The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless / Edition 1

by Eliza Haywood, Christine Blouch

Overview

“A comic investigation of city morals and manners develops into a dark critique of women’s vulnerability in bourgeois marriage.” — Ros Ballaster, Mansfield College, Oxford University

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781551111476
Publisher:	Broadview Press
Publication date:	05/25/1998
Series:	Literary Texts Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	656
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Eliza Haywood (1693-1756) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, actress, and publisher. Notoriously private, Haywood is a major figure in English literature about whom little is known for certain. Scholars believe she was born Eliza Fowler in Shropshire or London, but are unclear on the socioeconomic status of her family. She first appears in the public record in 1715, when she performed in an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens in Dublin. Famously portrayed as a woman of ill-repute in Alexander Pope’s Dunciad (1743), it is believed that Haywood had been deserted by her husband to raise their children alone. Pope’s account is likely to have come from poet Richard Savage, with whom Haywood was friends for several years beginning in 1719 before their falling out. This period coincided with the publication of Love in Excess (1719-1720), Haywood’s first and best-known novel. Alongside Delarivier Manley and Aphra Behn, Haywood was considered one of the leading romance writers of her time. Haywood’s novels, such as Idalia; or The Unfortunate Mistress (1723) and The Distress’d Orphan; or Love in a Madhouse (1726), often explore the domination and oppression of women by men. The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751), one of Haywood’s final novels, is a powerful story of a woman who leaves her abusive husband, experiences independence, and is pressured to marry once more. Highly regarded by feminist scholars today, Haywood was a prolific writer who revolutionized the English novel while raising a family, running a pamphlet shop in Covent Gardens, and pursuing a career as an actress and writer for some of London’s most prominent theaters.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
A Note on the Text

Works of Eliza Haywood

The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless

Appendix A: Haywood’s First Biographer

Appendix B: Review of Betsy Thoughtless
Monthly Review (1751)
Haywood’s response (from The History of Jenny and Jemmy Jessamy)

Appendix C: Betsy Thoughtless on Trial
Proceedings at the Court of Censorial Enquiry, Etc. (1752)

Appendix D: Reading Haywood in her own century
Clara Reeve, The Progress of Romance (1785)

Appendix E: A Stage Adaptation of Betsy Thoughtless
Robert Hitchcock, The Coquette; or, The Mistakes of the Heart (1777)

Select Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Both scholarly and readable, Christine Blouch’s edition of Eliza Haywood’s The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless is a welcome addition to the expanding library of neglected and undervalued women novelists of the early eighteenth century that will contribute to the current re-assessment of Haywood’s work.” — John Richetti, University of Pennsylvania

“Eliza Haywood transforms the familiar tale of the reformed coquette. A comic investigation of city morals and manners develops into a dark critique of women’s vulnerability in bourgeois marriage. Christine Blouch’s informative edition clarifies the contexts of Haywood’s textual, political and personal relations.” — Ros Ballaster, Mansfield College, Oxford University

“Simply the best edition to date of Haywood’s fiction. The text and apparatus are equally impressive.” — Alexander Pettit, University of North Texas

From the Publisher

"Simply the best edition to date of Haywood's fiction. The text and apparatus are equally impressive."

Alexander Pettit University of North Texas

"Eliza Haywood transforms the familiar tale of the reformed coquette. A comic investigation of city morals and manners develops into a dark critique of women's vulnerability in bourgeois marriage. Christine Blouch's informative edition clarifies the contexts of Haywood's textual, political and personal relations."

Ros Ballaster Mansfield College

"Both scholarly and readable, Christine Blouch's edition of Eliza Haywood's The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless is a welcome addition to the expanding library of neglected and undervalued women novelists of the early eighteenth century that will contribute to the current re-assessment of Haywood's work."

John Richetti University of Pennsylvania