Mathilda

On her deathbed Mathilda recounts the tale of her life which, without a mother who died giving birth to her, is made harsher as her bereaved father conflates her with his lost wife and suffers as the relationship turns incestuous and repressive.

Hidden from public by her own father and never published in her lifetime, this work by Mary Shelly is said to mirror many events in her own life, including the death of her mother.

Aside from the possible parallels with her own experiences, the narrator’s emotional and relentlessly self-examinination transforms this into a tale of a brave woman’s search for love, atonement, and redemption.