The Description of a New World called The Blazing-World

The Blazing-World is a fanciful depiction of a utopian kingdom in another world that can be reached via the North Pole. It may be the only known work of utopian fiction by a woman in the 17th century. It can also easily be placed in the genres of science fiction romance adventure and possibly even autobiography.In the book a young woman enters this other world and becomes the empress of a society composed of various species of talking animals. She organizes an invasion of her home world complete with submarines towed by fish-men and fire-stones dropped by bird-men.Cavendishs utopia comes about at least in part due to having but one religion one language and one government. Originally published as a companion piece to her Observations upon Experimental Philosophy it gave life to her theorizing in what was an example of rigorous 17th-century science. This book inspired the authors husband William Cavendish 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne to write a sonnet which celebrates her imaginative powers. That sonnet was included in her book and prefaces this edition.