The Blazing World and Other Writings

'I had rather die in the adventure of noble achievements, than live in obscure and sluggish security.'

One of the most diverse, prolific, and maverick intellectuals of her time, Margaret Cavendish is known for critiquing a wide range of early modern cultural and philosophical beliefs. While she was the first British woman to publish several philosophical treatises, she was also profoundly interested in literature and writing in nearly every available genre; indeed, with her wide-ranging, complex, and often unorthodox ideas, she was a pioneer of what today would be referred to as science fiction.

In this edition Lisa Walters brings together well-known and popular works such as The Blazing World, alongside lesser-known poems and prose pieces, like The Ambitious Traitor and The Unnatural Tragedy. The introduction discusses the wide-ranging concepts that appear in the writings, from gender and cross-dressing, to science and the nature of the universe, and provides a fresh insight on Cavendish's proclivity for literary experimentation and innovation.

Margaret Cavendish

Lisa Walters is Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland. She is the author of Margaret Cavendish: Gender, Science and Politics (2014) and co-editor of Margaret Cavendish: An Interdisciplinary Perspective (2022). Dr Walters is also one of the joint editors of the Restoration section of the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Early Modern Women's Writing.

IntroductionNote on the TextSelect BibliographyA Chronology of Margaret CavendishPOETRY FROM POEMS AND FANCIESOf Many Worlds in this WorldThe Soul's GarmentOf StarsMotion Directs, While Atoms DanceMotion Makes Atoms a Bawd for FigureNature Calls a Council, Which is Motion, Figure, Matter, and Life To Advise About Making the WorldA Dialogue Betwixt Riches and PovertyOf the AntOf the Knowledge of BeastsOf FishEarth's ComplaintThe ClaspThe Hunting of the HareNature's OvenNature's [Wine] CellarA Dialogue Between an Oak, and a Man Cutting it Downfrom 'A Dialogue betwixt Birds'STORIESThe Blazing WorldThe Travelling SpiritsThe Ambitious TraitorAssaulted and Pursued ChastityPROSEfrom Orations of Diverse Sortsfrom Sociable Lettersfrom 'A True Relation of My Birth, Breeding, and Life'PLAYSThe Unnatural TragedyThe Convent of PleasureExplanatory Notes