Fantomina and Other Works by Eliza Haywood

Fantomina and Other Works by Eliza Haywood

This collection of early works by Eliza Haywood includes the well-known novella Fantomina(1725) along with three other short, highly engaging Haywood works: The Tea-Table(1725), Reflections on the Various Effects of Love(1726), and Love-Letters on All Occasions(1730). In these writings, Haywood arouses the vicarious experience of erotic love while exploring the ethical and social issues evoked by sexual passion.

This Broadview edition includes an introduction that focuses on Haywood's life and career and on the status of prose fiction in the early eighteenth century. Also included are appendices of contextual materials from the period comprising writings by Haywood on female conduct, eighteenth-century pornography (from Venus in the Cloister), and a source text (Nahum Tate's A Present for the Ladies).

“Fantomina and Other Works is a valuable addition to the impressive range of Haywood texts published by Broadview Press and a welcome contribution to Haywood scholarshipThe introduction and annotation to this edition are admirably adapted to help the reader understand the texts in all their richness and complexity. Fantomina itself is a delightfully outrageous and subversive novel, intriguing in its moral ambiguity, and unforgettable for its ingenious and determined heroine. It is by far the most enjoyable introduction to Haywood and the eighteenth-century novel that one could hope for.” — Patrick Spedding, Monash University

Eliza Haywood (1693?-1756) was a novelist, bookseller, playwright, editor of periodicals, and occasional actress.