SOURCE: "Biography," in Women Writers: Their Contribution to the English Novel, 1621-1744, Third Impression, Cork University Press, 1946, pp. 70-121.

In the following excerpt from an essay first published in 1944, MacCarthy traces the conflicting opinions about Cavendish's literary abilities and contends that her genius, evident in her biographical works, was unappreciated by her contemporaries.

Of the many women whose intellectual powers were rendered ineffectual by a want of education, the Duchess of Newcastle is an outstanding example. Like other well-bred women, she had had her tutors, who were paid to give a semblance of schooling, but who were not even supposed to exact the discipline of study. A young lady could read, write and cipher, she could chatter a foreign language, dance, and play the virginals, embroider and make bead bags. In the name of common sense what more could any one expect? Let her carry her "education" as...