Margaret the First

Margaret the First dramatizes the life of Margaret Cavendish, the shy, gifted, and wildly unconventional 17th-century Duchess. The eccentric Margaret wrote and published volumes of poems, philosophy, feminist plays, and utopian science fiction at a time when “being a writer” was not an option open to women. As one of the Queen’s attendants and the daughter of prominent Royalists, she was exiled to France when King Charles I was overthrown. As the English Civil War raged on, Margaret met and married William Cavendish, who encouraged her writing and her desire for a career. After the War, her work earned her both fame and infamy in England: at the dawn of daily newspapers, she was “Mad Madge,” an original tabloid celebrity. Yet Margaret was also the first woman to be invited to the Royal Society of London—a mainstay of the Scientific Revolution—and the last for another two hundred years. Margaret the First is very much a contemporary novel set in the past, rather than “historical fiction.” Written with lucid precision and sharp cuts through narrative time, it is a gorgeous and wholly new narrative approach to imagining the life of a historical woman

bbreview rating 3 stars

Margaret The First was a really artistic colorful, poem like read narrated by Margaret herself telling of her life and how she becomes the woman she was. This book is not a historical set type book as we would see most historical fictions based around. Instead it was a light read. Somewhat hard to follow at times but it was also hard to put down at the same time. The only thing that makes it three stars is the way Margaret Cavendish was displayed as a silly odd girl and always sadly depressed from the way I was reading it and getting a feeling from it. However I found it highly invigorating and interesting and do say I recommend it to others as well.