Eliza Haywood (1693–1756)
Author of Love in Excess
About the Author
Works by Eliza Haywood
Fantomina: Or, Love in a Maze. Being a Secret History of an Amour Between Two Persons of Condition (1724) 71 copies, 5 reviews
Four Novels: The Force of Nature; Lasselia; The Injur's Husband; The Perplex'd Dutchess (1983) 3 copies
Love-letters on all occasions lately passed between persons of distinction. Collected by Mrs. Eliza Haywood. (2010) 2 copies
Mujeres de principios : tres novelas cortas de autoras inglesas de los iglos XVII y XVIII (2008) 2 copies
The wife. By Mira, one of the authors of The Female Spectator, and Epstles for Ladies. (2010) 1 copy
Persecuted virtue: or, The lober. A true secret history. Writ at the request of lady of quality 1 copy
The history of Miss Betsy Thoughtless. In four volumes. The fourth edition. Volume 3 of 4 (2012) 1 copy
The secret history of the present intrigues of the court of Caramania. The second edition corrected. (2010) 1 copy
Associated Works
British Women Writers: An Anthology from the Fourteenth Century to the Present (1989) — Contributor — 61 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Haywood, Eliza
- Other names
- Haywood, Eliza Fowler
- Birthdate
- 1693
- Date of death
- 1756-02-25
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- novelist
poet
actor
publisher - Organizations
- The Fair Triumvirate of Wit
- Short biography
- Eliza Haywood, née Fowler, was an English writer, actor, and publisher. Since the 1980s, her literary works have been gaining in recognition and interest. Described as "prolific even by the standards of a prolific age" (Blouch, intro 7), Haywood wrote and published more than 70 works during her lifetime, including fiction, drama, translations, poetry, conduct literature, and articles for periodicals. Today she is studied primarily as a founder of the novel in English. She achieved success in her own day as the publisher of The Female Spectator, the first periodical to be written by a woman, and with her realistic novels The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751) and The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy (1753). With Delarivier Manley and Aphra Behn, she was called one of The Fair triumvirate of Wit by poet Rev. James Sterling.
- Nationality
- UK
- Places of residence
- Shropshire, England, UK
London, England, UK
Dublin, Ireland - Place of death
- London, England, UK
- Burial location
- Westminster, London, England, UK
- Map Location
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
Until I read Eliza Haywood, when I thought of early 18th century British literature, it was the dry and tedious stuff that came to mind. Yanno, the pamphlets by Locke or Rousseau, or even a dustier, ickier version of Dickens or Eliot. I wasn't fully aware of how the culture was so different prior to the Romantics and Queen Victoria, but if anything proves me wrong, it's Haywood.
Fantomina is the title work for this collection, and I remember it most clearly of the works. It is bawdy and show more hilarious and absolutely nothing like the stodgy Victorian novels of a hundred years later, or even the didactic stories from someone like Penelope Aubin.
It's from the Augustan Era of British literature, which is characterised by the development of the novel and satire, plus other things which can all be found at the helpful Wikipedia page. What this means for Fantomina is that it makes no efforts at providing a moral and is terribly funny.
The basic plot is that an aristocratic woman is jealous of the way lower class women are allowed to behave, especially the prostitutes. She'd like to be able to behave without the constrictions of her class and see what it's like, so she dresses like a prostitute with a mask and accidentally engages a client. Rather than reveal herself as an aristocrat, she gives the name of "Fantomina" and rents a room so that she need not break the appointment. She lets herself be talked into sex and enjoys it so much that she continues to get into costume and meet her new lover - until he grows weary of her.
Not one to just let him get away, Fantomina creates another persona and tricks Beauplaisir into sleeping with her - while still maintaining the previous one and the relationship it entailed. (That is to say, he cheats on Fantomina with Fantomina.) But men are fickle and this one is no exception, so goes the story, leading to Fantomina creating two additional personas and tricking her lover into staying with her twice more - again, while still keeping up with the other personas/relationships.
Eventually, Fantomina grows tired of the ruses and decides she's had enough of Beauplaisir, and what happens to finish the story is probably the best part of all.
Eliza Haywood swiftly became one of my favorite authors after reading Fantomina, and I'm looking forward to reading more of her writing. show less
Fantomina is the title work for this collection, and I remember it most clearly of the works. It is bawdy and show more hilarious and absolutely nothing like the stodgy Victorian novels of a hundred years later, or even the didactic stories from someone like Penelope Aubin.
It's from the Augustan Era of British literature, which is characterised by the development of the novel and satire, plus other things which can all be found at the helpful Wikipedia page. What this means for Fantomina is that it makes no efforts at providing a moral and is terribly funny.
