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Mathilda Mary Shelley

Mathilda By Mary Shelley

Mathilda by Mary Shelley


£19.09
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Mathilda Summary

Mathilda by Mary Shelley

Mary Shelleys Mathilda, the story of one womans existential struggle after learning of her fathers desire for her, has been identified as Shelleys most important work after Frankenstein. The two texts share many characteristics, besides authorship and contemporaneity: both concern parental abandonment; both contribute to the Gothic form through themes of incest, insanity, suicidality, monstrosity, and isolation; and both are epistolary. However, Mathilda was not published until 1959, 140 years after Shelley wrote itin part because Shelleys father, William Godwin, suppressed it. This new edition encourages a critical reconsideration of a novella that has been critically stereotyped as biographical and explores its importance to the Romantic debate about suicide.

Historical appendices trace the connections between Mathilda and other works by Shelley and by her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, while also providing biographical documents, contemporary works on the theme of incest, and documents on suicide in the Romantic era.

For Michelle Fauberts transcription of Mathilda for the Shelley-Godwin Archive, click here.

Mathilda Reviews

The Broadview Press edition of Mathilda fills a gap in Romantic studies. The long-suppressed work (Godwin refused to return the manuscript) wasnt published until 1959, and its immediate critical reception was almost entirely biographical. Michelle Fauberts astute introduction to this new edition offers a scrupulous account of the works critical reception and opens new possibilities for understanding what she calls a purgatorial text. The judicious appendices, a hallmark of Broadview Editions, situate Shelleys novella in the contexts of its immediate intertexts, of its central place in contemporaneous suicide debates, and, crucially, of representations of incest and the Gothic. A paperback edition makes a hitherto neglected text widely available. The sophisticated editorial care evident throughout ensures that this will also serve as the standard scholarly edition. Alan Vardy, Hunter College, City University of New York

Michelle Fauberts beautifully edited version of Mathilda is the first widely available edition to come from a transcription of Shelleys original 1819 fair copy. Fauberts lucid and elegant introduction situates Mathilda in the context of Shelleys earlier Frankenstein (1818) and later novella The Mourner (1830) and discusses its troubled publication history and recent critical reception. Faubert provides a wide range of well-chosen supplementary material to complement both novice and returning readers appreciation for and study of Mathilda. This edition should become the standard classroom text of Shelleys important, engaging, and notorious second novel. Katherine Montwieler, University of North Carolina Wilmington

The editor writes with a clear sense of hope that the text may find new readers thanks to this publication. I share her optimism Overall a superb edition that I hope will indeed breathe new life into the oft-forgotten Mathilda and her haunting tale. Anna Mercer, Romantic Circles

This new edition is a welcome addition, and Michelle Faubert offers an affordable volume for use by students, scholars, and general readers, which is accompanied by careful editing and explanatory notes, an authoritative introduction, and accompanying excerpts from contemporary texts. Faubert believes that the work should be better known, and this edition will do much to make it available to readers. Lisa Vargo, European Romantic Review

Faubert makes a convincing case in her edition for the need for new eyes to be brought to the text, as her annotations and notes regarding editing nuances and specifics attest. Because of the careful transcription her work has brought to the manuscript as well as the judicious footnotes readers expect from a Broadview edition, Faubert invites readers to reconsider the text and contexts of the novel even as readers are invited to read anewFauberts notes position the edition for both the popular, as well as scholarly, audience. Fauberts careful edition makes a convincing argument for shining light back on this novella again. Lucy Morrison, Womens Writing

About Mary Shelley

Michelle Faubert is Associate Professor of English at the University of Manitoba. She is the editor of the Broadview Edition of Mary Wollstonecrafts Mary, a Fiction and Maria.

Table of Contents

  • Awknowledgements
  • Introduction
  • Mary Shelley: A Brief Chronology
  • A Note on the Text
  • Mathilda
  • Appendix A: The Romantic-era Suicide Debate
  • From William Godwins An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness (1793)
  • From David Humes Essays on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soul (1793)
  • From William Rowleys A Treatise on Female, Nervous, Hysterical Diseases (1788)
  • From John Francis Sermon III. On Self-Murder (1749)
  • From Johann Wolfgang von Goethes The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774)
  • From Lord Byrons Manfred (1817)
  • William Wordsworths The Complaint of a Forsaken Indian Woman (1798)
  • Appendix B: Family Resemblances
  • Full-detail transcription from Mary Shelleys manuscript of Mathilda (1819)
  • From Mary Shelleys The Fields of Fancy (1819)
  • From Mary Shelleys The Mourner (1830)
  • From Mary Shelleys Frankenstein (1818)
  • From Mary Wollstonecrafts Mary, A Fiction (1788)
  • From Mary Wollstonecrafts The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria (1798)
  • From Mary Wollstonecrafts Cave of Fancy (composed 1787; published 1798)
  • Appendix C: Incest, the Gothic, Literary Forebears
  • From Percy Bysshe Shelleys The Cenci (1819)
  • From Percy Bysshe Shelleys Laon and Cythna (1818)
  • From Vittorio Alfieris Myrrha (1815)
  • From Matthew Lewis The Monk (1796)
  • From Horace Walpoles The Castle of Otranto (1764)
  • Appendix D: Biographical Context: Shelleys Letters and Journals
  • Letter from Godwin to P. B. Shelley on Fanny Imlays suicide (1816)
  • From Harriet Shelleys suicide letter (1816)
  • Letter by Mary Shelley on William Shelleys final illness (1819)
  • William Godwins letter to Mary Shelley on her sons death (1819)

Additional information

NPB9781554812271
9781554812271
1554812275
Mathilda by Mary Shelley
New
Paperback
Broadview Press Ltd
2017-08-30
208
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time

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