54 pages 1 hour read

Margaret Cavendish

The Blazing World

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1666

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Epilogue

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Epilogue Summary: “The Epilogue to the Reader”

Although readers may come away from this book thinking Cavendish wants to be Empress of the world, Cavendish explains that the real purpose of the book was create from scratch a world built of rational thought. Not only did she do it faster than Alexander or Caesar could conquer the world, she also did it with less destruction and death. Her world is peaceful and harmonious. Rational people, not military or political figures, are at the forefront of her world, and she is its ultimate hero. She encourages her readers to imagine their own perfect worlds, as long as they don’t try to usurp her world or that of the Empress, to whom she pledges her Platonic loyalty.

Epilogue Analysis

Cavendish again positions herself above powerful male political leaders in describing how easy the creation of the Blazing World was. Her increased delight in imagination shows that she views it as more powerful than military might.

Cavendish directly conflates herself with the Duchess in the Blazing World, even going so far as to imply that this text resulted from her time creating imagined worlds with the Empress. This bold insertion of the real into the fantastical acts as permission for readers to feel free to create their own worlds using Cavendish’s work as a template.