Roger Ingpen and W.E. Peck, eds. _The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley_, Julian Edition, 10 vols. London, 1926-1930 (Julian _Works_) Newman Ivey White. _Shelley_, 2 vols. New York: Knopf, 1940 (White, _Shelley_) Elizabeth Nitchie. _Mary Shelley, Author of “Frankenstein.”_ New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1953 (Nitchie, _Mary Shelley_) ELIZABETH NITCHIE May, 1959 CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE iii INTRODUCTION vii MATHILDA 1 NOTES TO MATHILDA 81 THE FIELDS OF FANCY 90 NOTES TO THE FIELDS OF FANCY 103 INTRODUCTION Of all the novels and stories which Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley left in manuscript,[i] only one novelette, _Mathilda_, is complete. It exists in both rough draft and final copy. In this story, as in all Mary Shelley’s writing, there is much that is autobiographical: it would be hard to find a more self-revealing work. For an understanding of Mary’s character, especially as she saw herself, and of her attitude toward Shelley and toward Godwin in 1819, this tale is an important document. Although the main narrative, that of the father’s incestuous love for his daughter, his suicide, and Mathilda’s consequent withdrawal from society to a lonely heath, is not in any real sense autobiographical, many elements in it are drawn from reality. The three main characters are clearly Mary herself, Godwin, and Shelley, and their relations can easily be reassorted to correspond with actuality. Highly personal as the story was, Mary Shelley hoped that it would be published, evidently believing that the characters and the situations were sufficiently disguised. In May of 1820 she sent it to England by her friends, the Gisbornes, with a request that her father would arrange for its publication. But _Mathilda_, together with its rough draft entitled _The Fields of Fancy_, remained unpublished among the Shelley papers. Although Mary’s references to it in her letters and journal aroused some curiosity among scholars, it also remained unexamined until comparatively recently.