The Blazing World and Other Writings (Penguin Classics)

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.

An amazing collection of stories especially as they have been written in such an incredible era,I enjoyed reading them.

Engaging and intellectually stimulating tales from a prolific author, philosopher, poet and scientist. The centerpiece of the collection, 'The Blazing World' defies restrictions of genre, brilliantly combining Cavendish's formidable imagination with her scientific and philosophical sensibilities.

Amazing woman write in the 17th century.

Book is well covered by a very erudite scholar.

Print quite small.

Hard to read at first but once you get into it you realise this woman had real passion and imagination. Fantastic for a 17thc woman to write science fiction.

I thought that getting a Penguin edition would give me a quality edition but as I read I frequently find typos and incorrect words such as 'the' instead of 'die', 'diem' instead of 'them'. Cleary these missed the proof reading... However the notes are useful and easy to access as reading.

It's not a gripping storyline, but it does give an understanding of how the 16th science tried to make sense of the world.

Good book to read

Book arrived in condition as expected. Thank you!

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

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

My review concerns only The Blazing World section of this book. It is an interesting, not often-read 17th-century Utopia/Romance/Autobiography by one of the century's more controversial authors. Unfortunately, this edition suffers from numerous transcription/digitization errors ('them' is rendered as 'diem' on several occasions) and frankly somewhat lazy annotations. Indeed, aside from a few points offering definitions of slightly-obscure words, there appeared to be almost no annotations in the text. The editor offers no discussion of the Hobbesian influences found throughout the text, or of the contemporary debates regarding helio-centric and geo-centric models of the solar system, which are referenced several times in the text. The introduction outlines some of the autobiographical elements of the text, but offers only a few annotations of the text's significant autobiographical content. Obviously there is a balance to be struck in terms of annotations and clean reading, but with the text freely available from numerous sources online, I feel the editors have to offer a little bit more in terms of notes to make this purchase worthwhile.

This is specifically a reaction to the Kindle edition of Cavendish, which I just purchased (23 August 2011). Two obvious typos in my first 30 seconds of reading (locations 193, 2794). Come on Penguin! If you are going to be a serious leader in ebooks, clean things up. You are doing better than most, but your work is still sub-standard. Etexts should now be of the same quality as print. This is no reflection on the work of Kate Lilley the editor, or on the fascinating concoction of Margaret Cavendish's Blazing World, but on the sloppy conversion of this text. For prospective purchasers of this Kindle texts, I think despite my complaint you can go ahead. The book is readable, despite a few font errors and some obvious typos. It's not as bad as the Penguin Chaucer and some of the other poetry texts. My complaint is directly to the publisher, and I am probably wasting my time. Yet, without criticism, there will be no improvement.