Mathilda

Mathilda is a novella by Mary Shelley, written between August 1819 and February 1820 and first published posthumously in 1959. It explores grief, isolation, incestuous desire, and suicide.

Writing from her deathbed, Mathilda recounts her father’s confession of forbidden love and his subsequent death by drowning. Her later friendship with a young poet named Woodville cannot overcome her grief or prevent her lonely death.

The manuscript remained unpublished during Shelley’s lifetime.

Framed as Mathilda’s final written account, the novella uses a deeply subjective voice to examine mourning, guilt, forbidden desire, and the limits of consolation.