...as well as a way of writing beyond audience. "I had used," he says about halfway through the story, "this history as an opiate; while it described my...more melancholy pleasure in painting the end of all" (LM 2:209). Clearly, composition can perform a function independent of readers; it has value independent...

...volume" that he creates through the act of writing. Lionel admits that his writing effort is cathartic: "I had used this history as an opiate; while it described...hope; active assistants on the scene, I was soothed" (Last Man, 192), M But writing also provides Lionel with a role in the public arena. Regretting having...

...this tedious dwelling on the sorrows of others, while my own were only in apprehension; this slowly laying bare of my soul's wounds: this journal of death;...looked back nor saw the concealed desert beyond, is a labour past my strength. Time and experience have placed me on an height from which I can comprehend...

...this tedious dwelling on the sorrows of others, while my own were only in apprehension; this slowly laying bare of my soul's wounds: this journal of death;...while I still looked back nor saw the concealed desert 56 beyond, is a labour past my strength. Time and experience have placed me on an height from which...

...ocean of countless tears, awakens me again to keen grief. I had used this history as an opiate; 346 while it described my beloved friends, fresh with...looked back nor saw the concealed desert beyond, is a labour past my strength. Time and experience have placed me on an height from which I can comprehend...