The Blazing World and Other Writings

One of the most diverse and maverick intellectuals of the early modern period, Margaret Cavendish is known for critiquing a wide range of early modern cultural and philosophical beliefs. In this edition Lisa Walters brings together popular works such as The Blazing World, alongside lesser-known poems and prose pieces, like The Ambitious Traitor.

List of contents

• Introduction


• Note on the Text


• Select Bibliography


• A Chronology of Margaret Cavendish


• POETRY FROM POEMS AND FANCIES


• Of Many Worlds in this World


• The Soul's Garment


• Of Stars


• Motion Directs, While Atoms Dance


• Motion Makes Atoms a Bawd for Figure


• Nature Calls a Council, Which is Motion, Figure, Matter, and Life To Advise About Making the World


• A Dialogue Betwixt Riches and Poverty


• Of the Ant


• Of the Knowledge of Beasts


• Of Fish


• Earth's Complaint


• The Clasp


• The Hunting of the Hare


• Nature's Oven


• Nature's [Wine] Cellar


• A Dialogue Between an Oak, and a Man Cutting it Down


• from 'A Dialogue betwixt Birds'


• STORIES


• The Blazing World


• The Travelling Spirits


• The Ambitious Traitor


• Assaulted and Pursued Chastity


• PROSE


• from Orations of Diverse Sorts


• from Sociable Letters


• from 'A True Relation of My Birth, Breeding, and Life'


• PLAYS


• The Unnatural Tragedy


• The Convent of Pleasure


• Explanatory Notes

About the author

Lisa Walters is Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland. She is the author of Margaret Cavendish: Gender, Science and Politics (2014) and co-editor of Margaret Cavendish: An Interdisciplinary Perspective (2022). Dr Walters is also one of the joint editors of the Restoration section of the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Early Modern Women's Writing.

Summary

One of the most diverse and maverick intellectuals of the early modern period, Margaret Cavendish is known for critiquing a wide range of early modern cultural and philosophical beliefs. In this edition Lisa Walters brings together popular works such as The Blazing World, alongside lesser-known poems and prose pieces, like The Ambitious Traitor.

Product details

• Authors: Margaret Cavendish, Cavendish Margaret
• Assisted by: Lisa Walters (Editor), Walters Lisa (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 14.08.2025
• EAN: 9780192862907
• ISBN: 978-0-19-286290-7
• No. of pages: 464
• Series: Oxford World's Classics
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; POETRY / General, English, FICTION / Classics, Classic fiction (pre c 1945), DRAMA / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / General, Poetry by individual poets, Literary studies: general, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, Plays, Playscripts, Classic fiction: general and literary, Classic plays / drama, Classic poetry / poems