Reading and Misreading in Margaret Cavendish's Sociable Letters

In this paper, I consider examples from Margaret Cavendish’s CCXI Sociable Letters (1664) to demonstrate her strategic approach to reading. Cavendish judges readers according to their ability to read her as she wished to be read, describes the ideal reading process, outlines failures in reading, and always along gender lines. The “danger and disreputation” any misreading promised were so egregious to her that she often described the impact of being misunderstood as a physical threat because, for Cavendish, there was no distinction between her Self and her Text. Through a deliberate textual presence that was liberating on one level and controlling on another, Cavendish closely guided readers on how to read her texts. Only through an intimate presence in a reader’s life could Cavendish demonstrate the potential reading afforded, and the requirement of reading her well if one wished to access her texts, as I will show.