The Blazing World and Other Writings

Book arrived in condition as expected. Thank you!

A few months ago, I read an article in the Guardian Review about the Penguin Classics series. The author of the article selected ten titles – apparently at random – to illustrate the richness and variety of the works available from Penguin. I realised that of the ten works, I had only read one, so I resolved to read the other nine this year. This is the fourth of those nine that I’ve read so far. Like most female writers before the modern era, Margaret Cavendish was of the elite. The fact that she became Duchess of Newcastle by marriage is an indicator of her social status. As such she had access to a level of privilege far beyond what was available to lesser mortals – male as well as female – in the seventeenth century. But as a woman she had precious little opportunity to put her talents to practical ends. She doesn’t seem to have had much education as a child, but as a young adult she must have spent a great deal of time educating herself as, at the age of thirty, she suddenly unleashed a torrent of fiction, philosophy, letters, plays, poetry, autobiography and a biography of her husband. The result is a mixture of radicalism, proto-feminism, social conservatism and a respect for hierarchy (she was on the Royalist side in the Civil Wars). What we’re presented with in this edition is three works of creative fiction that constitute a tiny taster of Her Grace’s oeuvre. All three focus on a woman, or women, negotiating a world ruled by men. Although The Blazing World is the centrepiece of the collection, my favourite was Assaulted and Pursued Chastity in which the heroine disguises herself as a young man and achieves great things simply because in appearing to be male she is given the freedom to use her intelligence, fortitude and multifarious talents without any gender constraints. I found The Blazing World more difficult. There is a lot of scientific and philosophical material packed into it which might have been cutting edge when it was written but now seems slightly dull. What makes the Blazing World close to a utopia is that it only has one religion that is celebrated in one way with no doctrinal divisions or sects. This is an obvious comment on Margaret’s own turbulent times when religious controversy and division caused so much violence and bloodshed. Another interesting feature is the idea that if you’re not entirely happy with the world as it is, you can create a better world in your mind. I suspect that Margaret spent a large amount of her time doing just that. As I said, this is a taster of Margaret’s work, and I would happily read more if I could find it.

Le livre a été livré, bien emballé et dans les délais. TB

Amazing woman write in the 17th century. Book is well covered by a very erudite scholar. Print quite small.

I found the two "other writings" in this collection nearly unreadable. Think "Horatio Alger," where the plucky but disadvantaged young'n makes good against all odds through kind spirit and determination. Now gender-flip, rework it to seventeenth century flowery language at its most florid, add run-on sentences at their most run-on, and substitute "preserves her virtue" for "makes good." I found the "Blazing world" story itself, longest and last in the collection, more interesting. The leading lady outshines all others in beauty, virtue, and wisdom, as usual. So, when she's shipwrecked in an unknown land, of course the emperor marries her at once, makes her empress, and is seldom heard from after that. She proceeds to make over the laws and customs to her liking, as is proper for her virtue and wisdom, and in the end, brings an army of her minions back to her homeland where they instruct all other nations to subjugate themselves - or face her army and their invincible weapons. I've skipped over many episodes of her imperial reign, but one in particular stood out. One of her buddies wanted some place to reign for herself, and Our Lady calls upon supernatural allies to find a world for her. In the end, the most practical world-building would be within the ladies' own minds - echoing the author's (or almost any author's) own process. And, as so many authors find out, the imagined worlds tend to go their own ways, irrespective of what their creators had in mind. (Hmm. Doesn't that sound like a familiar "creation" story?) I can't recommend this for the stories or style as such. Still, this seems to hold some place in the lineage that begat modern science fiction, which some may find interesting. And, like any writing, it captures the zeitgeist of its time like a bug in amber. It presents that time's roles of women, the assumed superiority of European culture and people, and the god-given obligation to bring the lower folk into line, all of which are assumed like laws of nature. (It is given, of course, that the lower folk welcome this with fawning adulation.) -- wiredweird