Mathilda is the second long work of fiction of Mary Shelley, written between August
1819 and February 1820 and first published posthumously in 1959 It deals with
common Romantic themes of incest and suicide. The narrative deals with a father’s
incestuous love for his daughter.
The act of writing this novella distracted Mary Shelley from her grief after the
deaths of her one-year-old daughter Clara at Venice in September 1818 and her
three-year-old son William ...