The Convent of Pleasure and Other PlaysMargaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623 1673), until recently remembered more as a flamboyant eccentric than as a serious writer, was in fact the most prolific, thought provoking, and original woman writer of the Restoration. Cavendish is the author of many poems, short stories, biographies, memoirs, letters, philosophical and scientific works (including The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing World, the first work of science fiction