First Published: January 1, 1959
Written: 1819/1820
The first chapter of the novel is dated on November 9, 1819, in Florence. The narrator in the first person tells us that she is dying, and she wants to tell her story. That is how the book starts.
Mathilda tells us about her parents. Her father was a man of fortune, who enjoyed being magnanimous to those around her, but she says that there was an element of selfishness as his deeds also involved his own enjoyment. Her mother, Diana, and her father had been friends since childhood, and she had been protected from the outer world, but that did not mean that she was less learned. Actually, Mathilda claims that her mother was of greater intellect and intelligence than her father. However, Diana had no money, and that is the reason why her father kept their romance secret as their marriage would not have been accepted. Then when his mother died, he and Diana married, and fifteen months later Mathilda was born.
Diana died days after Mathilda was born. Her father sank into a deep depression and couldn't even look at his daughter. That is why she left Mathilda with his sister and he went away. Mathilda's aunt took her to her mansion near Loch Lomond. She was a woman of little affection, and Mathilda was left in the tender care of her maid, who she loved dearly, but when she was seven, the maid left, and Mathilda was left with no love.
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