Mary Shelley

Mathilda Mary Shelley

Mathilda, is the second novel by the British writer Mary Shelley, based on the classic themes of Romanticism, such as incest and suicide. It was written between August 1819 and February 1820. The activity of writing novellas distracted Mary Shelley of her grief after the death of her one year old, Clara, in Venice, which occurred in September 1818 and his three year old son, William, in June 1819 in Rome. These losses plunged to Mary Shelley in a depression that Percy Shelley emotionally distanced and left, he says, "the edge of despair." Matilda tells the story of his father's confession about the incestuous love he felt for her, followed by her suicide by drowning; his relationship with a talented young poet called Woodville fails to mend the aim of Matilda's emotions or prevent his lonely death.