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The Convent of Pleasure" and Other Plays Paperback – June 18, 1999

by Margaret Cavendish (Author), Anne Shaver (Editor)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 10 ratings
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Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673), until recently remembered more as a flamboyant eccentric than as a serious writer, was in fact the most prolific, thought-provoking, and original woman writer of the Restoration. Cavendish is the author of many poems, short stories, biographies, memoirs, letters, philosophical and scientific works (including The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing World, the first work of science fiction by a woman), and nineteen plays.

"The Convent of Pleasure" and Other Plays collects four of Cavendish's dramatic works that are among the most revealing of her attitudes toward marriage and her desire for fame. Loves Adventures (1662) centers on a woman succeeding in war and diplomacy by passing as a man. Similarly, the heroine of Bell in Campo (1662) rescues her husband at the head of an army of women in this tale of a marriage of near equals. The Convent of Pleasure (1668) proposes a separatist community of women and has received attention for its suggestion of lesbian sexuality. The Bridals (1662), a more typical restoration comedy satirizing marriage, rounds out the collection.

Edited with notes and annotation by Anne Shaver, "The Convent of Pleasure" and Other Plays also contains a timeline, biography and bibliography of the Duchess, an appreciation of Cavendish's life and work, and a bibliography of critical essays. Also included are all of Cavendish's epistles To the Reader as well as Other Preliminary Matter from Playes (1662), and Cavendish's original preface to Plays Never Before Printed (1668). A valuable collection from an extraordinary writer, "The Convent of Pleasure" and Other Plays raises important issues about women and gender.

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  1. Print length
    296 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Johns Hopkins University Press
  4. Publication date
    June 18, 1999
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.62 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9780801861000
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0801861000
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Her introductory material places its initial emphasis upon biographical narrative _ an invaluable context in which to understand Cavendish's work, and most especially her dramatic writing, which is obsessed by the cultural anxieties surrounding the female intellectual of high birth who seeks a more public identity.
―Andrew Hiscock, Review of English Studies

About the Author

Anne Shaver is Lorena Woodrow Burke Professor of English at Denison University in Granville, Ohio.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0801861004
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Johns Hopkins University Press (June 18, 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 296 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780801861000
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0801861000
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.62 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 10 ratings

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Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle

Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle

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4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
10 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Elyn
5.0 out of 5 stars "Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1623 – 15 ...
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2016
Verified Purchase
"Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1623 – 15 December 1673) was an English aristocrat, philosopher, poet, scientist, fiction-writer, and playwright during the 17th century. Born Margaret Lucas, she was the youngest sister of prominent royalists Sir John Lucas and Sir Charles Lucas, who owned the manor of St. John's Abbey in Colchester.[1] She became an attendant of Queen Henrietta Maria and traveled with her into exile in France, living for a time at the court of the young King Louis XIV......
.....Cavendish was a poet, philosopher, writer of prose romances, essayist, and playwright who published under her own name at a time when most women writers published anonymously. Her writing addressed a number of topics, including gender, power, manners, scientific method, and philosophy. Her utopian romance, The Blazing World, is one of the earliest examples of science fiction.[3] She is singular in having published extensively in natural philosophy and early modern science.[4] She published over a dozen original works; inclusion of her revised works brings her total number of publications to twenty-one......
.....Cavendish has been championed and criticized as a unique and groundbreaking woman writer. She rejected the Aristotelianism and mechanical philosophy of the seventeenth century, preferring a vitalist model instead.[5] She was the first woman to attend a meeting at Royal Society of London in 1667 and she criticized and engaged with members and philosophers Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes, and Robert Boyle.[6] She has been claimed as an advocate for animals and as an early opponent of animal testing......" courtesy of wikipedia.
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Jenny M. Raja
5.0 out of 5 stars PROFESSOR CAVENDISH?
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2009
I've read a lot of Cavendish's works --- but not this book. I'm only chiming in on one thing: where the heck did she get the title professor? She was a wealthy and educated woman, but she did not attend a university or earn any sort of degree. Women in that time simply weren't permitted. So what the heck is up with the Professor M. Cavendish? Oye.
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Sebastiano
5.0 out of 5 stars Libri
Reviewed in Italy on December 15, 2021
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Tutto ok
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Bruxelles
1.0 out of 5 stars De nombreuses annotations
Reviewed in France on July 4, 2013
Verified Purchase
L'ouvrage m'est parvenu avec de nombreuses annotations que je n'arrive pas à effacer. Je suis très déçue. Un peu décourageant! Cela fait plusieurs mois que j'ai reçu le livre, je n'ai toujours pas commencé à le lire.
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