The three novellas presented here—The Ditress'd Orphan, The City Jilt, and The Double Marriage—were published separately in 1726, but were originally intended for a single volume. Haywood was a dangerous entity in the eighteenth century: a writing woman, writing for women. Like many female authors before her, Haywood was labeled and condemned by men as unfeminine, licentious, immodest and usurping. She dared to wield that masculine instrument, the pen, and speak her mind in public like a man.
