Eliza Haywood - Böcker

Although Eliza Haywood was one of the best known and most prolific writers in her own time, there is no modern edition of her works. This edition provides representative texts from Haywood's entire career, which overlaps that of Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, and Tobias Smollett. The six fictions and two plays provided here illustrate the many kinds of writing Haywood produced, the ways she treated important themes and issues, and the contributions she made to the development of the English novel.

Although Eliza Haywood was one of the best known and most prolific writers in her own time, there is no modern edition of her works. This edition provides representative texts from Haywood's entire career, which overlaps that of Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, and Tobias Smollett. The six fictions and two plays provided here illustrate the many kinds of writing Haywood produced, the ways she treated important themes and issues, and the contributions she made to the development of the English novel.

After Aphra Behn, Eliza Haywood was the most important woman novelist of the early eighteenth century. In the 1740s and 50s Haywood also edited several serial newspapers, the most important being The Female Spectator which appeared every month from April 1744 to May 1746 and was written with a markedly female audience in mind. The first modern periodical both written by a woman and addressed to a female audience, The Female Spectator takes up exciting themes found in Haywood's short fiction.

After Aphra Behn, Eliza Haywood was the most important woman novelist of the early eighteenth century. In the 1740s and 50s Haywood also edited several serial newspapers, the most important being The Female Spectator which appeared every month from April 1744 to May 1746 and was written with a markedly female audience in mind. The first modern periodical both written by a woman and addressed to a female audience, The Female Spectator takes up exciting themes found in Haywood's short fiction.

Eliza Haywood (1693?-1756) was one of the first women in England to earn a living writing fiction. Her early tales of amorous intrigue, sometimes based on real people, were exceedingly popular though controversial. Haywood, along with her contemporary Daniel Defoe, did more than any other writer to create a market for fiction in the period just prior to the emergence of Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, and Tobias Smollett, the dominant novelists of the mid-eighteenth century.The scheming, sexually predatory anti-heroine of The Injur'd Husband is a memorable villain who defies all expectations of a woman's conduct in marriage. The heroine of Lasselia is initially a model of virtue who bravely resists the advances of a king, only to be driven by her passion and desire into an illicit affair with a married man and ultimately into ruin. These two provocative narratives strikingly represent Haywood's extraordinary contribution to the development of the novel.

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.

The most important female English novelist of the 1720s, Eliza Haywood is famous for writing scandalous fiction about London society. Fast-moving, controversial, and sometimes disturbing, Haywood’s short novels The Masqueraders and The Surprize are valuable sources for the study of eighteenth-century gender and identity, the social history of masquerade, the dangers of courtship and seduction, and conceptions of elite and popular cultures.Despite their common theme of masquerade and seduction, the two short novels are a study in contrasts. The Masqueraders features the whirl of London life, with a libertine anti-hero and his serial seductions of women who believe that they can manipulate the social conventions that are expected to limit them. The Surprize, on the other hand, is an uncharacteristically sentimental story in which a similarly salacious plot ends in rewards for the good and virtuous.Well suited to the teaching of these two texts, this volume contains annotated scholarly editions of both novels, an extensive introduction, and useful appendices that discuss the masquerade’s role in eighteenth-century debates on gender, morality, and identity.

