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| the blazing world cavendish: The Blazing World and Other Writings Margaret Cavendish, 1994-03-31 Flamboyant, theatrical and ambitious, Margaret Cavendish was one of the seventeenth century's most striking figures: a woman who ventured into the male spheres of politics, science, philosophy and literature. The Blazing World is a highly original work: part Utopian fiction, part feminist text, it tells of a lady shipwrecked on the Blazing World where she is made Empress and uses her power to ensure that it is free of war, religious division and unfair sexual discrimination. This volume also includes The Contract, a romance in which love and law work harmoniously together, and Assaulted and Pursued Chastity, which explores the power and freedom a woman can achieve in the disguise of a man. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Blazing World Margaret Cavendish, 2022-11-13 Margaret Cavendish's 'The Blazing World' is a groundbreaking work of science fiction and utopian literature. Written in 1666, it tells the story of a young woman who is kidnapped and taken to a fantastic parallel universe ruled by a female Empress. This imaginative tale explores themes of power, gender, and creativity in a way that was radical for its time. Cavendish's prose is rich and ornate, reflecting the intellectual and literary circles she was known to frequent. Her use of allegory and symbolism adds depth to the narrative, making it a compelling and thought-provoking read. As one of the earliest examples of science fiction, 'The Blazing World' holds a significant place in the genre's history. Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, was a prolific writer and one of the first female authors to be published in England. Her unique perspective as a woman in a male-dominated society undoubtedly influenced the themes and characters in 'The Blazing World'. I highly recommend this book to readers interested in early science fiction, feminist literature, or experimental writing. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Blazing World Siri Hustvedt, 2014-03-11 Named one of the New York Times Book Review’s 100 Notable Books of the Year ** Publishers Weekly’s Best Fiction Books of 2014 ** NPR Best Books of 2014 ** Kirkus Reviews Best Literary Fiction Books of 2014 ** Washington Post Top 50 Fiction Books of 2014 ** Boston Globe’s Best Fiction of 2014 ** The Telegraph’s Best Fiction to Read 2014 ** St. Louis Post Dispatch’s Best Books of 2014 ** The Independent Fiction Books of the Year 2014 ** One of Buzzfeed’s Best Books Written by Women in 2014 ** San Francisco Chronicle’s Best of 2014 ** A Nancy Pearl Pick ** PopMatters.com’s Best of 2014 Fiction Winner of the 2014 LA Times Book Prize for Fiction Finalist for the 2014 Kirkus Prize Hailed by The Washington Post as “Siri Hustvedt’s best novel yet, an electrifying work,” The Blazing World is a masterful novel about perception, prejudice, desire, and one woman’s struggle to be seen. In a new novel called “searingly fresh... A Nabokovian cat’s cradle” on the cover of The New York Times Book Review, the internationally bestselling author tells the provocative story of artist Harriet Burden, who, after years of having her work ignored, ignites an explosive scandal in New York’s art world when she recruits three young men to present her creations as their own. Yet when the shows succeed and Burden steps forward for her triumphant reveal, she is betrayed by the third man, Rune. Many critics side with him, and Burden and Rune find themselves in a charged and dangerous game, one that ends in his bizarre death. An intricately conceived, diabolical puzzle presented as a collection of texts, including Harriet’s journals, assembled after her death, this “glorious mashup of storytelling and scholarship” (San Francisco Chronicle) unfolds from multiple perspectives as Harriet’s critics, fans, family, and others offer their own conflicting opinions of where the truth lies. Writing in Slate, Katie Roiphe declared it “a spectacularly good read...feminism in the tradition of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex or Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own: richly complex, densely psychological, dazzlingly nuanced.” “Astonishing, harrowing, and utterly, completely engrossing” (NPR), Hustvedt’s new novel is “Blazing indeed:...with agonizing compassion for all of wounded humanity”(Kirkus Reviews, starred review). It is a masterpiece that will be remembered for years to come. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Description of a New World Called The Blazing-World Margaret Cavendish, 2023-01-18 A young women is kidnapped and made Empress of The Blazing World. Taking root in this new community, she adapts to the culture and ways of the alien population, exploring the vast universe with their help. But when an invasion looms, she undertakes the role of a military leader. Will our protagonist follow in the footsteps of Earth’s Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar? And more importantly, can she conquer the land she once called home? Serving as the only known female work of utopian fiction in the 17th century, Margaret Cavendish’s quick witted and insightful novella weaves adventure, romance and autobiography in one impressive epic. Ideal for fans of Apple TV’s hit adaption of Isaac Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ series. Scare seekers will also admire 2021’s fantasy horror-thriller ‘The Blazing World’, inspired by Cavendish’s text. ‘The Blazing World’ is a must read for utopian fanatics who dare to question it all. Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, (1623-1673) was an English philosopher, poet, scientist, fiction writer and playwright. Spending most of the English Civil War in France, she wrote in her own name during a period when most female writers remained anonymous. Celebrated today as the first female writer of utopian and science fiction, her work spans topics of gender, power, scientific methods and philosophy. ‘The Blazing World’ remains as one of the earliest works of science fiction today. Challenging the contemporary belief that women were inferior to men, Cavendish advocated for women’s education and became the first woman to attend a meeting at the Royal Society of London. |
| the blazing world cavendish: Assaulted and Pursued Chastity Margaret Cavendish, 2006 She answered, that if his Senses or his Person did betray her to his Lust, she wished them all annihilated, or at least buried in Dust: but I hope, said she, by your noble and civil usage, you will give me cause to pray for you, and not to wish you Evil; for why should you rob me of that which Nature freely gave? and it is an Injustice to take the Goods from the right Owners without their consents; and an Injustice is an Act that all Noble Minds hate; and all Noble Minds usually dwell in Honourable Persons, such as you seem to be; and none but base or cruel Tyrants will lay unreasonable Commands, or require wicked Demands to the powerlesse, or vertuous. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Blazing World Margaret Cavendish, 2019-12-18 Written by a 17th-century duchess, this remarkable utopian fantasy centers on a heroine who is transported to another world, where she rules as empress and outlaws war, religious conflict, and gender discrimination. |
| the blazing world cavendish: Margaret the First Danielle Dutton, 2016-03-15 A Lit Hub Best Book of 2016 • One of Electric Literature's Best Novels of 2016 • An Entropy Best Book of 2016 “The duchess herself would be delighted at her resurrection in Margaret the First...Dutton expertly captures the pathos of a woman whose happiness is furrowed with the anxiety of underacknowledgment.” —Katharine Grant, The New York Times Book Review Margaret the First dramatizes the life of Margaret Cavendish, the shy, gifted, and wildly unconventional 17th–century Duchess. The eccentric Margaret wrote and published volumes of poems, philosophy, feminist plays, and utopian science fiction at a time when being a writer was not an option open to women. As one of the Queen's attendants and the daughter of prominent Royalists, she was exiled to France when King Charles I was overthrown. As the English Civil War raged on, Margaret met and married William Cavendish, who encouraged her writing and her desire for a career. After the War, her work earned her both fame and infamy in England: at the dawn of daily newspapers, she was Mad Madge, an original tabloid celebrity. Yet Margaret was also the first woman to be invited to the Royal Society of London—a mainstay of the Scientific Revolution—and the last for another two hundred years. Margaret the First is very much a contemporary novel set in the past. Written with lucid precision and sharp cuts through narrative time, it is a gorgeous and wholly new approach to imagining the life of a historical woman. In Margaret the First, there is plenty of room for play. Dutton’s work serves to emphasize the ambiguities of archival proof, restoring historical narratives to what they have perhapsalways already been: provoking and serious fantasies,convincing reconstructions, true fictions.”—Lucy Ives, The New Yorker “Danielle Dutton engagingly embellishes the life of Margaret the First, the infamousDuchess of Newcastle–upon–Tyne.” —Vanity Fair |
| the blazing world cavendish: Margaret Cavendish: Political Writings Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle, 2003-08-28 Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, published a wide variety of works including poems, plays, letters and treatises of natural philosophy, but her significance as a political writer has only recently been recognised. This major contribution to the series of Cambridge Texts includes the first ever modern edition of her Divers Orations on English social and political life, together with a new student-friendly rendition of her imaginary voyage, A New World called the Blazing World. Susan James explains the allusions made in this classic text, and directs readers to the many intellectual debates with which Cavendish engages. Together these two works reveal the character and scope of Margaret Cavendish's political thought. She emerges as a singular and probing writer, who simultaneously upholds a conservative social and political order and destabilises it through her critical and unresolved observations about natural philosophy, scientific institutions, religion, and the relations between men and women. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Blazing World - Margaret Cavendish Margaret Cavendish, 2021-05-21 The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World, better known as The Blazing World, is a 1666 work of prose fiction by English writer Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle. It has been described as an early forerunner of science fiction. |
