• The Blazing World and Other Writings

  • Penguin Classics
  • By: Margaret Cavendish
  • Narrated by: Abigail Thaw
  • Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
  • 3.4 out of 5 stars (7 ratings)

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The Blazing World and Other Writings

By: Margaret Cavendish
Narrated by: Abigail Thaw
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Publisher's Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Abigail Thaw, best known for her role as Dorothea Frazil in Endeavour. This definitive recording includes an introduction by Kate Lilley, also read by Abigail Thaw.

Flamboyant, theatrical and ambitious, Margaret Cavendish was one of the 17th 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.

Public Domain (P)2020 Penguin Audio

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Early sci-fi and travel fiction

Really appreciate this early fiction by an accomplished "authoress" whose work piggy too be as recognized as Utopia, Candide , or other travel fantasies from the European "Age of Discovery." It was tough to get through the extremely detailed parts on natural philosophy, but I enjoyed times that followed characters through fanciful realms.

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  • Anthony Saville
  • 02-19-21

Hugely interesting

Disappointing as a story and a book to be listened to in relatively small bites. But it is genuinely fascinating as a piece of proto-feminist writing. It offers a tantalizing insight into a very different age, and deals with questions of sexual politics in a challenging but gentle style. I warmed to the writer, even if I got a bit bored with her narrative. Her voice remains with me: I'd love to have met her.