The Blazing World

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books'I had rather die in the adventure of noble achievements, than live in obscure and sluggish security'In 1666, Margaret Cavendish had a vision: there was a crack in reality at the North Pole leading to a utopian parallel universe, where gender roles, scientific orthodoxy and political norms had been razed to the ground. She slipped through the portal and returned with the first science fiction novel in English - an explosive account of the Blazing World.

Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-73), became a Maid of Honour to Queen Henrietta Maria, travelling with her into Parisian exile in 1644. There, she married William Cavendish, Marquis (later Duke) of Newcastle. Between 1653 and 1668 Margaret Cavendish published a dozen substantial books including poetry, moral tales, speculative fiction, romance, scientific treatises, natural philo­sophy, familiar letters, closet drama, orations, an autobiographical memoir and a biography of her husband. The sheer quantity and variety of Cavendish's published writing was unprecedented amongst earlier English women.