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ianpauljones 's review for:
The Blazing World and Other Writings
by Margaret Cavendish
A few months ago, I read an article in the Guardian Review about the Penguin Classics series. The author of the article selected ten titles – apparently at random – to illustrate the richness and variety of the works available from Penguin. I realised that of the ten works, I had only read one, so I resolved to read the other nine this year. This is the fourth of those nine that I’ve read so far.
Like most female writers before the modern era, Margaret Cavendish was of the elite. The fact that she became Duchess of Newcastle by marriage is an indicator of her social status. As such she had access to a level of privilege far beyond what was available to lesser mortals – male as well as female – in the seventeenth century. But as a woman she had precious little opportunity to put her talents to practical ends. She doesn’t seem to have had much education as a child, but as a young adult she must have spent a great deal of time educating herself as, at the age of thirty, she suddenly unleashed a torrent of fiction, philosophy, letters, plays, poetry, autobiography and a biography of her husband. The result is a mixture of radicalism, proto-feminism, social conservatism and a respect for hierarchy (she was on the Royalist side in the Civil Wars).
What we’re presented with in this edition is three works of creative fiction that constitute a tiny taster of Her Grace’s oeuvre. All three focus on a woman, or women, negotiating a world ruled by men. Although The Blazing World is the centrepiece of the collection, my favourite was Assaulted and Pursued Chastity in which the heroine disguises herself as a young man and achieves great things simply because in appearing to be male she is given the freedom to use her intelligence, fortitude and multifarious talents without any gender constraints. I found The Blazing World more difficult. There is a lot of scientific and philosophical material packed into it which might have been cutting edge when it was written but now seems slightly dull. What makes the Blazing World close to a utopia is that it only has one religion that is celebrated in one way with no doctrinal divisions or sects. This is an obvious comment on Margaret’s own turbulent times when religious controversy and division caused so much violence and bloodshed. Another interesting feature is the idea that if you’re not entirely happy with the world as it is, you can create a better world in your mind. I suspect that Margaret spent a large amount of her time doing just that.
As I said, this is a taster of Margaret’s work, and I would happily read more if I could find it.
Like most female writers before the modern era, Margaret Cavendish was of the elite. The fact that she became Duchess of Newcastle by marriage is an indicator of her social status. As such she had access to a level of privilege far beyond what was available to lesser mortals – male as well as female – in the seventeenth century. But as a woman she had precious little opportunity to put her talents to practical ends. She doesn’t seem to have had much education as a child, but as a young adult she must have spent a great deal of time educating herself as, at the age of thirty, she suddenly unleashed a torrent of fiction, philosophy, letters, plays, poetry, autobiography and a biography of her husband. The result is a mixture of radicalism, proto-feminism, social conservatism and a respect for hierarchy (she was on the Royalist side in the Civil Wars).
What we’re presented with in this edition is three works of creative fiction that constitute a tiny taster of Her Grace’s oeuvre. All three focus on a woman, or women, negotiating a world ruled by men. Although The Blazing World is the centrepiece of the collection, my favourite was Assaulted and Pursued Chastity in which the heroine disguises herself as a young man and achieves great things simply because in appearing to be male she is given the freedom to use her intelligence, fortitude and multifarious talents without any gender constraints. I found The Blazing World more difficult. There is a lot of scientific and philosophical material packed into it which might have been cutting edge when it was written but now seems slightly dull. What makes the Blazing World close to a utopia is that it only has one religion that is celebrated in one way with no doctrinal divisions or sects. This is an obvious comment on Margaret’s own turbulent times when religious controversy and division caused so much violence and bloodshed. Another interesting feature is the idea that if you’re not entirely happy with the world as it is, you can create a better world in your mind. I suspect that Margaret spent a large amount of her time doing just that.
As I said, this is a taster of Margaret’s work, and I would happily read more if I could find it.