Abstract
Eliza Haywood's literary debut, Love in Excess (1719), gained a wide readership, was a commercial success, and established Haywood's notorious yet profitable reputation as a scandalous woman novelist. William Chet-wood, Haywood's publisher, introduced and subsequently marketed Love in Excess to the reading public in a deliberate manner. He used dedications, readers' responses, strategic prefatory material, and special editions not only to promote the sales of Love in Excess, but also to construct a glamorous and risque authorial persona for Haywood that subsequently characterized her writing. This paper will examine this prefatory material and consider how and why Chetwood and Haywood achieved the construction of this effectively profitable persona. Through this commodification of her writing and persona Haywood publicized the authenticity and cultural relevance of her work. Her successful participation in the literary marketplace was instrumental in achieving a wide readership not only for herself, but also for other women novelists.
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