Margaret Cavendish was the first woman writer to write specifically for publication and to consider herself primarily a writer. She cloaked her shyness in extravagant dress and an exotic public persona. In the turbulent days of the Civil War and its aftermath, she wrote to express her hugely varied ideas. She believed in sexual equality, criticized the role of women in contemporary society and even dared to criticize the institution of marriage. Although, like virtually all women of her time, she had little formal education, she wrote (with atrocious spelling) stories, poems, essays, "fancies", scientific and philosophical treatises. So controversial was her reputation that when she visited London, crowds lined the streets to watch her pass. She was the forerunner of later more widely recognized women writers such as Aphra Behn.
- ISBN10 0747500711
- ISBN13 9780747500711
- Publish Date 3 March 1988
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Out of Print 9 November 2015
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Format Paperback
- Pages 192
- Language English