Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1623-1673) was a philosopher, scientist, and perhaps most importantly fiction writer. She produced twelve own literary works during her life and was editor to many more.
The daughter of a Royalist baronet, she was a lady in waiting at court and had gone for several years with Queen Henrietta Maria to France into exile during the English Civil War. She was still in service to the queen when she married William Cavendish, then Marquess of Newcastle, at age 22 in 1645 after which she had to quit her position at court.
Thinking of women in SciFi, Mary Shelley and her magnificently influential tale of Frankenstein's Monster immediately springs to mind. Yet Mary Shelley's genius for fiction was preceded by over 150 years by Margaret Cavendish's foray into SciFi.
Margaret’s most famous work is called The Blazing World. It is a work of utopian fiction and an ancestor of the SciFi genre which over a
century later Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein really kicked off. As such, The Blazing World is a major stepping stone in literary history. In the text, a young woman ends up in a surreal parallel realm full of animal-human hybrids, strange powers and technologies - the "Blazing World". From there, she starts communicating with
Margaret herself and the two women travel to each other’s worlds. The text contemplates the role of religion in society, rulership, gender norms, and futuristic technologies.
Margaret drew both admiration and much scorn for being an author and especially such an ‘opinionated‘ one. Diarist Samuel Pepys called her ‘mad’ and ‘frivolous’ - these tired old slanders for women who step out of the social ideal for feminine behaviour. Often living very reclusively, but equally an animated debater among other scholars, she was considered both too reserved and too loud at the same time. She self-diagnosed with what she called melancholia and which manifested in low moods, preferring to be alone and write, and unease in public. Nonetheless, she admitted herself how hungry she was for making a name for herself. For this reason, Margaret published under her own name, enabled by her noble rank. Pepys's discrediting of Margaret as not fulfilling the feminine ideal of quiet domesticity is all the more painful as she and her husband experienced severe fertility issues which saddened both although they came to find solace in regarding Margaret's works as their children. Despite the scorn, Margaret created a circle of people who took her seriously and she was certainly able to hold her own even among critics. She was the first woman to be allowed to join a debate of the Royal Society.
From a modern perspective Margaret is a very complex person and intellectual, with both very avantgarde and very 17th century opinions. She was a fierce defender of education for women and argued that - acclaimed as her works were - they would have been better had she had a full education. Challenging gender norms, she called writing mental spinning – women should spin wool and not write books, but Margaret was good at writing and much preferred it to spinning. At the same time, Margaret shared many opinions of her time, convinced that a society could only function with a powerful monarch rather than a democratic system.
The Blazing World has been re-published in edited form for contemporary readers. Its plot structure is rather unlike fast-paced modern writing with cliff-hanger moments to keep the reader on their toes. It can be meandering, switching from satire to long scholarly passages about the natural world or philosophy. Nonetheless, it is a fascinating glimpse into 17th century literature!