The Blazing World
Title page of Margaret Cavendish's The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World, reprinted 1668 [originally published 1666] | |
| Author | Margaret Cavendish |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction, utopian |
| Published | 1666 |
| Publisher | Anne Maxwell |
| Publication place | England |
The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World, better known as The Blazing World, is a 1666 work of prose fiction by the English writer Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle. Feminist critic Dale Spender calls it a forerunner of science fiction. It can also be read as a piece of utopian fiction.
In the novel, a woman from the Kingdom of ESFI (a combined version of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland) is kidnapped by a spurned lover. The angry gods blow the boat transporting them to the North Pole, where its crew dies. The woman is the lone survivor, and she finds a portal into a parallel world. It is inhabited by human–animal hybrids who mistake her for a goddess and choose her as their new empress. She creates a new religion and decides to write down her own version of the Kabbalah.