Paper Bodies: A Margaret Cavendish Reader

by Margaret Cavendish

Margaret Cavendish was one of the most subversive and entertaining writers of the seventeenth century. She invented new genres, challenged gender roles, and critiqued the new science as well as the mores of society. "Paper Bodies" was the wonderful phrase she used to described her manuscripts, which she hoped would continue to make "a great Blazing Light" after her death. There are connections here to Cavendish's most famous work, The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World (1666), a unique tale of a woman travelling through the north pole to a strange new world. In addition to The Blazing World, this volume includes Cavendish's brief autobiography, A True Relation of My Birth, Breeding and Life (1667), her play The Convent of Pleasure, and selections from her Sociable Letters, her poetry, and her critical writings. A variety of background documents by other seventeenth-century writers helps to set her work in context for the modern reader.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Fiction, Female Authors, Philosophy, Plays, Drama

332 pages, Paperback

First published January 20, 2000

About the author

Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, was the youngest child of a wealthy Essex family. At the age of 20 she became Maid of Honour to Queen Henrietta Maria and traveled with her into Persian exile in 1644. There she married William Cavendish, Marquis (later Duke) of Newcastle.

Between 1653 and 1668 she published many books on a wide variety of subjects, including many stories that are now regarded as some of the earliest examples of science fiction.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Margaret Cavendish - "Mad Madge" - was a scenester in the late eighteenth century. She grew up pretty wealthy but became a socialite when marrying the Duke of Newcastle, William Cavendish (who, among other gifts, was an expert horseman). She was the maid of honour to Henrietta Maria. Her full life is reflected by her interests (unusual but not unique for a woman in the period): science, politics, poems, rhetoric, philosophy, drama. Samuel Pepys made fun of her then, and Virginia Woolf made fun of her later. Everyone else was polite because of her husband Only recently have critics come to see her not just as eccentric who wrote, but as one of the more interesting conduits for the shaping of modernity.


Her plays are compelling if not in the top tier of Restoration comedy; her feminist spirit doesn't go far enough. Her poems are okay. But her science writings are brilliant, weird, troubling, and ahead of their time. BLAZING WORLDS, in particular, anticipates the Phillip Pullman trilogy: Cavendish sends a shipwrecked maiden outside the North-pole, where she discovers walking, talking animals who like her so much they make her the empress of their society. Her fantasy of a woman at the top of intellectual hierarchy is a compelling critique of experimental philosophy - the origins of modern science. There's also a war on the other world, after which the Empress learns a lesson from the real Cavendish, and the fictional and factual fold in on each other. Cavendish challenges political, scientific, and gender categories in what might be the origin of "science fiction" as a genre. Worth checking out for all who study the period; Cavendish is indispensible.

[Kristina Gashi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of her works were much more impactful than others -- Gender and Serious Play with "Convent of Pleasure" and "Female Orations" highlight the importance of understanding the natural world and the inherent nature of women in order to achieve pleasure. Feminist and almost accepting or at least understanding of homosexuality? Birth, Breeding, and Self-fashioning was a bit repetitive after Dutton’s novella and the Broadview Introduction but still interesting. Blazing New World was my biggest issue. While I can appreciate the borderline utopian fictive world Cavendish has set these musings in, a majority of the scientific discussions went over my head. Her self-insert is so arrogant and so real. The other works, poems, and essays were fine but too irrelevant to note.

[Samantha Buchheit · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for my Early English Literature class. I don't think we read the entire thing but we did read quite a bit of it, so I'm counting it. Margaret Cavendish was really funny, though I don't think she always meant to be. I wrote some of my best annotations in this book because everything she writes is so silly and she's so obsessed with herself. You just had to be there. Giving 3 stars because she's also extremely long-winded.

Side note: Ugly cover. Well, the photo is fine, but it doesn't fit the content of the book at all. The picture of the bear on the mountain was literally taken in Canada and Cavendish lived in England! There was a lot of cool artwork of her in the book that they could've used instead.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Margaret Cavendish (1624-1674) was a remarkable writer, whose work explored subversive ideas about gender, invented new genres (including something akin to science fiction), and whose own life was filled with political skirmishes and intrigues. I very much admire her ideas and her historical position, and found this collection - which includes her astonishing, surrealistic work “The Blazing World” - to be a wonderful guide to her work. I especially like the play called “The Convent of Pleasure.”

[Michele]

not rating because this was for my five british authors course and it was interesting but not my cup of tea. it just was what it was, touched on some interesting topics like science and religion.

[emilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

wonderful concerning magical strange confusing woman

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Margaret's autobiography and "The Blazing World," and that is quite enough Cavendish for me. It's awful. Just supremely awful. And difficult to read. Her autobiography is twenty pages long but composed of only four sentences. No lie. The woman never saw a semicolon she didn't like. In her fiction she drones on for pages and pages about cabalas (yeah, I still don't know what those are) and what fire is made out of or what vehicles spirits take, but she skips all the good stuff, like her protagonist's journey to the Blazing World and the whole romance with the Emperor. Instead we get, "First, she (nobody has a name in this story) came to an island. Then she went to a different island and met many more wondrous people. And then she saw the Emperor, and he took her for his wife." That's ridiculous, right? But she'll spend forever disseminating information nobody wants to know. The book gets one extra star because it has some historical value since Margaret wrote the first woman's non-religious autobiography in English. If that interests you, read it. If you want to test your mettle on some of the worst prose in the history of ever, you might give it a try. Otherwise, if you see it, run in the other direction. Run fast, run far, and best of luck to you.

[Liv · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely an interesting female author who, through her fantastical world, explores the controversies of religion, politics and science: how far should we as humans really go into science? What is considered safe exploration and experimentation and what is considered meddling? Does a technological advancement automatically get marked as a success, or is it in reality destructive, only benefiting those who possess it? Furthermore, the novel proposes an idea considered too bold for its time: a woman who not only takes part in intellectual, scientific activities meant strictly for men, but is also given the reigns - she is leader of an entire state. Cavendish's work, though rather farfetched with bear-men, worm-men, parrot-men, etc etc, is a well constructed commentary on the society of the Enlightenment Period.

[Phoebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was nice to have a collection of the "letters" that this marvelous, eccentric, ahead-of-her-time crazy lady wrote to herself in the guise of an unknown "Madame." She broke the mold, of course. The lady is good company, with immense energy and flair. The book is only marred by some academic goofs. Apparently it was edited by two grad students and maybe they were too quick to publish. It annoyed me to have "onley" foot-noted so I could learn it meant "only." Well, duh. Cavendish remains a joy, though, and I certainly enjoyed this modest volume.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my God. Cavendish is crazy and I love her. Please read "Sociable Letters." They are, by far, the best epistolary essays ever written by a woman in 1664. This is a great sampling of her writing and of an unusual life in the 17th century. Also, did I mention she's crazy?

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for Early Modern Women's Writing, Spring 2014.

I read the introduction, "The Convent of Pleasure," and "Blazing World." I really liked the Convent of Pleasure (though we spent a lot of time in class discussing the strange/disappointing ending); Blazing World, not so much.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is A LOT going on in these writings. Cavendish is a fascinating figure, and well worth discovering.

[Mairéad (is roaming the Undying Lands) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars, read for university for my seminar.

[Rebecca Romney]

Quotes

Cavendish, childless, in Poems and Fancies (1653): "Condemne me not for making such a coyle / About my Book, alas it is my Childe" (10).