Francesca Peacock's "Pure Wit" sheds light on the lesser-known Margaret Cavendish, a prolific 17th-century writer who faced challenges in gaining recognition due to her gender and genre-bending style. Cavendish's innovative theory of matter, which posited that inanimate objects may have some element of thought and feeling, prefigured Marie Kondo's decluttering philosophy.
Her writing on lesbianism and cross-dressing was bold for its time, and her elaborate frontispiece for one of her books featured her posing as a Greek statue flanked by likenesses of Athena and Apollo. At the premiere of William's play "The Humorous Lovers," Cavendish not only freed her nipples but adorned them with scarlet, capturing the attention of diarist Samuel Pepys and others.
Virginia Woolf likened Cavendish to a "giant cucumber" in a bed of flowers, lamenting her lack of formal training.
Her writing on lesbianism and cross-dressing was bold for its time, and her elaborate frontispiece for one of her books featured her posing as a Greek statue flanked by likenesses of Athena and Apollo. At the premiere of William's play "The Humorous Lovers," Cavendish not only freed her nipples but adorned them with scarlet, capturing the attention of diarist Samuel Pepys and others.
Virginia Woolf likened Cavendish to a "giant cucumber" in a bed of flowers, lamenting her lack of formal training.
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