| the blazing world cavendish: Mad Madge Katie Whitaker, 2003-08-21 Margaret Cavendish's life as a writer and noblewoman unfolded against the backdrop of the English Civil War and Restoration. Pursuing the only career open to women of her class, she became a lady-in-waiting to the Queen Henrietta Maria. Exiled to Paris with the Queen, she met and married William Cavendish, Marquis of Newcastle. In exile, Margaret did something unthinkable for a seventeenth-century Englishwoman: she lived proudly as a writer. Eventually she published twenty-three volumes, starting with Poems and Fancies, the first book of English poetry published by a woman under her own name. But later generations too easily accepted the disparaging opinions of her shocked critics, and labeled her Mad Madge of Newcastle.Mad Madge is both a lively biography of a fascinating woman and a window on a tumultuous cultural time. |
| the blazing world cavendish: Margaret the First Douglas Grant, 1957-12-15 Margaret Cavendish was one of the most original, loveable and eccentric of women writers. Pepys called her mad, ridiculous, and conceited but when she paid her famous visit to London in 1667 he ran all over town to see her. And many of her other contemporaries were no less fascinated. Posterity has continued to feel the attraction; to her many admirers she has always been the incomparable Princess, and Lamb enthusiastically praised her as the thrice noble, chase, and virtuous—but again somewhat fantastical, and original-brain'd, generous Margaret Newcastle. This biography is the first full-length study entirely devoted to the Duchess of Newcastle. It shows Margaret's metamorphosis from an imaginative, bashful child into a romantic public figure, and how, after living at home among a family unusual in its loyalties, she served as lady-in-waiting to Queen Henrietta Maria during the Civil War and in exile married William Cavendish, the Loyal Duke of Newcastle, before emerging as the first woman writer of her times—Margaret the First as she wished to be known. Her poetry, fiction, drama and natural philosophy, along with her many other writings, are treated as facets of her extraordinary personality delightful in itself and also valuable as an illustration of the spirit of the age. The illustrations are unusually good and include a fine unpublished portrait of the Duchess, a photo of her effigy in Westminster Abbey and reproductions of several of the ornate engraved title-pages of her works. |
| the blazing world cavendish: Paper Bodies Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle, 2000 |
| the blazing world cavendish: Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle, 1668 |
| the blazing world cavendish: Vampyroteuthis Infernalis Vilém Flusser, Louis Bec, 2012 Vilém Flusser (1920-1991) was born in Prague. He emigrated to Brazil, where he taught philosophy and wrote a daily newspaper column in Sao Paulo, then later moved to France. He wrote several books in Portuguese and German. Writings (2004), Into the Universe of Technical Images (2011), and Does Writing Have a Future? (2011) have been published by the University of Minnesota Press, and the Shape of Things, Towards a Philosophy of Photography, and The Freedom of the Migrant have also been translated into English. |
| the blazing world cavendish: OBSERVATIONS UPON EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY. MARGARET. CAVENDISH, 2020 |
| the blazing world cavendish: Utopian and Science Fiction by Women Jane L. Donawerth, Carol A. Kolmerten, 1994-07-01 This collection speaks to common themes and strategies in women's writing about their different worlds, from Margaret Cavendish's seventeenth-century Blazing World of the North Pole to the men-less islands of the French writer Scudery to the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century utopias of Shelley and Gaskell, and science fiction pulps, finishing with the more contemporary feminist fictions of Le Guin, Wittig, Piercy, and Michison. It shows that these fictions historically speak to each other and together amount to a literary tradition of women's writing about a better place. