The Blazing World and Other Writings

In her introduction, Kate Lilley places these writings in the context of Margaret Cavendish's extraordinary life and discusses the roles of women in these texts

This is the description of "The New Blazing World" (1666) - one of the earliest pieces of science fiction writing. It attempts, in the manner of contemporary utopian fantasies, to tell the story of a voyage to another world where speculative science reigns.Flamboyant, theatrical and ambitious, Margaret Cavendish was one of the seventeenth century's most striking figures: a woman who ventured into the male spheres of politics, science, philosophy and literature. The Blazing World is a highly original work: part Utopian fiction, part feminist text, it tells of a lady shipwrecked on the Blazing World where she is made Empress and uses her power to ensure that it is free of war, religious division and unfair sexual discrimination. This volume also includes The Contract, a romance in which love and law work harmoniously together, and Assaulted and Pursued Chastity, which explores the power and freedom a woman can achieve in the disguise of a man.