Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673), remembered as a flamboyant eccentric, was in fact one of the most prolific, thought-provoking and original women writers of the Restoration. Cavendish is the author of many poems, short stories, biographies, memoirs, letters, philosophical and scientific works (including "The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World", the first work of science fiction by a woman) and 19 plays. This volume collects four of Cavendish's dramatic works that are among the most revealing of her attitudes towards marriage and her desire for fame. "Loves Adventures" (1662) centres on a woman succeeding in war and diplomacy by passing as a man. Similarly, the heroin of "Bell in Campo" (1662) heads an army of women and rescues her husband in this tale of a marriage of near equals. "The Convent of Pleasure" (1668) proposes a separatist community of women and has received attention for its suggestions of lesbian sexuality. "The Bridals" (1662), is a more typical restoration comedy satirizing marriage.
Edited with notes and annotation by Anne Shaver, this volume also contains a timeline, biography and bibliography of the Duchess, an appreciation of Cavendish's life and work, and a bibliography of critical essays. Also included are all of Cavendish's epistles "To the Reader" as well as "Plays, Never Before Printed" (1668).
- ISBN10 0801860997
- ISBN13 9780801860997
- Publish Date 5 May 1999
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Out of Print 30 July 2003
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 256
- Language English