Mathilda, Frankenstein´ın yazarı Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley´in 1819-1821 yılları arasında yazdığı, ilk defa 1859 yılında, ölümünden sonra yayınlanan ikinci uzun kurgusal eseridir. Çokça işlenmiş ensest ve intihar öğelerini işlese de içinde birtakım otobiyografik unsurlar da bulundurmaktadır: Kitaptaki ana karakterlerin hayatları değilse bile kişilik özellikleri yazarın eşi Percy Shelley ve babası William Godwin´den esinlenerek oluşturulmuştur. Ayrıca tıpkı yazarın kendisi gibi başkahramanımız da kaybettiği

I VISITED Naples in the year 1818. On the 8th of December of that year, my companion and I crossed the Bay, to visit the antiquities which are scattered on the shores of Baiae. The translucent and shining waters of the calm sea covered fragments of old Ro­man villas, which were interlaced by sea-weed, and received diamond tints from the chequering of the sun-beams the blue and pellucid element was such as Galatea might have skimmed in her car of mother of pearl or Cleopatra, more fitly than the Nile, have

The editor c editor came across the unpublished texts included in this volume as early as 1905. Perhaps he ought to apologize for delaying their appearan­ce in print. The fact is he has long been afraid of overrating their intrinsic value. But as the great Shelley centenary year has come, perhaps this litt­le monument of his wife’s collaboration may take its modest place among the tributes which will be paid to his memory. For Mary Shelley’s mythological dra­mas can at least claim to be the proper setting f

It is customary t is customary to regard Mary Shelley’s cla­ims to literary distinction as so entirely rooted and grounded in her husband’s as to constitute a me­rely parasitic growth upon his fame. It may be un­reservedly admitted that her association with Shel­ley, and her care of his writings and memory after his death, are the strongest of her titles to rememb­rance. It is further undeniable that the most origi­nal of her works is also that which betrays the stron­gest traces of his influence. Frankenst

We left London July 28th, 1814, on a hotter day than has been known in this climate for many years. I am not a good traveller, and this heat agreed very ill with me, till, on arriving at Dover, I was refres­hed by a sea-bath. As we very much wished to cross the channel with all possible speed, we would not wait for the packet of the following day (it being then about four in the afternoon) but hiring a small boat, resolved to make the passage the same eve­ning, the seamen promising us a voyage of two hours.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, bilimkurgunun başlangıcı sayılan Frankenstein'ı, iki yüzyıl önce yazmaya başladığında henüz 18 yaşındaydı. O günden beri, ceset parçalarından diriltilmiş bir ucubenin hikâyesini anlatan roman, kanımızı dondurmaya devam ediyor. Genç bilim insanı Victor Frankenstein yarattığı dev varlık dünyaya gözünü açtığında, ondan iğrenir ve kaçar. Başıboş kalan bu yaratık önceleri saf iyilikle doluyken, karşılaştığı tüm insanların nefretine maruz kalınca yaratıcısından intikam almaya karar v