Cavendish, Margaret

Margaret Cavendish (née Lucas), Duchess of Newcastle (1623–1673) was one of the most prolific and innovative writers of the seventeenth century. Her many published works include poetry, drama, fiction, essays, letters, and natural philosophy. A true polymath, Cavendish contributed to many of the enduring debates of the seventeenth century in fields as diverse as literature, politics, and natural philosophy. In her natural philosophical works, she advanced a rationalistic and animist version of materialism, while also critiquing the emergence of empiricism. In her poetry, fiction, and drama she developed creative reinterpretations of traditional genres and forms, while her experience of war and exile and her interest in the possibilities of women’s freedom resulted in a complex and contradictory politics and the exploration of alternative political structures, most notably in her most enduring work, The Blazing World.