PENGUIN-CLASSICS-Best-sci-fi-classics_1262x752_Penguin

Reading lists

Must-read sci-fi classics

Penguin Classics

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

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.

Margaret Cavendish

‘I had rather die in the adventure of noble achievements, than live in obscure and sluggish security’<br/>
<br/>
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.

The Blazing World

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Kate-Atkinson

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

prhuk-authors

Penguin Shop: 3 Clothbound Classics for £33

Penguin Archive

Margaret Cavendish

Books by Margaret Cavendish

Series by Margaret Cavendish

Penguin Archive

Articles featuring Margaret Cavendish

Must-read sci-fi classics

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter