Margaret Cavendish: The Duchess Who Wrote Herself Into History

Margaret Cavendish was mocked as eccentric, vain, and impossible to categorize. But behind the caricature was one of the boldest intellectual self-creations of the seventeenth century: a woman who wrote philosophy, poetry, plays, biography, natural science, and one of the earliest works now recognized as science fiction. In a world that expected women of rank to remain dignified and silent, Cavendish chose publication, visibility, and the dangerous ambition of being known for her mind.

In M...