Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Advanced
Title details for Pure Wit by Francesca Peacock - Wait list

Pure Wit

by Francesca Peacock
ebook
Read a sample Read a sample
'Puts Cavendish back into the literary history books where she belongs' Kate Mosse

'Scholarly, articulate, and never less than fascinating' Alice Loxton

A biography of the remarkable, and in her time scandalous, seventeenth-century writer Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle.
'My ambition is not only to be Empress, but Authoress of a whole world.'
Margaret Cavendish, then Lucas, was born in 1623 to a wealthy family. In 1644, as England descended into civil war, she joined the court of the formidable Queen Henrietta Maria at Oxford, before following the court into exile in France. It was there that she met her much older lifelong partner, William Cavendish, Marquess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Cavendish was a revolutionary writer. At a time when literature was dominated by men, she wrote passionately on gender, science and philosophy, defied convention by publishing under her own name, and advocated for women in work that predates the feminist movement. In 1666, she published The Blazing World, a brilliant, trail-blazing proto-novel thought to be one of the earliest works of science fiction. But her legacy divides opinion. And history has largely forgotten her.
In Pure Wit, Francesca Peacock shines a spotlight on the fascinating, pioneering, yet often complex and controversial life of Margaret Cavendish.
Expand title description text
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 9781837930142
  • Release date: September 14, 2023

EPUB ebook

  • ISBN: 9781837930142
  • File size: 27150 KB
  • Release date: September 14, 2023
Loading
Loading

Formats

OverDrive Read
EPUB ebook

subjects

Biography & Autobiography History Nonfiction

Languages

English

'Puts Cavendish back into the literary history books where she belongs' Kate Mosse

'Scholarly, articulate, and never less than fascinating' Alice Loxton

A biography of the remarkable, and in her time scandalous, seventeenth-century writer Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle.
'My ambition is not only to be Empress, but Authoress of a whole world.'
Margaret Cavendish, then Lucas, was born in 1623 to a wealthy family. In 1644, as England descended into civil war, she joined the court of the formidable Queen Henrietta Maria at Oxford, before following the court into exile in France. It was there that she met her much older lifelong partner, William Cavendish, Marquess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Cavendish was a revolutionary writer. At a time when literature was dominated by men, she wrote passionately on gender, science and philosophy, defied convention by publishing under her own name, and advocated for women in work that predates the feminist movement. In 1666, she published The Blazing World, a brilliant, trail-blazing proto-novel thought to be one of the earliest works of science fiction. But her legacy divides opinion. And history has largely forgotten her.
In Pure Wit, Francesca Peacock shines a spotlight on the fascinating, pioneering, yet often complex and controversial life of Margaret Cavendish.
Expand title description text
Biography & Autobiography History Nonfiction