- Publisher: Head of Zeus
- Year: 2024
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 384pp
- Illustrated: Yes
- Dimensions: 196x128mm
- Condition: New
- Weight: 0.3kg
- ISBN: 9781837930166
- Product code: 546802
Pure Wit
The Revolutionary Life of Margaret Cavendish
Francesca Peacock New Paperback Illustrated
Postscript summary
The writer, poet, philosopher and proto-feminist Margaret Cavendish (1623–73) was controversial in her lifetime and largely forgotten thereafter. This ground-breaking new biography tells how, as a Royalist, she accompanied Queen Henrietta Maria into exile in France, where she met her husband, the Duke of Newcastle; evaluates her scandalous reputation; and explores her prolific literary output, including the Grounds of Natural Philosophy and the pioneering science-fiction novel The Blazing World.
Product information
Full publisher description
'Puts Cavendish back into the literary history books where she belongs' Kate Mosse
'Scholarly, articulate, and never less than fascinating' Alice Loxton
'Well-written, well-researched, interesting and peppy.' Observer
A biography of the remarkable, and in her time scandalous, seventeenth-century writer Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle.
'My ambition is not only to be Empress, but Authoress of a whole world.'
Margaret Cavendish, then Lucas, was born in 1623 to a wealthy family. In 1644, as England descended into civil war, she joined the court of the formidable Queen Henrietta Maria at Oxford, before following the court into exile in France. It was there that she met her much older lifelong partner, William Cavendish, Marquess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Cavendish was a revolutionary writer. At a time when literature was dominated by men, she wrote passionately on gender, science and philosophy, defied convention by publishing under her own name, and advocated for women in work that predates the feminist movement. In 1666, she published The Blazing World, a brilliant, trail-blazing proto-novel thought to be one of the earliest works of science fiction. But her legacy divides opinion. And history has largely forgotten her.
In Pure Wit, Francesca Peacock shines a spotlight on the fascinating, pioneering, yet often complex and controversial life of Margaret Cavendish.
'Scholarly, articulate, and never less than fascinating' Alice Loxton
'Well-written, well-researched, interesting and peppy.' Observer
A biography of the remarkable, and in her time scandalous, seventeenth-century writer Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle.
'My ambition is not only to be Empress, but Authoress of a whole world.'
Margaret Cavendish, then Lucas, was born in 1623 to a wealthy family. In 1644, as England descended into civil war, she joined the court of the formidable Queen Henrietta Maria at Oxford, before following the court into exile in France. It was there that she met her much older lifelong partner, William Cavendish, Marquess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Cavendish was a revolutionary writer. At a time when literature was dominated by men, she wrote passionately on gender, science and philosophy, defied convention by publishing under her own name, and advocated for women in work that predates the feminist movement. In 1666, she published The Blazing World, a brilliant, trail-blazing proto-novel thought to be one of the earliest works of science fiction. But her legacy divides opinion. And history has largely forgotten her.
In Pure Wit, Francesca Peacock shines a spotlight on the fascinating, pioneering, yet often complex and controversial life of Margaret Cavendish.
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546802
Pure Wit
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/Non-Fiction/Categories/Biography & Memoirs
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The writer, poet, philosopher and proto-feminist Margaret Cavendish (1623–73) was controversial in her lifetime and largely forgotten thereafter. This ground-breaking new biography tells how, as a Royalist, she accompanied Queen Henrietta Maria into exile in France, where she met her husband, the Duke of Newcastle; evaluates her scandalous reputation; and explores her prolific literary output, including the <i>Grounds of Natural Philosophy</i> and the pioneering science-fiction novel <i>The Blazing World</i>.
Paperback
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rrp_info:£10.99
productId:187223
bic_code:BGH, BGL, HBLH
BGH, BGL, HBLH
£10.99
Francesca Peacock
General
196x128mm
Head of Zeus
No
Paperback
Early Modern: 1450-1700
