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In “Pure Wit,” Francesca Peacock makes a fresh case for the writer Margaret Cavendish’s place in the feminist canon.
By Alexandra Jacobs
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PURE GENIUS: The Revolutionary Life of Margaret Cavendish, through Francesca Peacock
Margaret Cavendish was an intrepid and prolific 17th-century woman who, despite the efforts of many scholars and enthusiasts, is less well known today than her family’s namesake banana.
As I was reading Francesca Peacock’s galloping new biography, that immortal slap from “Mean Girls” (movie, musical, and future musical) occurred to me: “Gretchen!Stop looking for “recovery” to happen. It’s going to happen. “
For centuries, other people have tried to make Margaret Cavendish a truth, starting with Margaret Cavendish, born Lucas and raised in “tatters and patches,” who once said “the only thing I prefer is glory. “To this end, she married William, the equestrian Marquess of Newcastle 30 years her senior, and instead of young people, she published poetry, plays, philosophy, and prose novels under her own byline, which was very popular at the time.
Cavendish’s versatility in terms of gender, as well as his gender, actually undermined his attempt to become a celebrity after death; His paintings can easily be described as dilettantism. Her dynamic, if perhaps outlandish, theory of matter, also known as “vitalistic materialism” (basically, that inanimate elements can have a detail of idea and feeling), foreshadowed Marie Kondo’s commands to thank the things we have. You don’t need them anymore before you throw them away. She wrote about lesbianism and cross-dressing at a time when it was ambitious to do so. Plus, her own clothes were fabulous and entertaining.
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