Before Mary Shelley

Who do you think of when you think of the first female science fiction author? Mary Shelley?

Yes, Shelley’s work Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus has earned her a well-deserved place among science fiction and horror authors and made her a founding member of the science fiction community. It has certainly been one of the most influential pieces of science fiction of all time, especially when taking into account all of its adaptations. However, Shelley is not the first female science fiction author. In fact, she was at least 152 years too late for that position.

Let me introduce you to Lady Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Born in 1623 and died in 1673, Lady Cavendish was a prolific English philosopher, poet, scientist, fiction writer, and playwright. During a time when it was common for women to remain anonymous, Lady Cavendish published all her works under own name. She was a champion for women’s education—even though she had no formal education herself—and has been claimed as an early opponent of animal testing.

While she wrote many poems, essays, and plays, her most notable work, arguably, is the 1666 utopian science fiction novel The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World, better known as The Blazing World. It tells the story of a young woman who is abducted and shipwrecked in a new utopian world, populated entirely by animal-people, that can only be accessed through the North Pole. She marries the Emperor and becomes Empress of this strange new world. After exploring the natural sciences and philosophy of The Blazing World through discussions with its scientists, philosophers, and academics, she organizes an army to defeat the enemies of her homeland, the Kingdom of Esfi. In the epilogue, Lady Cavendish herself makes an appearance as a scribe, friend, and advisor to the Empress, and she explains to the reader her reasons for writing The Blazing World.

Although not well-known nowadays, The Blazing World was an inventive and genre-defying book in its own time. It addressed philosophy, women’s role in society, the relationship between men and women, and Lady Cavendish’s political views, which aligned with those of English philosopher Thomas Hobbes. Critics still dissect this work and its influence today.

Certainly, The Blazing World has not had the effect on the modern science fiction community that Frankenstein has had. You won’t see a million different versions of The Blazing World and its sequels—certainly no Bride of the Empress—coming out any time soon. Regardless, that does not mean that it has not left its mark. The Blazing World itself appears in Alan Moore’s graphic novels The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and China Miéville’s Un Lun Dun references the novel with a library book entitled A London Guide for the Blazing Worlds. Furthermore, Siri Hustvedt’s novel The Blazing World (2014) and the 2021 film The Blazing World were both inspired by Lady Cavendish’s work.

If we dig back farther, I am sure that we will find that even Lady Cavendish is not the first female science fiction author. She is but the earliest example that I have found thus far. The fact that we are still having to dig, that these names are not well-known, that we’re even having to fight for Mary Shelley to get the recognition that she deserves in the science fiction genre at times, shows that we have a long way to go in that genre. But that does not mean that we should give up. If Lady Cavendish was willing to work so hard to explore the position of women’s position in society during her time, why should we not do the same now?

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Resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blazing_World

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Cavendish,_Duchess_of_Newcastle-upon-Tyne

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/women-in-history/margaret-cavendish/