The Passionate Fictions of Eliza Haywood: Essays on Her Life and Work

by Kirsten T. Saxton, Rebecca P. Bocchicchio

Overview

The most prolific woman writer of the eighteenth century, Eliza Haywood (1693-1756?) was a key player in the history of the English novel. Along with her contemporary Defoe, she did more than any other writer to create a market for fiction prior to the emergence of Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett.

Also one of Augustan England's most popular authors, Haywood came to fame in 1719 with the publication of her first novel, Love in Excess. In addition to writing fiction, she was a playwright, translator, bookseller, actress, theater critic, and editor of The Female Spectator, the first English periodical written by women for women. Though tremendously popular, her novels and plays from the 1720s and 30s scandalized the reading public with explicit portrayals of female sexuality and led others to call her "the Great Arbitress of Passion."

Essays in this collection explore themes such as the connections between Haywood's early and late work, her experiments with the form of the novel, her involvement in party politics, her use of myth and plot devices, and her intense interest in the imbalance of power between men and women. Distinguished scholars such as Paula Backschieder, Felicity Nussbaum, and John Richetti approach Haywood from a number of theoretical and topical positions, leading the way in a crucial reexamination of her work. The Passionate Fictions of Eliza Haywood examines the formal and ideological complexities of her prose and demonstrates how Haywood's texts deft traditional schematization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813121611
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	07/20/2000
Pages:	378
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.25(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	vii
	Acknowledgments	viii
	Introduction	1
	The Story of Eliza Haywood's Novels: Caveats and Questions	19
	Collusive Resistance: Sexual Agency and Partisan Politics in Love in Excess	48
	Masquing Desire: The Politics of Passion in Eliza Haywood's Fantomina	69
	"Blushing, Trembling, and Incapable of Defense": The Hysterics of The British Recluse	95
	Telling Tales: Eliza Haywood and the Crimes of Seduction in The City Jilt, or, the Alderman turn'd Beau	115
	A Gender of Opposition: Eliza Haywood's Scandal Fiction	143
	"A Race of Angels": Castration and Exoticism in Three Exotic Tales by Eliza Haywood	168
	Speechless: Haywood's Deaf and Dumb Projector	194
	"Haywood," Secret History, and the Politics of Attribution	217
	Histories by Eliza Haywood and Henry Fielding: Imitation and Adaptation	240
	Shooting Blanks: Potency, Parody, and Eliza Haywood's The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless	259
	"Shady bowers! and purling streams!--Heavens, how insipid!": Eliza Haywood's Artful Pastoral	283
	"What Ann Lang Read": Eliza Haywood and Her Readers	300
	Works Cited	326
	Contributors	348
	Index	351

Editorial Reviews

Marks a new stage in Haywood criticism.... The Haywood that emerges from this collection is as varied and complex as the different approaches now being taken to her work.

Review of English Studies

After reading the professionally written essays that provide both historically based analysis and close readings of single texts, we see Eliza Haywood in a different light.

East-Central Intelligencer

Will be required reading not just for students of eighteenth-century literature but also for feminist critics and historians of the novel.

Sandra M. Gilbert

The editors approach Haywood from a number of theoretical positions, leading the way in a crucial re-examination of her work.

Educational Book Review

The deliberative and complex Haywood who emerges from this collection is a welcome advance over earlier images of a lightweight hack driven by market forces.

Studies in the Novel

Saxton and Bocchicchio deserve congratulations and applause for their initiative in putting together this long-needed collection of critical essays on Eliza Haywood. The great strength of the collection is its range. It will be welcomed as an extremely important contribution by a large and varied community of scholars and critics.

Jerry C. Beasley

Provides an excellent comprehensive variety of approaches to the work of Eliza Haywood, whose novels and writing have in the past few years come to be essentially canonical.

Martha Bowden

Serves to confirm the increasingly canonical status of Haywood.

Eighteenth-Century Studies

The publication of this welcome volume of essays marks a pivotal moment in Haywood scholarship.... Much in the collection will make a decisive contribution.

Eighteenth-Century Fiction

"After reading the professionally written essays that provide both historically based analysis and close readings of single texts, we see Eliza Haywood in a different light." — East-Central Intelligencer

"The editors approach Haywood from a number of theoretical positions, leading the way in a crucial re-examination of her work." — Educational Book Review

"The publication of this welcome volume of essays marks a pivotal moment in Haywood scholarship.... Much in the collection will make a decisive contribution." — Eighteenth-Century Fiction

"Serves to confirm the increasingly canonical status of Haywood." — Eighteenth-Century Studies

"Saxton and Bocchicchio deserve congratulations and applause for their initiative in putting together this long-needed collection of critical essays on Eliza Haywood. The great strength of the collection is its range. It will be welcomed as an extremely important contribution by a large and varied community of scholars and critics." — Jerry C. Beasley

"Provides an excellent comprehensive variety of approaches to the work of Eliza Haywood, whose novels and writing have in the past few years come to be essentially canonical." — Martha Bowden

"Marks a new stage in Haywood criticism.... The Haywood that emerges from this collection is as varied and complex as the different approaches now being taken to her work." — Review of English Studies

"Will be required reading not just for students of eighteenth-century literature but also for feminist critics and historians of the novel." — Sandra M. Gilbert

"The deliberative and complex Haywood who emerges from this collection is a welcome advance over earlier images of a lightweight hack driven by market forces." — Studies in the Novel

From the Publisher

Essays in this collection explore themes such as the connections between Haywood's (1693-1756) early and late work, her experiments with the form of the novel, her involvement in party politics, her use of myth and plot devices, and her intense interest in the imbalance of power between men and women. The contributors<-->scholars in English and women's studies from universities in the United States and the United Kingdom<-->consider her life and her work from a number of theoretical and topical positions. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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