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Convent of Pleasure" and Other Plays Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle, 1999-06-18 Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673), until recently remembered more as a flamboyant eccentric than as a serious writer, was in fact the most prolific, thought-provoking, and original woman writer of the Restoration. Cavendish is the author of many poems, short stories, biographies, memoirs, letters, philosophical and scientific works (including The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing World, the first work of science fiction by a woman), and nineteen plays. The Convent of Pleasure and Other Plays collects four of Cavendish's dramatic works that are among the most revealing of her attitudes toward marriage and her desire for fame. Loves Adventures (1662) centers on a woman succeeding in war and diplomacy by passing as a man. Similarly, the heroine of Bell in Campo (1662) rescues her husband at the head of an army of women in this tale of a marriage of near equals. The Convent of Pleasure (1668) proposes a separatist community of women and has received attention for its suggestion of lesbian sexuality. The Bridals (1662), a more typical restoration comedy satirizing marriage, rounds out the collection. Edited with notes and annotation by Anne Shaver, The Convent of Pleasure and Other Plays also contains a timeline, biography and bibliography of the Duchess, an appreciation of Cavendish's life and work, and a bibliography of critical essays. Also included are all of Cavendish's epistles To the Reader as well as Other Preliminary Matter from Playes (1662), and Cavendish's original preface to Plays Never Before Printed (1668). A valuable collection from an extraordinary writer, The Convent of Pleasure and Other Plays raises important issues about women and gender. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Blazing World Margaret Cavendish, 2021-05-06 The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World, better known as The Blazing World, is a 1666 work of prose fiction by English writer Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle. It has been described as an early forerunner of science fiction. |
| the blazing world cavendish: Poems and Fancies Margaret Cavendish of Newcastle, 1668 |
| the blazing world cavendish: Grounds of Natural Philosophy Margaret Cavendish, 2020-02-28 This edition aims to make Margaret Cavendish’s most mature philosophical work more accessible to students and scholars of the period. Grounds of Natural Philosophy is important not only because it is Cavendish’s final articulation of her metaphysics but also because it succinctly outlines her fundamental views on “the nature of nature”—or the base substance and mechanics of all natural matter—and vividly demonstrates her probabilistic approach to philosophical enquiry. Moreover, Grounds spends considerable time discussing the human body, including the functions of the mind, a topic of growing interest to both historians of philosophy and literary scholars. This Broadview Edition opens to modern readers a vibrant, unique, and provocative voice of the past that challenges our standard view of seventeenth-century English philosophy. |
| the blazing world cavendish: Margaret Cavendish Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle, 2019 The Seventeenth-Century philosopher, scientist, poet, playwright, and novelist Margaret Cavendish went to battle with the great thinkers of her time, and arguably got the better of them in many cases. She took a creative and systematic stand on the major questions of philosophy of mind, epistemology, metaphysics, and political philosophy. She argued that human beings and all other members of the created universe are purely material creatures, and she held that there are many other ways in which creatures are alike as well: for example, human beings, non-human animals, spiders, cells, and all other beings exhibit skill, wisdom, and activity, and so the universe of matter is not the largely dead and unimpressive region that most of her contemporaries thought it to be. Creatures instead are sophisticated and display a wide spectrum of intelligent activity, ranging from the highly conscious mentality that Descartes posited to be part and parcel of human thought, to embodied forms of cognition that is more common in non-human creatures but that guide a significant portion of human behavior as well. Cavendish then used her fictional work to further illustrate her views and arguments, and also to craft alternative fictional worlds in which the climate for women was very different than on Seventeenth-Century earth - a climate in which women could be taken seriously in the role of philosopher, writer, scientist, military general, and other roles. This is the first volume to provide a cross-section of Cavendish's writings, views and arguments, along with introductory material. It excerpts the key portions of all her texts including annotated notes highlighting the interconnections between them. Including a general introduction by Cunning, the book will allow students to work toward a systematic picture of Cavendish's metaphysics, epistemology, and political philosophy (and including some of her non-philosophical work as well) and to see her in dialogue with philosophers who are part of the traditional canon. |
