Margaret Cavendish

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673) was a famous member of the family of the Dukes of Newcastle.

She was a poet, philosopher, essayist, playwright and, some say, an efficient and tireless self-publicist. She took the - for a Duchess - unprecedented step of publishing her work under her own name which infringed the then prevailing ideas of propriety. Samuel Pepys called her "mad, conceited and ridiculous".

Among her works is New Blazing World which could be described as the first Science Fiction novel.

As a philosopher, Margaret Cavendish rejected the Aristotelianism[?] of the 17th century, with its picture of nature as a great machine, and the views of Thomas Hobbes, Descartes, Boyle and members of the Royal Society of London.

With the advent of the Women's Movement, Margaret Cavendish has become a role model for today's women. There is a Margaret Cavendish Society at the University of Dundee[?].

Some of her works:

• Observations upon Experimental Philosophy, 1668
• The Worlds Olio, 1655
• Poems, and Fancies, 1653
• Natures Pictures, 1656
• New Blazing World
• A True Relation
• The Convent of Pleasure