Book Review: The Blazing World and Other Writings by Margaret Cavendish

The Blazing World and Other Writings by Margaret Cavendish

Margaret Cavendish lived in mid-1600s England, just after the age of Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I. She married into the Cavendish family, whose fortunes vacillated as the country went through the English Civil War and other social upheavals. She wrote many books in many different genres--speculative fiction, romance, poetry, scientific treatise, and natural philosophy. This book contains three of her works as a representation of her larger corpus.

The Contract--Two toddlers are contracted to be married later in life by their soon-to-die parents. The boy is older and winds up marrying someone else while the girl is raised in semi-isolation by her very protective uncle. He teaches her about virtue and makes sure she learns manners and dancing and all the usual womanly finer things of the 17th century. When she enters society, complications ensue. The story is charming and surprisingly uncynical. The characters experience some tension as they try to resolve their situations. The tale gives some insight into courtly life back then, especially the expectations of men and women.

Assaulted and Pursued Chastity--A young woman is returning to her country after fleeing a war. She is shipwrecked in a different country. Her traveling companions and servants abandon her. She seeks employment as a lady's servant but through a series of misadventures and plots against her, she is forced to travel disguised as a man, hoping to return home. Her travels put her into a country at war where she leads the troops to recapture the local kidnapped queen. The story meanders around and has lots of little speeches or explanations of related ideas. The philosophical content and musings are interesting and give the story more depth. The main character (who is given some different names like "Affectionata" and "Travellia") is an interesting, independent woman who becomes more capable as she experiences more of the world and finds proper mentors. The story is so invested in her being a man that sometimes the pronouns shift, which was a little distracting especially when she runs into a Prince who does some of the same things that she does (like leading armies). Like the first story, this is a fascinating window into a past that is not so unsimilar to today.

The Blazing World--A young lady is pursued by an amorous merchant. She flees on a small boat which winds up sailing through a polar passage to The Blazing World, another planet much like her own and also much different. Like her world, this one has flora and fauna aplenty, a variety of lands, and intelligent creatures. Unlike her world, the Blazing World has numerous bright stars in the sky, so there is hardly nighttime. And the intelligent creatures are of a wide variety, including bear-men, fish-men, worm-men, and many others. The world is governed by one Emperor, has one language, and believes one faith. She is taken through various areas on the way to the capital, learning the language along the way. She meets the Emperor, who falls in love with her and makes her his Empress. She studies the sciences and philosophies of the Blazing World, consulting with various experts. She also learns to communicate with immaterial spirits from other worlds, from whom she discovers that her native country is being attacked by all the other countries. She also communicates with the Duchess of Newcastle (one Margaret Cavendish) who proves a true friend and an invaluable advisor to the Empress. The Duchess is from a third world (our Earth) which is not connected in a physical way to the Blazing World. The Empress marshals the local forces and returns to her own world, making her home country the ruler over all. She returns to her Emperor to live in tranquility for the rest of her days.

The exploration of the Blazing World is an opportunity for Cavendish to present her philosophical and scientific knowledge and opinions in a fanciful way, much like Plato's Republic or More's Utopia. The philosophical passages go on for pages and pages, so the reader needs to be very patient or very interested in speculative musings. The return to her world and conquest thereof is relatively brief and the most action a reader gets. The tactics were interesting but more of a side show allowing more discussions of justice and proper rule. As a whole, it is a more like a philosophical treatise than a fanciful adventure.

In these writings, Cavendish shows a very modern sensibility, even though she penned them some four hundred years ago. Her heroines are independent and intelligent. In an epilogue, she says that she'd gladly accept anyone who wants to become a subject of the Blazing World, but if they want to change it, they should just make up their own ideal worlds rather than try to take over her creation. People are very intent on making up their own worlds today.

Mildly recommended, more so if you are interested in Renaissance Utopian fiction (which I am).