| the blazing world cavendish: Margaret Cavendish Lisa Walters, 2014-08-28 Exploring connections between Cavendish's science, literature, and politics, Walters challenges the view that Cavendish's thought was characterised by conservative royalism. |
| the blazing world cavendish: Victorian Fairy Tales Michael Stuart Newton, 2015 This anthology brings together 14 of the best Victorian fairy tales, by major period writers as well as specialists in the genre, to show the vibrancy of the form and its ability to reflect our deepest concerns. From whimsy to satire, the stories reveal the preoccupations of the age and celebrate the value of the imagination. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Philosophical and Physical Opinions Margaret Cavendish Duches Newcastle, 2021-09-09 This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Convent of Pleasure, 1668 Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle, 2001 |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Arts of 17th-Century Science Claire Jowitt, Diane Watt, 2016-11-10 Contemporary ideals of science representing disinterested and objective fields of investigation have their origins in the seventeenth century. However, 'new science' did not simply or uniformly replace earlier beliefs about the workings of the natural world, but entered into competition with them. It is this complex process of competition and negotiation concerning ways of seeing the natural world that is charted by the essays in this book. The collection traces the many overlaps between 'literary' and 'scientific' discourses as writers in this period attempted both to understand imaginatively and empirically the workings of the natural world, and shows that a discrete separation between such discourses and spheres is untenable. The collection is designed around four main themes-'Philosophy, Thought and Natural Knowledge', 'Religion, Politics and the Natural World', 'Gender, Sexuality and Scientific Thought' and 'New Worlds and New Philosophies.' Within these themes, the contributors focus on the contests between different ways of seeing and understanding the natural world in a wide range of writings from the period: in poetry and art, in political texts, in descriptions of real and imagined colonial landscapes, as well as in more obviously 'scientific' documents. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Blazing World (illustrated) Margaret Cavendish, 2018-03 The Blazing World (illustrated)The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World, better known as The Blazing World, is a 1666 work of prose fiction by English writer Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle. It has been described as an early forerunner of science fiction.The Blazing World / The Blazing World Book /The Blazing World ebook/The Blazing World kindle Book / The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish / the blazing world and other writings / the blazing world margaret |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Blazing World Margaret Cavendish, 2020-03-07 The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World, better known as The Blazing World, is a 1666 work of prose fiction by English writer Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle. It has been described as an early forerunner of science fiction. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Cambridge Descartes Lexicon Lawrence Nolan, 2015-01-01 The Cambridge Descartes Lexicon is the definitive reference source on René Descartes, 'the father of modern philosophy' and arguably among the most important philosophers of all time. Examining the full range of Descartes' achievements and legacy, it includes 256 in-depth entries that explain key concepts relating to his thought. Cumulatively they uncover interpretative disputes, trace his influences, and explain how his work was received by critics and developed by followers. There are entries on topics such as certainty, cogito ergo sum, doubt, dualism, free will, God, geometry, happiness, human being, knowledge, Meditations on First Philosophy, mind, passion, physics, and virtue, which are written by the largest and most distinguished team of Cartesian scholars ever assembled for a collaborative research project - 92 contributors from ten countries. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Blazing World By Margaret Cavendish (Fully Annotated Edition) Margaret Cavendish, 2021-05-11 The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World, better known as The Blazing World, is a 1666 work of prose fiction by English writer Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle. It has been described as an early forerunner of science fiction. |
