Written 1787, published 1956, Mathilda is a novella about father-daughter incestual love. Mary Shelley submitted the novella to William Godwin (her father, publisher and writer) and he refused to publish it and refused to return the document to her. It is interesting and sad, and not what I expected it to be.
It is a story of a father falling in love with his own daughter. After confessing his guilty love, the father leaves his daughter, Mathilda, with a goodbye note and leaves forever. The daughter tries to track him down only to find him on a beach by the sea, very near death. He has committed suicide. In her despair and guilt, Mathilda isolates herself in a cabin in the woods and dies out of grief, despite the efforts of her new friend Woodville to bring her out of depression.
The novella is written in epistolary/confessionary form, detailing Mathilda's confusion, fear, despair, and daughterly love and devotion to a father that loves her too much. I find the story rather gothic in mood and theme. It is dark and disturbing, especially if you consider the themes of death and dying, despair and suicide, and paternal love and incestual love, yet there is some hope in themes of friendship and personal strength and growth.
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