The following version of this book was used to create this guide: DeWitt, Helen. The Last Samurai. 2000. New Directions, 2016.

Helen DeWitt’s novel The Last Samurai is written from the first-person perspective. DeWitt includes sections from the respective viewpoints of both Sibylla and Ludo. She uses the past tense throughout the narrative.

In a brief introduction, Sibylla describes her father’s intellectual prowess and his hesitant enrollment in a seminary. Her father befriends a man named Buddy and resolves to open a chain of motels. He marries Buddy’s sister.

Sibylla—an American student at Oxford—studies classics and speaks many languages. After grappling with a dense German text, Sibylla attends a dinner and receives a job offer that will allow her to stay in Britain. She interrupts this story with leaps into the future, in which she watches Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai with her genius son, Ludo. She tells Ludo that she will teach him Japanese if he reads a series of classic texts. She considers the complex and mysterious nature of genius. As Ludo reads the Odyssey, Sibylla describes her pedagogical methods. Ludo masters complex linguistic, mathematical, and scientific concepts. He often interrupts his mother as she digitizes obscure magazines.

As a young woman, Sibylla meets a well-known travel writer—who she refers to only as Liberace—at a party. She dislikes his writing but eventually sleeps with him; unbeknownst to Liberace, she becomes pregnant with Ludo. Years later, Sibylla repeatedly watches Seven Samurai with Ludo, hoping to impart lessons around masculinity. In a brief aside, Sibylla’s mother attends an audition at Juilliard but eventually abandons her aspirations.

During the winter, Sibylla and Ludo ride the London Underground because Sibylla cannot afford to heat their home. Other riders often comment on the dense books that Ludo reads, many of which are not in English. Sibylla wonders if she is harming Ludo by encouraging his genius. One day, she reads about a pianist named Yamamoto, who once performed a concert in London that ended in the middle of the night. That evening, Sibylla and Ludo attend a Yamamoto performance; the show lasts until the early morning. Ludo, still a small child, grows tired and walks home alone.

In a series of journal entries, Ludo describes learning Japanese alongside Sibylla. He pesters his mother about the identity of his father. Ludo begins school. Although Ludo worries at first that his peers will be well ahead of him, his incomparable intellect eventually makes it impossible for him to stay in school.

At age 11, Ludo continues to wonder about his father’s identity. He reads travel books and learns unusual languages in preparation for a potential adventure with his unknown father. Eventually, Ludo reads his mother’s private documents and learns about Liberace, whose real name is Val Peters. Posing as a fan, Ludo writes to Peters and visits his home. He is disappointed by his biological father and leaves without revealing their connection.

Sibylla tells Ludo about Hugh Carey, an explorer and classicist who once saved a small child in China. Ludo, inspired by Seven Samurai as well as his lingering disappointment in Peters, realizes that he can simply choose his own father. He tracks down Carey and claims to be his son. When Ludo admits his lie, Carey angrily chases him from the house.

In a supermarket, Sibylla and Ludo meet a woman who once saved Sibylla’s life during a suicide attempt. At night, they watch a popular scientist, George Sorabji, on television. Sorabji apparently taught mathematics to an Amazonian boy who did not speak English. Ludo learns increasingly complex mathematical and scientific concepts in order to impress Sorabji. He eventually finds Sorabji’s home and, after completing a series of math problems, claims to be Sorabji’s son. Sorabji offers to help Ludo gain admittance to a prestigious school, but he then hits him after Ludo reveals his lie.

Ludo visits a painter who specializes in experimentations and explorations in color. The painter, unlike Carey and Sorabji, immediately sees through Ludo’s trick. He quickly paints a piece for Ludo and tells him that he will be able to sell the painting for a large sum of money.

Ludo soon reads about Mustafa Szegeti, who often poses as various authority figures. Szegeti is also a passionate bridge player. Szegeti reacts excitedly to Ludo’s claim that he is his son, but soon challenges Ludo’s story. Referencing Seven Samurai, Ludo says he can make these false paternity claims precisely because they are untrue. Szegeti dislikes Seven Samurai because he saw the film with a woman at Oxford who was uninterested in him; they both wonder if this might have been Sibylla.

Next, Ludo visits a famously daring explorer and travel writer named Red Devlin. He breaks into Devlin’s home and finds him in the middle of a suicide attempt. He claims to be Devlin’s son. They watch The Importance of Being Earnesttogether. Influenced by his mother’s worldview, Ludo is unable to successfully discourage Devlin from committing suicide. As Ludo sleeps, Devlin consumes many pills and soon dies.

Ludo stops looking for a replacement father. As he walks through London one day, however, he overhears someone playing a complex piano composition. He enters the home and claims to be the man’s son. The man is likely Yamamoto. Ludo and Yamamoto recite lines from Seven Samurai. Ludo encourages Yamamoto to record a new CD; alluding to Sibylla, he argues that such a CD could be an enormous help to someone.