Lucy Hughes-Hallett

The extraordinary life of 17th-century polymath Margaret Cavendish

Some thought her completely mad but others were transfixed by her wayward personality and idiosyncratic writings, in which she switched from factual narrative to phantasmagorical fiction and polemical plays

Portrait of Margaret Cavendish by Peter Lely, 1665. [Alamy]  
issue 09 September 2023
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  • Pure Wit: The Revolutionary Life of Margaret Cavendish

    Francesca Peacock

    Head of Zeus, pp. 384, £27

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