PositiveThe Los Angeles Review of BooksMargaret the First is perhaps too enamored of its subject’s biography; it hews closely to the chronology of Cavendish’s life and the political events that marked it, as well as the somewhat familiar story line of a woman ahead of her time. Yet its more experimental aspects, particularly the ways in which it presents Margaret’s perspective alongside the technologically enhanced perspective machines of 17th-century natural science, are thrilling in the close-ups they show of a world in flux.\
