Eliza Haywood (1693-1756) was one of the most successful writers of her time; indeed, the two most popular English novels in the early eighteenth-century were Robinson Crusoe and Haywood's first novel, Love in Excess. As this edition enables modern readers to discover, its enormous success is easy to understand. Love in Excess is a well crafted novel in which the claims of love and ambition are pursued through multiple storylines until the heroine engineers a melodramatic conclusion.

Haywood's frankness about female sexuality may explain the later neglect of Love in Excess. (In contrast, her accomplished domestic novel, The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, has remained available.) Love in Excess and its reception provide a lively and valuable record of the challenge that female desire posed to social decorum.

For the second Broadview edition, the appendix of eighteenth-century responses to Haywood has been considerably expanded.

About the Author

David Oakleaf teaches in the Department of English at the University of Calgary. He specializes in fiction, from Eliza Haywood and Jonathan Swift to Laurence Sterne and Frances Burney.

Reviews

"This readable edition of Haywood's blockbuster novel (with Oakleaf's lively, highly informed introduction and clear judicious textual notes) is an important addition to our understanding of the history of the English novel." - Paula Backscheider, Auburn University

Book Information
ISBN 9781551113678
Author Eliza Haywood
Format Paperback
Page Count 296
Imprint Broadview Press Ltd
Publisher Broadview Press Ltd
Weight(grams) 326g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 140mm * 14mm