An Early Challenge To The Precepts And Practice Of Modern Science

Download or read book Margaret Cavendish written by Emma Rees and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2024-06-04 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Margaret Cavendish was one of the most prolific, complex and misunderstood writers of the seventeenth century. A contemporary of Descartes and Hobbes, she was fascinated by philosophical, scientific and imaginative advances, and struggled to overcome the political and cultural obstacles which threatened to stop her engagement with such discourses. Emma Rees examines how Cavendish engaged with the work of thinkers such as Lucretius, Plato, Homer and Harvey in an attempt to write her way out of the exile which threatened not only her intellectual pursuits but her very existence. What emerges is the image of an intelligent, audacious and intrepid early modern woman whose tale will appeal to specialists and general readers alike.