Anne Conway is one of the most interesting philosophers of the seventeenth century, with an entirely original way of synthesizing some of the major currents of that extremely rich and complex era. She left behind very little: a few letters, collected in THE CONWAY LETTERS, and a brilliant but short and probably fragmentary treatise, THE PRINCIPLES OF THE MOST ANCIENT AND MODERN PHILOSOPHY. She directly influenced the philosophical projects known now as Cambridge Platonism, as well as the wider circle of European Neoplatonists, including Leibniz. And she was a Quaker -- converting to this sect when they were almost universally despised by her fellow aristocrats and all "decent" society.Although more and more is written on her every year, Sarah Hutton's biography remains an ideal introduction to the study of her life, thought, and wider context. Hutton's presentation of very complex ideas is pellucid throughout. Her command of Conway's wide and deep reading -- from Origen to Descartes -- is impressive. This is a book to have on your shelf if you are at all interested in seventeenth century intellectual history -- that is, interested in what amounts to the Cambrian Explosion of modern ideas -- and at your elbow if you are researching or writing about this very interesting person.