Pure Wit thoroughly acquaints you with Cavendish’s background and milieu, but her writing can be harder to cathect to, in part because her poor penmanship and spelling muddied publication, with editions revised repeatedly over the years. Peacock argues her work deserves the same scrutiny and careful attention as that of her male contemporaries ... Peacock works hard to situate her subject alongside other iconoclasts. This is probably the first time Cavendish has been likened to David Bowie and bell hooks, and it would no doubt delight her, even if the academy harrumphs.
For all the claims that Peacock makes in Pure Wit for her subject’s writing and philosophical thinking, in the 21st century, her appeal for the non-scholar surely lies more in the life rather than in the work ... This book, its author’s first, is in many ways excellent: well-written, well-researched, interesting and peppy. She brings Cavendish and her circle to life. But I do wonder how necessary Pure Wit is. Katie Whitaker published a prize-winning biography of Cavendish in 2003; this one does not offer much that’s new ... Quite often, she protests too much, insisting on the unnoticed brilliance even of Cavendish’s worst and least accessible writing. I loved the bits about the court, the carriages and the clothes, but Peacock’s long accounts of such concepts as vitalist materialism – a pet theory of Cavendish’s – gave me the old, restless feeling of being in a library at exam time.
Philosopher, poet, sci-fi author and scandalous celebrity, Margaret Cavendish was a woman out of time. This blazing biography does her proud ... Peacock’s artful prose makes this a delightful read and Cavendish, as both intellectual and celebrity, is the perfect subject. More than anything the book reminded me of last year’s Super-Infinite, Katherine Rundell’s much-lauded biography of the poet John Donne. But it’s not all scandal and study. The most moving chapter addresses how Cavendish writes about God, who had 'frustrated his designs by making me barren' ... This is a fond biography, and rightly so. It’s about time that someone takes up the cause of Cavendish, too often maligned for her eccentricities and aristocratic links.
Ms. Peacock is at her best explaining Cavendish’s literary achievements ... Pure Wit is a welcome contribution to a long overdue rehabilitation of Margaret Cavendish within the feminist canon.
A welcome corrective to previous characterizations of the Duchess ... A rigorous and insightful survey of Cavendish’s life and times ... Peacock’s new biography situates the nuances and idiosyncrasies of Cavendish’s writing with wit and aplomb.
Francesca Peacock’s enjoyable book is enriched by accounts of other women who lived remarkably in those remarkable times ... The book does not, however, make any powerful new points about Margaret Cavendish, a woman whose career and eccentricities were already as well known as they deserve to be. A good biography of her, Mad Madge by Katie Whitaker, was written 20 years ago. It is not clear that she needed another.
She fills her 300 pages with, yes, spirited defenses of Margaret Cavendish but also thoughtful and sometimes insightful discussions of her many works and the events of her times ... There are extended readings of every major work and a good deal of commentary...and there are plenty of well-done historical set pieces about the various stages of Margaret’s life. As a biography, much less a debut biography, it’s credible and very engaging.
Peacock captures Cavendish’s larger-than-life persona...and perceptively teases out her contradictions, noting that despite Cavendish’s 'belief that marriage was an oppressive form of bondage,' she lacked 'interest in the existence of people who were kept in true slavery.' It’s a nuanced look at the life of a complicated female trailblazer.
Peacock acknowledges the confusions and contradictions of much of Margaret’s work, but she takes her seriously as a feminist thinker and natural philosopher, grappling with questions that occupied Descartes and Hobbes. Drawing on a wealth of sources, she counters the trivializing image of Cavendish as 'some strange combination of a costumed actress, unreal goddess, and magical princess.' A sensitive, nuanced biography of an idiosyncratic woman.