The basic plot is that an aristocratic woman is jealous of the way lower class women are allowed to behave, especially the prostitutes. She'd like to be able to behave without the constrictions of her class and see what it's like, so she dresses like a prostitute with a mask and accidentally engages a client. Rather than reveal herself as an aristocrat, she gives the name of "Fantomina" and rents a room so that she need not break the appointment. She lets herself be talked into sex and enjoys it so much that she continues to get into costume and meet her new lover - until he grows weary of her.
Not one to just let him get away, Fantomina creates another persona and tricks Beauplaisir into sleeping with her - while still maintaining the previous one and the relationship it entailed. (That is to say, he cheats on Fantomina with Fantomina.) But men are fickle and this one is no exception, so goes the story, leading to Fantomina creating two additional personas and tricking her lover into staying with her twice more - again, while still keeping up with the other personas/relationships.
Eventually, Fantomina grows tired of the ruses and decides she's had enough of Beauplaisir, and what happens to finish the story is probably the best part of all.
Eliza Haywood swiftly became one of my favorite authors after reading Fantomina, and I'm looking forward to reading more of her writing. show less
I never got to write a proper review about this book, and I still don't really have the time, but let me try: Love in Excess is delightful. It took a while to get through, seeing as it was published in 1719, but it was the most fun "historical" and "classic" books I've ever read.
If you need any other proof that 18th-century mass culture was bawdy, fun, and downright frivolous compared to their Victorian descendants, this is the text for you. It's camp really--Here we have bodice-ripping, show more disguised identities, fatal love triangles, and every and other ribald and ridiculous scenario you can basically think off. Modern day romance novels have much to owe to Haywood, and seeing the seeds of such a lusty genre was worth the page-long paragraphs that truly tested me at times. I laughed a lot, groaned a lot, rolled my eyes a lot, and yet still kept turning the pages to see what would happen. I loved it.
Thank you Ms. Haywood, you wrote a gem. show less
If you need any other proof that 18th-century mass culture was bawdy, fun, and downright frivolous compared to their Victorian descendants, this is the text for you. It's camp really--Here we have bodice-ripping, show more disguised identities, fatal love triangles, and every and other ribald and ridiculous scenario you can basically think off. Modern day romance novels have much to owe to Haywood, and seeing the seeds of such a lusty genre was worth the page-long paragraphs that truly tested me at times. I laughed a lot, groaned a lot, rolled my eyes a lot, and yet still kept turning the pages to see what would happen. I loved it.
Thank you Ms. Haywood, you wrote a gem. show less
I love when people assume that any novel that was a bestseller in Jane Austen's time must have been quaint and adorable. That's when I get to tell them about all the prostitution and seduction and attempted abortions and attempted date-rape and out-of-wedlock babies.
True, Miss Betsy Thoughtless was a little before Austen's time – it was published in 1751, and Austen was born in 1775. But Eliza Haywood was widely known and eagerly read by Austen's contemporaries. I even found traces of her show more influence in the humorous writing Austen did as a teenager. (Stop me now, or I'll nerd out all over the place.)
I think one reason Betsy Thoughtless was so popular is that the female characters are completely human. Sure, they talk funny. But they like it when guys buy them gifts and talk about how hot they are. (Note to the curious: A pet squirrel was the kind of present that would move you up to the top of the list when it came to Guys The Girls Want At Their Next Party. Fer realz.) These women don't want to get married right away, because partying and flirting all night is fine if you're a single woman but What A Ho territory once you have a husband.
Don't get me wrong – Eliza Haywood wanted to teach her female readers some strong moral lessons. Eighteenth-century women really did have to be careful how far they went with a guy, because ruining your reputation meant ruining your shot at a respectable marriage and you couldn't just decide, what the heck, you'll go back to college and take charge of your own life. Career options were horribly limited. Being a single woman meant, at best, being looked down upon socially. And (as Austen herself said and knew from experience) single women in those times had a dreadful propensity to be poor.
And if you think single mothers have it rough now, try being one in eighteenth-century England.
But reading Eliza Haywood is very different from reading Samuel Richardson's Pamela, another popular novel of the time. Pamela has no discernible carnal desires, and only has to defend her virginity from those who would try to steal it from her – there's no way she'd give it away before her wedding night. She'd never feel the slightest temptation to do so. Sex? Fun? Only if you're a guy.
Eliza Haywood knew that women were just as tempted as men were to live, um, unchastely. Especially when a sophisticated French guy who knows how to please a lady comes along. In Pamela, he would have gotten his way only by forcing it. In Miss Betsy Thoughtless, Betsy listens with horror as her friend describes being seduced because being seduced is fun:
"In a word, my dear Miss Betsy, from one liberty he proceeded to another; till, at last, there was nothing left for him to ask, or me to grant!"