| the blazing world cavendish: Jack and Jill Louisa May Alcott, 2017-07-04 From the author of Little Women: An American classic of young best friends in a rustic New England town. In post–Civil War New England, thirteen-year-old Jack Minot and Janey Pecq are inseparable best friends who live next door to each other in the town of Harmony Village. The pair does everything together—so much so that Janey is nicknamed “Jill” to fit the old children’s rhyme. One winter day, the friends share a sled down a treacherous hill and both end up injured and bedridden. Unable to go out and have fun, Jack, Jill, and their circle of friends begin to learn about more than the fun and games of their youth and discover what it means to grow up—exploring their town, their hearts, and the big, wide world beyond for the first time. This charming, wistful coming-of-age tale, written twelve years after Louisa May Alcott’s classic Little Women, examines the strange, tempestuous changes of adolescence with homespun heart and worldly wisdom. |
| the blazing world cavendish: Women, Philosophy and Science Sabrina Ebbersmeyer, Gianni Paganini, 2020-07-08 This book sheds light on the originality and historical significance of women’s philosophical, moral, political and scientific ideas in Italy and early modern Europe. Divided into three sections, it starts by discussing the women philosophers’ engagement with the classical inheritance with regard to the works of Moderata Fonte, Tullia d'Aragona and Anne Conway. The next section examines the relationship between women philosophers and the new philosophy of nature, focusing on the connections between female thought and the new seventeenth- and eighteenth-century science, and discussing the work of Camilla Erculiani, Margherita Sarocchi, Margaret Cavendish, Mariangela Ardinghelli, Teresa Ciceri, Candida Lena Perpenti, and Alessandro Volta. The final section presents male philosophers’ perspectives on the role of women, discussing the place of women in the work of Giordano Bruno, Poulain de la Barre and the theories of Hobbes and Rawls. By exploring these women philosophers, writers and translators, the book offers a re-examination of the early modern thinking of and about women in Italy. |
| the blazing world cavendish: Margaret Cavendish - the Blazing World Margaret Cavendish, 2016-12-24 The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World, better known as The Blazing World, is a 1666 work of prose fiction by English writer Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle. It has been described as an early forerunner of science fiction. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World Margaret Cavendish Newcastle, 2020-03-06 The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World, better known as The Blazing World, is a 1666 work of prose fiction by the English writer Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle. Feminist critic Dale Spender calls it a forerunner of science fiction. It can also be read as a utopian work. As its full title suggests, Blazing World is a fanciful depiction of a satirical, utopian kingdom in another world (with different stars in the sky) that can be reached via the North Pole. It is the only known work of utopian fiction by a woman in the 17th century, as well as an example of what we now call 'proto-science fiction' — although it is also a romance, an adventure story, and even autobiography. A young woman enters this other world, becomes the empress of a society composed of various species of talking animals, and organizes an invasion back into her world complete with submarines towed by the fish men and the dropping of fire stones by the bird men to confound the enemies of her homeland, the Kingdom of Esfi. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish Margaret Cavendish, 2018-03-19 The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Natural Philosophy of Margaret Cavendish Lisa T. Sarasohn, 2010-05-10 Honorable Mention, Typographic Covers, Large Nonprofit Publishers, 2010 Washington Book Publishers Show Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, led a remarkable—and controversial—life, writing poetry and prose and philosophizing on the natural world at a time when women were denied any means of a formal education. Lisa T. Sarasohn acutely examines the brilliant work of this untrained mind and explores the unorthodox development of her natural philosophy. Cavendish wrote copiously on such wide-ranging topics as gender, power, manners, scientific method, and animal rationality. The first woman to publish her own natural philosophy, Cavendish was not afraid to challenge the new science and even ridiculed the mission of the Royal Society. Her philosophy reflected popular culture and engaged with the most radical philosophies of her age. To understand Cavendish’s scientific thought, Sarasohn explains, is to understand the reception of new knowledge through both insider and outsider perspectives in early modern England. In close readings of Cavendish’s writings—poetry, treatises, stories, plays, romances, and letters—Sarasohn explores the fantastic and gendered elements of her natural philosophy. Cavendish saw knowledge as a continuum between reason and fancy, and her work integrated imaginative speculation and physical science. Because she was denied the university education available to her male counterparts, she embraced an epistemology that favored contemplation and intuition over logic and empiricism. The Natural Philosophy of Margaret Cavendish serves as a guide to the unusual and complex philosophy of one of the seventeenth century’s most intriguing minds. It not only celebrates Cavendish as a true figure of the scientific age but also contributes to a broader understanding of the contested nature of the scientific revolution. