Mathilda

Written in 1819 but not published until one hundred and forty years later, Mathilda is an intimate and unsettling dive into the inner world of a girl whose life is marked by the loss of her mother and alienation from the world. With a protagonist who faces a devastating emotional bond due to a broken relationship with her father, Mary Shelley, author of the famous Frankenstein, explores the outermost limits of loneliness and the weight of spoken secrets in this dark novella.

The text has gothic features, but also a feminist undertone: although Mathilda finds herself trapped by tragic circumstances, and however lost and helpless she feels, she finds the strength within herself to tell her story truthfully. The novella seems to echo the author's own life, her own internal struggles, painful losses and complex relationships.