In Pamela's universe, this would have been a one-time Fall From Grace, and probably a fatal one. In Betsy's, her friend (the aptly named Miss Forward) has an affair with the guy all summer, and only stops, regretfully, when he leaves town.
I'm not recommending that anyone who doesn't love or live in the eighteenth century run out and grab this book. I read it as part of my research for a Regency novel. I'm the kind of person who reads Austen for fun, and even I found this a bit of a slog at times. The plot moves along briskly enough, but the language is a bit dense.
Just know that this time period wasn't all tea parties and ladylike behavior. show less
True, Miss Betsy Thoughtless was a little before Austen's time – it was published in 1751, and Austen was born in 1775. But Eliza Haywood was widely known and eagerly read by Austen's contemporaries. I even found traces of her show more influence in the humorous writing Austen did as a teenager. (Stop me now, or I'll nerd out all over the place.)
I think one reason Betsy Thoughtless was so popular is that the female characters are completely human. Sure, they talk funny. But they like it when guys buy them gifts and talk about how hot they are. (Note to the curious: A pet squirrel was the kind of present that would move you up to the top of the list when it came to Guys The Girls Want At Their Next Party. Fer realz.) These women don't want to get married right away, because partying and flirting all night is fine if you're a single woman but What A Ho territory once you have a husband.
Don't get me wrong – Eliza Haywood wanted to teach her female readers some strong moral lessons. Eighteenth-century women really did have to be careful how far they went with a guy, because ruining your reputation meant ruining your shot at a respectable marriage and you couldn't just decide, what the heck, you'll go back to college and take charge of your own life. Career options were horribly limited. Being a single woman meant, at best, being looked down upon socially. And (as Austen herself said and knew from experience) single women in those times had a dreadful propensity to be poor.
And if you think single mothers have it rough now, try being one in eighteenth-century England.
But reading Eliza Haywood is very different from reading Samuel Richardson's Pamela, another popular novel of the time. Pamela has no discernible carnal desires, and only has to defend her virginity from those who would try to steal it from her – there's no way she'd give it away before her wedding night. She'd never feel the slightest temptation to do so. Sex? Fun? Only if you're a guy.
Eliza Haywood knew that women were just as tempted as men were to live, um, unchastely. Especially when a sophisticated French guy who knows how to please a lady comes along. In Pamela, he would have gotten his way only by forcing it. In Miss Betsy Thoughtless, Betsy listens with horror as her friend describes being seduced because being seduced is fun:
"In a word, my dear Miss Betsy, from one liberty he proceeded to another; till, at last, there was nothing left for him to ask, or me to grant!"
In Pamela's universe, this would have been a one-time Fall From Grace, and probably a fatal one. In Betsy's, her friend (the aptly named Miss Forward) has an affair with the guy all summer, and only stops, regretfully, when he leaves town.
I'm not recommending that anyone who doesn't love or live in the eighteenth century run out and grab this book. I read it as part of my research for a Regency novel. I'm the kind of person who reads Austen for fun, and even I found this a bit of a slog at times. The plot moves along briskly enough, but the language is a bit dense.
Just know that this time period wasn't all tea parties and ladylike behavior. show less
This book is so, so, so, SO much better than Pamela!
In all seriousness, Richardson's Pamela pissed me off on so many levels, and so when I read about the reaction to that book from others - not here in the 21st century but back in the 18th century - I was gratified to see that people back then got pissed off over it.
It's nice to know that even back then, in a time where women had few if any rights, Pamela rustled a lot of jimmies, inspiring the two stories that make up this book.
The Shamela show more story is much more licentious than Anti-Pamela, but both stories basically depict Pamela as a gold-digger while Mr. B is a dopey but good-hearted guy. Which is not much better than the original Pamela, but at least these two stories are more entertaining as they're meant to be satire.
3.5/5 stars.
I could not give it a higher rating because the Pamela in both stories, especially the Shamela one, comes across as a cunt and I wish that the author had taken a more balanced view of her in his satire. show less
In all seriousness, Richardson's Pamela pissed me off on so many levels, and so when I read about the reaction to that book from others - not here in the 21st century but back in the 18th century - I was gratified to see that people back then got pissed off over it.
It's nice to know that even back then, in a time where women had few if any rights, Pamela rustled a lot of jimmies, inspiring the two stories that make up this book.
The Shamela show more story is much more licentious than Anti-Pamela, but both stories basically depict Pamela as a gold-digger while Mr. B is a dopey but good-hearted guy. Which is not much better than the original Pamela, but at least these two stories are more entertaining as they're meant to be satire.
3.5/5 stars.
I could not give it a higher rating because the Pamela in both stories, especially the Shamela one, comes across as a cunt and I wish that the author had taken a more balanced view of her in his satire. show less
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