Literary Fiction Annotation

Literary Fiction Annotation

 Author: Danielle Dutton

Title: Margaret the First: A Novel

Genre: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, and Biographical Fiction

Published: March 1, 2016

Number of Pages: 177

Geographical Setting:  France and the United Kingdom

Time Period: 17^th century during and after the English Civil War

Plot Summary: Margaret the first is a fictionalized retelling of Margaret Cavendish who lived in 17^th century England to a prominent royalist family during the English Civil War. Margaret is described as a shy fanciful young girl, who wants to attend the eccentric Queen Henrietta Maria during her exile in France. After hearing the objections from her family members, her mother decides she is ready to travel away from home and join the Queens court as a lady-in-waiting. This would be the beginning of Margaret’s strange tale from being a lady-in-waiting to an exiled royalist with her husband, William Cavendish the 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to becoming a celebrity philosopher, poet, scientist, fiction-writer, and playwright. Margaret has been depicted as a controversial figure throughout history, but Dutton brings to life a far more complexes character that more people should be introduced to.

Characteristics that fit into Literary Fiction:

o   Style/Language: Dutton writes this novel as a biographical fiction alongside it being literary fiction. The novel is structured like a diary entries that Margaret herself has written down. This style uses poetic phrasing and ideas that one can imagine a women from the 17^th century thinking.

o   Characterizations: Margaret’s character develops through this novel, starting as a shy and thoughtful girl who hunts fairies in her family’s garden, to a watchful women who thinks deeply about women’s roles, space, culture, and plenty of other topics that people believed women should think or write about.

o   Storyline: I think the overwhelming theme of this novel is womanhood in 17^th century England. How a women of royal status can leave her mark on society and also history is a driving factor for Margaret’s motivations. After prominent deaths in her family, Margaret is looking for ways to not be forgotten and doesn’t want to let her gender be the factor that stops her from reaching notoriety. 

Similar Authors and Works:

v  Charlotte and Emily by Jude Morgan: share similarities in characterization of the main characters.

v  Viper Wine by Hermione Eyre: is a historical novel that shares an eccentric 17^th century Englishwomen.

v  Year of Wonder by Geraldine Brooks: shares the same time period.

3 Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors

v  The Weaker Vessel: Women's Lot in Seventeenth-Century England by Antonia Fraser

v  Between Two Worlds: How the English Became Americans by Malcolm Gaskill

v  Her Own Life by Helen Wilcox

3 Relevant Fiction Works and Authors

v  Vanessa Alexander, The Loving Cup

v  Paul Anderson, A Midsummer Tempest

v  Evelyn Anthony, Charles the King