Eliza Haywood

Little is known about Haywood's early life. She was probably born in London, and she married in 1710. Few details of her marriage are known, and between 1715 and 1720 she separated from her husband. She worked as an actress in Dublin, Ireland, and in London, where she published her enormously successful first novel, Love in Excess; or, The Fatal Enquiry in three volumes in 1719 and 1720. She also wrote dramas early in her career, but they were less successful, and she focused on novel-writing as a means of supporting herself. Her first works were romantic novels focusing on the travails of high-born ladies seeking to retain their virtue, modeled after the works of Aphra Behn. Haywood was a popular and widely read author for many years, and most of her novels went into several editions during her lifetime. Although her popularity with the reading public declined toward the end of her life, she continued to write and publish until close to her death in 1756.