Love in Excess (1719-1720) is a novel by Eliza Haywood. Published in three parts by printer William Chetwood, the novel marked Haywood’ debut on the London literary scene. It was an immediate bestseller, going through several reprintings in Haywood’s lifetime. Love in Excess is considered a prime example of the popular genre of amatory fiction, which often used love triangles to expose the imbalance between male and female desire in a patriarchal society. Like all young aristocratic women of their time, Alovisa and Amena are expected to wait for a marriage proposal to fall into their laps. Forbidden from expressing her desires, Alovisa decides to send an anonymous letter to the handsome, rakish D’Elmont. When he receives it, however, he thinks it has been sent by Amena, whom her promptly begins to pursue. Disappointed, Alovisa conspires with Amena’s father—who disapproves of D’Elmont—to have her rival sent to a convent. Although Alovisa ends up with her beau of choice, she soon realizes that desire has a funny way of concealing a lover’s true nature. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Eliza Haywood’s Love in Excess is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Anti-Pamela: Or, Feign'd Innocence Detected (1741) is a novel by Eliza Haywood. Blending tragedy and comedy, Haywood explores the intersection of gender and class to reveal how women perform and experience desire. Written in response to Samuel Richardson’s Pamela; Or, Virtue Rewarded, a novel in which a young girl resists the advances of her wealthy employer and eventually marries him honorably, Haywood’s novel flips the portrayal of static feminine desire on its head. Unlike Pamela, her protagonist is an anti-heroine who wields her sexuality for the purpose of social mobility, showing resilience and determination despite her repeated failures. Syrena Tricksy knows what she wants from men. To get it, she disguises herself as an unmarried aristocrat, a mistress, a widow, and a libertine, each time in pursuit of a wealthy nobleman to marry. Playing these parts with ease, she frequently gets in her own way, failing at the last moment through carelessness and greed. Resourceful and independent, Syrena is a character at odds with the stereotypical portrayal of feminine sexuality. She may not be perfect, but she is never passive. As a parody of Samuel Richardson’s popular novel of morality, The Anti-Pamela: Or, Feign'd Innocence Detected lampoons the unrealistic character at the heart of Pamela, a woman who gets what she wants through virtue alone. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Eliza Haywood’s The Anti-Pamela: Or, Feign'd Innocence Detected is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751) is a novel by Eliza Haywood. Blending tragedy and comedy, Haywood explores the intersection of ambition, family, and desire to reveal how women so often fall victim to the whims of men. The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless has been recognized as one of the first novels in English literature to depict the development of an independent heroine, as well as to move away from the more popular genre of amatory fiction toward the marriage plot. Widely read in the eighteenth century, Haywood influenced such authors as Fanny Burney and Jane Austen. Having completed her education at an all-girls boarding school, Betsy Thoughtless moves to the city of London. For the first time, she finds herself thrust into the orbit of young and marriageable men, whose attention and affections she craves, though remains cautious to reciprocate. Betsy knows the dangers inherent to sexual impropriety—pregnancy out of wedlock would all but guarantee her a life of poverty and misfortune, not to mention the shame it would bring to her aristocratic family. Despite these pressures, Betsy finds a way to enjoy single life while learning to recognize the signs of deceitful, unworthy men. When marriage does come, she soon realizes the institution is far from perfect. Unhappy, she grows as a person and looks for a way to regain her former independence. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Eliza Haywood’s The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Idalia: Or, The Unfortunate Mistress (1723) is a novel by Eliza Haywood. Blending tragedy and comedy, Haywood explores the intersection of ambition, family, and desire to reveal how women so often fall victim to the whims of villainous men. Idalia: Or, The Unfortunate Mistress is considered a prime example of the popular genre of amatory fiction, which often used love triangles to expose the imbalance between male and female desire in a patriarchal society. Idalia is a young woman at the center of Venetian social life. Having lost her mother at a young age, she lacks the guidance necessary for navigating the world of courtship. When her father rejects her suitor Florez, a handsome, rakish man, Idalia turns her attentions to Don Ferdinand, with whom she maintains a steady correspondence. When his friend Henriquez falls in love with her, the two men decide to fight for Idalia’s affections. Their duel ends in death for both men, leaving Idalia to turn her attentions elsewhere. Soon, she attempts to enter a convent in order to live chastely, beyond the reach of men. But the world has other plans. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Eliza Haywood’s Idalia: Or, The Unfortunate Mistress is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Fantomina charts an unnamed female protagonist's pursuit of the charming, shallow Beauplaisir. Dealing with major themes such as identity, class and sexual desire, and first published in 1725, Fantomina subverts the popular 'persecuted maiden' narrative, and reaches a climax which would have shocked its contemporary readership.