The classic Retros to rediscover this month: Simone de Beauvoir, Celia Dale, Mary Shelley

THE BLOOD OF OTHERS by Simone de Beauvoir (Penguin Classics £9.99, 286pp) 

SET in 1940s Paris as the Nazis invade, Helene, a former sweet shop assistant with a zest for life, lies dying – watched over by former lover, Jean.

In flashbacks of alternating narrative voices, we learn how she unconditionally loved Jean, a privileged, boss’s son turned Resistance fighter, who never fully reciprocated her devotion.

As their relationship ebbs and flows with the political climate, de Beauvoir draws on personal experience to examine notions of freedom, class, war, moral dilemmas and the role of women as Jean struggles with the guilt that haunts him and Helene is defined and damaged by the men she meets, until her final act of heroism.

A SPRING OF LOVE by Celia Dale (Daunt Books £9.99, 370pp)

 COERCIVE control and violent secrets lie at the heart of this sinister and emotionally com plex 1960s tale in which Esther, 30, has been left financially comfortable by an inheritance from her grandfather.

But life is dull, her only pleasure a weekly cinema trip and lonely dinner.

Until she meets Raymond, a travelling salesman. They start dating, then marry – but red flags are flapping wildly: he ingratiates himself with her overbearing grandmother, asks for money and criticises every one she knows. 

Yet Esther is happy: she feels loved, has a baby and new friends – then she discovers a terrible truth about Raymond? 

Controlled with consummate skill, this menacing tale of manipulation twists and turns to the last shocking sentence.

THE LAST MAN by Mary Shelley (Penguin Classic £12.99, 592pp)

 BEST known for her classic Franken stein, Shelley’s later dystopian novel features a global plague that devastates humanity at the end of the 21st century, leaving only one man alive. 

Britain is now a republic and Lionel Verney, whose fortunes we have followed since 2073, is our guide through his early life, marriage and friendship with the philosophical Adrian – based on Mary’s poet husband.

Verney witnesses the horror of the pandemic and how Britain’s social hierarchies and political structures break down as wealth and power protect no one, yet the natural world thrives.

Controversial in its time, it now feels prescient in its examination of isolation, environmental disaster and grief, although the overly long middle section is a plod.