“I am not Covetous,” wrote Duchess of Newcastle Margaret Cavendish in her 1668 book The Blazing World, “but as Ambitious as ever any of my Sex was, is, or can be; which is the cause, That though I cannot be Henry the Fifth, or Charles the Second; yet, I will endeavour to be, Margaret the First.”
Danielle Dutton takes the title for her new novel, Margaret the First, from this declaration, indicative as it is of author’s ambition. Cavendish wasn’t fucking around: She was the first woman in England to write for publication, which status (along with some wacky sartorial choices) ensured that she became the subject of much gossip and controversy in 17th-century England.
Some of her offenses—attending the premiere of her husband’s play in a topless dress with her nipples painted red, the ur-nude selfie?—were legitimately shocking. Others—writing books! Wearing a dress with a train to meet the queen! Being shy!—were not. But Margaret’s greatest offense—and what makes her such a fascinating figure—was what reads on the page as her greatest virtue: her completely undiluted and at times deeply impractical ambition…