I do not normally like historical fiction, but this beautiful work is artful and insightful. The pace of the writing and the glimpses of life in revolutionary England and Belgium feel very real and alive, like a Merchant and Ivory movie or an old BBC Masterpiece Theater piece. And the portrait of Margaret of Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, her experiences, her thinking and her writing are poignantly expressed in elegant, thoughtful sketches. I am also reading Daniel Boorstin's The Discoverers and the personages in Stuart England and the age of Newton also show up here, coming delightfully alive. 
 This is going on my favorites list.