Mad Madge: The Extraordinary Life of Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle, the First Woman to Live by Her Pen [Hardcover]

Katie Whitaker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2002

For a seventeenth-century Englishwoman, Margaret (Lucas) Cavendish did the unprecedented --she published her writing. Her extraordinary life unfolded during the English Civil Wars, when she was exiled to Paris and Antwerp as a Royalist seeking refuge from Cromwell's England, and later as mistress of her husband's estate in Newcastle after the restoration of the monarchy. In exile, she began to write and publish her poetry and essays, influenced by a Royalist cultural world that included Hobbes and Descartes. Despite the scandal her writing life caused, she eventually brought out thirteen books, ranging from Poems and Fancies, the first book of poetry published by a woman under her own name, to Blazing World, the first science fiction by a woman.A lively biography and a window on the tumultuous cultural life of the seventeenth century, Mad Madge reveals there may well have been a "Judith Shakespeare" centuries before Virginia Woolf exhorted women to find "a room of one's own." Katie Whitaker draws on the extensive collection of Margaret's letters and legal papers to draw a vibrant and complete picture of the pioneering "Mad Madge."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Margaret Lucas Cavendish was born in 1623 into a wealthy Essex family. She received the typical education afforded a young woman of her station little beyond the rudiments deemed sufficient to permit her to take her place as wife to a nobleman and mother to his children. Though she did remain happily married to William Cavendish, marquess of Newcastle, for almost 30 years, little about the rest of her life was in any way conventional. She followed her Royalist husband into exile in France and Holland during the civil war; while abroad, she wrote and, even more extraordinarily, published under her own name a striking body of philosophical speculations, poetry and plays. On their return to England, she successfully managed her husband's estates. She was driven by a most unfeminine ambition to leave some mark behind and managed indeed to achieve a prominent place in English intellectual life. How could someone whom Virginia Woolf believed to be "the crazy Duchess... a bogey to frighten clever girls with" do so much while so mad? Whitaker's answer is simple. By carefully examining the evidence, she reveals that Margaret's madness, like her nickname, is a 19th-century artifact, rooted in a Victorian revulsion at her earthiness and energy. Along the way, Whitaker, in her first book (she has a Ph.D. in history of science from Cambridge University) provides a lucid and fascinating account of Margaret's life, work and times. In recent years, there has been increased scholarly attention given to Margaret Cavendish; this impressive biography can only generate further interest. 16 pages of photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Katie Whitaker was a Century Fellow of the University of Chicago, where she received an M.A. in philosophy. With the support of a British Academy grant, she received a Ph.D. in the history of science at Cambridge University, where she was awarded the Thirlwall Prize and Medal in 1997. She lives in Yorkshire, England.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 046509161X
• ISBN-13: 978-0465091614
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,268,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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