SOURCE: "The Duchess of Newcastle," in Collected Essays, Vol. III, Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1925, pp. 51-8.

A British novelist, essayist, and short story writer, Woolf is considered one of the most prominent literary figures of twentieth-century English literature. Concerned primarily with depicting the life of the mind, she revolted against traditional narrative techniques and developed her own highly individualized style. In the following essay, Woolf paints a sympathetic portrait of Margaret Cavendish as an intelligent though untutored woman attempting to leave a mark in a world that mocked any display of intellectual activity by women.

' … All I desire is fame', wrote Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle. And while she lived her wish was granted. Garish in her dress, eccentric in her habits, chaste in her conduct, coarse in her speech, she succeeded during her lifetime in drawing upon herself the ridicule of the great and the applause of...