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Blazing World Margaret Cavendish,, 2018-07-08 The Description of a New World: The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle. The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World, better known as The Blazing World, is a 1666 work of prose fiction by the English writer Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle. Feminist critic Dale Spender calls it a forerunner of science fiction. It can also be read as a utopian work. This present Description of a New World, was made as an Appendix to my Observations upon Experimental Philosophy; and, having some Sympathy and Coherence with each other, were joyned together as Two several Worlds, at their Two Poles. But, by reason most Ladies take no delight in Philosophical Arguments, I separated some from the mentioned Observations, and caused them to go out by themselves, that I might express my Respects, in presenting to Them such Fancies as my Contemplations did afford. The First Part is Romancical; the Second, Philosophical; and the Third is meerly Fancy; or (as I may call it) Fantastical. And if (Noble Ladies)you should chance to take pleasure in reading these Fancies, I shall account my self a Happy Creatoress: If not, I must be content to live a Melancholly Life in my own World; which I cannot call a Poor World, if Poverty be only want of Gold, and Jewels: for, there is more Gold in it, than all the Chymists ever made. |
| the blazing world cavendish: The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle, 2022-05-28 In her groundbreaking work, The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World, Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle weaves a vivid tapestry of a fantastical realm that challenges the conventions of 17th-century literature. Employing a unique blend of prose and poetry, Cavendish's narrative explores themes of gender, power, and human nature through the lens of an imaginative utopia. The narrative is rich with allegorical elements, showcasing a society ruled by a female sovereign, which simultaneously reflects and critiques the prevailing patriarchal norms of her time. As a notable intellectual of the Royalist court and a prolific writer, Cavendish's experiences as a woman in a male-dominated society profoundly influenced her literary pursuits. Her unconventional views on science, philosophy, and feminism permeate her writing, making her an early precursor to speculative fiction and feminist literature. The Blazing-World stands as a testament to her innovative thinking and challenge to societal norms, casting light on the struggles and aspirations of women in her era. Readers seeking an imaginative escape that stimulates critical thought will find The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World an invigorating exploration of alternative realities. Cavendish's work is not only a pioneering piece of literature but also a compelling invitation to reflect on the nature of power and the human condition, making it a must-read for those interested in feminist literature and the early tradition of utopian writing. |
BLAZING Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of BLAZING is burning very brightly and intensely. How to use blazing in a sentence.
BLAZING | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
BLAZING definition: 1. very bright and hot; powerful and impressive: 2. violent and frightening: 3. very bright and…. …
BLAZING Definition & Meaning - Dictionary.com
Blazing definition: burning brightly and with great heat, force, etc.. See examples of BLAZING used in a …
Blazing - definition of blazing by The Free Dictionary
blazing - without any attempt at concealment; completely obvious; "blatant disregard of the law"; "a blatant appeal to vanity"; "a blazing …
BLAZING definition and meaning | Collins English Dict…
Blazing sun or blazing hot weather is very hot. Quite a few people were eating outside in the blazing sun. 4 meanings: 1. burning or shining very …
BLAZING Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of BLAZING is burning very brightly and intensely. How to use blazing in a sentence.
BLAZING | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
BLAZING definition: 1. very bright and hot; powerful and impressive: 2. violent and frightening: 3. very bright and…. …
BLAZING Definition & Meaning - Dictionary.com
Blazing definition: burning brightly and with great heat, force, etc.. See examples of BLAZING used in a …
Blazing - definition of blazing by The Free Dictionary
blazing - without any attempt at concealment; completely obvious; "blatant disregard of the law"; "a blatant appeal to vanity"; "a blazing …
BLAZING definition and meaning | Collins English Dict…
Blazing sun or blazing hot weather is very hot. Quite a few people were eating outside in the blazing sun. 4 meanings: 1. burning or shining very …
