Mathilda Mary Shelley

Mathilda by Mary Shelley is studied in World Literature courses that examine the remarkable lineage of Mary Shelley. However, Mathilda is a complicated read and many students have Paper Masters custom write their research on Mathilda.

British writer Mary Shelley (1797-1851) came from a distinguished literary family. Her father, William Godwin, was a famous political philosopher and publisher. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was a leading early feminist, who died when Mary was only eleven days old. In 1816, she married the British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. She is perhaps most famous for her first novel, Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818.

Following the publication of Frankenstein, the Shelley's lost two of their children. The resulting depression drew Mary emotionally away from her husband and she began writing her novel Mathilda, completed between August 1819 and February 1820. The novel tells the story of a young woman, abandoned by her father, who returns when she is sixteen and declares his incestuous love for her. The father then kills himself. Mathilda stages her own suicide and runs away to Scotland, where she meets the poet Woodville.

Many see the work as autobiographical, with the three characters representing the following:

• Mary Shelly
• William Godwin
• Percy Shelley

Mary sent the manuscript to her father for publication, but he refused, claiming that the theme of incest was too much. The manuscript was pieced together by Elizabeth Nitchie and first published in 1959, leading to a critical reevaluation of Mary Shelley's work.