Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World

The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World, better known as The Blazing World, is a 1666 work of prose fiction by the English writer Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle. Feminist critic Dale Spender calls it a forerunner of science fiction. It can also be read as a utopian work. As its full title suggests, Blazing World is a fanciful depiction of a satirical, utopian kingdom in another world (with different stars in the sky) that can be reached via the North Pole. It is "e;the only known work of utopian fiction by a woman in the 17th century, as well as an example of what we now call 'proto-science fiction' - although it is also a romance, an adventure story, and even autobiography."e; A young woman enters this other world, becomes the empress of a society composed of various species of talking animals, and organizes an invasion back into her world complete with submarines towed by the "e;fish men"e; and the dropping of "e;fire stones"e; by the "e;bird men"e; to confound the enemies of her homeland, the Kingdom of Esfi.