Pure Wit
eBook - ePub

Pure Wit

The Revolutionary Life of Margaret Cavendish

  1. 384 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Pure Wit

The Revolutionary Life of Margaret Cavendish

About this book

A biography of the remarkable—and in her time scandalous—seventeenth-century writer Margaret Cavendish, who pioneered the science fiction novel. "My ambition is not only to be Empress, but Authoress of a whole world."—Margaret Cavendish Margaret Cavendish, then Lucas, was born in 1623 to an aristocratic family. In 1644, as England descended into civil war, she joined the court of the formidable Queen Henrietta Maria at Oxford. With the rest of the court she went into self-imposed exile in France. Her family's wealth and lands were forfeited by Parliament. It was in France that she met her partner, William Cavendish, Marquess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a marriage that made her the Duchess of Newcastle and would remain at the heart of both her life and career. Margaret was a passionate writer. She wrote extensively on gender, science, philosophy, and published under her own name at a time when women simply did not do so. Her greatest work was The Blazing World, published in 1666, a utopian proto-novel that is thought to be one of the earliest works of science fiction that brought together Margaret's talents in poetry, philosophy, and science.Yet hers is a legacy that has long divided opinion, and history has largely forgotten her, an undeserved fate for a brilliant, courageous proto-feminist. In Pure Wit, Francesca Peacock remedies this omission and shines a spotlight on the fascinating, pioneering, yet often complex and controversial life, of the multi-faceted Margaret Cavendish.

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Yes, you can access Pure Wit by Francesca Peacock in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Women in History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. Author’s Note
  6. Introduction
  7. Chapter 1: The Monstrous Regiment of Women
  8. Chapter 2: This Unnatural War Came Like a Whirlwind
  9. Chapter 3: Generalissimas and She-Soldiers
  10. Chapter 4: On Sorrow’s Billows This Ship Was Tossed
  11. Chapter 5: It Is Hard to Get Children with Good Courage
  12. Chapter 6: A Sumptuous Banquet for the Brain
  13. Chapter 7: The First English Poet of Your Sex
  14. Chapter 8: We Women Are Miserable
  15. Chapter 9: I Have Been Asleep Sixteen Years
  16. Chapter 10: Women’s Kisses Are Unnatural
  17. Chapter 11: The Thrice Noble, Illustrious, and Excellent Princess of Philosophy
  18. Chapter 12: The Duchess of Newcastle Is All the Subject Now Discoursed On
  19. Chapter 13: What Will Survive of Us Is Books
  20. Chapter 14: Doubt of an After Being
  21. Photographs
  22. Appendix 1: Works by Margaret Cavendish
  23. Appendix 2: Other Abbreviated Works
  24. Appendix 3: Abbreviations
  25. Acknowledgements
  26. About the Author
  27. Notes
  28. Bibliography
  29. Index
  30. Image Credits
  31. Copyright