s embrace of civilization and culture under Adrian’s influence speaks to the humanizing effects of friendship and community in the novel.

Although he is never an ambitious figure like Lord Raymond, Lionel does take on a more public role once

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