Ten lesser known literary classics

Henry Eliot is an author and editor. He has written three books: The Penguin Classics Book (2018), Follow This Thread (2018) and Curiocity (2016). He is the Creative Editor of Penguin Classics.

One of ten lesser known literary classics you may not have read that he tagged at the Guardian:

Margaret Cavendish, The Blazing World, 1666

A maverick and feminist who championed animal welfare, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle was the first female scientist to attend a meeting of the Royal Society. She is best remembered for this utopian romance, one of the earliest examples of science fiction. A beautiful young lady journeys to another world, accessed via the north pole, where animals talk and war is conducted with the aid of submarines and aerial bombardment. As empress of this strange world, she outlaws war, religious conflict and gender inequality, and learns how to teleport to parallel universes. In a metafictional twist, she also comes across the writings of “the Duchess of Newcastle; which although she is not one of the most learned, eloquent, witty and ingenious, yet she is a plain and rational Writer”.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue