Mathilda and Other Stories

"Mathilda" is Mary Shelley's haunting story of an incestuous and fatal love. The narrative traces the teenaged Mathilda's reunion with her unnamed father, and the development of their obsessive bond that culminates in suicide. Shelley's own father, William Godwin, was so disturbed after reading the manuscript that he refused to return it to her and it remained unpublished for over one hundred years. This near-forgotten and harrowing work encompasses the Romantic themes of the individual's growth, isolation, and the power of imagination. Shelley's violent and terrifying short stories share Mathilda's fixation with feminist concerns and Gothic conventions. The murderous plots and sinister settings of these later stories reveal Shelley's ongoing preoccupation with the supernatural, transformation, and untamed nature. AUTHOR: By the time of her death, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) was remembered for two things: having been the wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and for writing 'Frankenstein'. Frankenstein's, creation became an iconic figure in literature and film, but in more recent years Mary Shelley's other works, such as the early science fiction work, 'The Last Man' and the disturbing 'Mathilda' have come to be widely appreciated.