Proserpine and Midas

Proserpine and Midas brings together Mary Shelley's mythological dramas, written with a lyrical interest in transformation, loss, desire, and the natural world. Proserpine retells the story of abduction and seasonal change, while Midas turns greed and wish fulfillment into a moral fable. Shelley uses classical myth to explore feeling, power, and consequence in compressed dramatic form.

Proserpine and Midas is a revealing companion to Mary Shelley's better-known fiction because it shows her working with myth, theatre, and poetic structure. The pieces are shorter and more stylized than her novels, but they share her concern with choice, isolation, and damage. Readers interested in Romantic drama, women writers, mythology, and literary retellings will find a graceful collection.