Eliza Haywood: Questions in the life and works.

Abstract

The biography of prolific early novelist Eliza Haywood (1693?-1756) is largely obscure, and her works have suffered a similar fate. The politics of literary reputation have been consistent since the eighteenth century in consigning both the works and the author to a largely anecdotal role in literary history. This study reconsiders Haywood's life, her place in literary history, and the place of her works in critical discourse of her century and our own. New biographical and textual information significantly alters known accounts of Haywood's life and works, and a series of case studies and analyses demonstrates how this primary research affects critical assessments of Haywood. Specific issues addressed here include the dialogical relationship of Haywood's late works, the products of what has been called a conservative second career, with the more explicitly sensational early works; the biographical background and critical legacy of Alexander Pope's treatment of the figure Eliza in the Dunciad; and Haywood's alleged disappearance from print in the 1730s. Lesser-known works that argue for a critical reappraisal, including The Dramatic Historiographer, The British Recluse, and numerous political publications, are also considered in light of her literary and personal reputation. The City Widow; or, Love in a Butt (1729) and Memoirs of a Man of Honour (1747) are added to Haywood's oeuvre, as are numerous editions of known texts. Tentative attributions, including Anti-Pamela and Mr. Taste, the Poetical Fop, are discussed, as are titles that must be subtracted from the list of those sometimes attributed to her. New biographical information corrects the misidentification of Haywood's husband as cleric Valentine Haywood, confirms the existence of two children assigned to her by tradition, and identifies new possibilities for her birth date and family identity. The last chapter of the study constitutes the first comprehensive annotated critical bibliography available on Haywood's career. The discrete terms of biographical research, literary history, and critical practice as they have affected Haywood since the eighteenth century are explicitly destabilized in these investigations, which demonstrate how interrelated assessments of Haywood's life and works demand reconsideration.