I was one of those rotten kids who taught himself to read at the age of three, fifty-(ahem) years ago, and I studied literature in college. So there were thousands of books in my life and I had never heard of Eliza Haywood before now, so you can imagine my surprise when I learned that she was one of the most popular and successful authors of her day. That's not to speak of the fact that she was a woman at a time when women's artistic abilities were generally overlooked, if not just plain ignored. And yet her "Love In Excess" very nearly outstripped "Robinson Crusoe" in sales and popularity. So much for me boasting about my familiarity regarding English literature.
"Love In Excess" deals with the amorous adventures of Count D'Elmont, a successful French soldier who returns to Paris after the wars to discover that he has no experience with love. This puts him at a serious disadvantage in peacetime, because he is so beautiful in appearance that every woman of any consequence that he runs across falls madly in love with him on the spot. Because he is an ambitious man, eager to put his stamp on his times, he doesn't have the luxury of giving himself to just anyone, and he has a sufficiently generous nature to want to avoid causing pain. Because of his inexperience, he stumbles in his first romantic encounters, but soon falls hopelessly in love with the daughter of an important friend. Unfortunately this occurs a few months after his marriage to a rich woman who can help him get ahead, but is of a naturally jealous frame of mind. Hijincks, as always, ensue, particularly as various of his close friends find themselves in various romantic entanglements complete with obstacles of their own.
This edition's editor, David Oakleaf, points out that unlike her contemporaries, Haywood showed that the women of her day had the same desires as the men, but were not socially permitted to act on them. And of course, women have only had the freedom to do that to any extent in the past fifty years or so, if then – and of course if you think women are free to express sexual desire even today, you're going to have to explain the ongoing curiosity about the way female rape victims dressed when attacked. So you can imagine how stifled Haywood's characters must feel when they aren't socially permitted even to say they love some man, let alone act on those feelings. As for Haywood, it's been suggested that "Love In Excess" has failed to maintain its popularity over the last 300 or so years exactly because it's as frank as it is about female desire.
This is a pity, because the novel is exceptionally well-constructed and well-written. Thus, in the first part, D'Elmont discovers the world of romance for the first time, finds it enjoyable and exciting, but soon discovers that it's all too easy for him to leave a trail of hurt feelings and ruined hopes behind him. He decides that love is not for him and marries a rich woman who loves him to distraction, but in the second part falls passionately in love with someone else and discovers what all the fuss is about. Despite his best efforts to protect himself, his wife, and his love from the consequences, he discovers that there's no remedy for the damage he inadvertently causes, and once again decides to give up his hopes and goes traveling. In the third part he finds that others suffer in a similar fashion as he does, and by his genuine efforts to help, rescues his friends and himself. And so, as in many well-constructed stories, we come full circle in the most satisfying way.
Haywood falls prey to the typical fault of her time and social class; she seems to believe that love is the most exalted of feelings, and therefore available only to the upper classes. She also draws an equivalence between love and ambition, suggesting that both motives are, or at least can be, characterized by the most elevated feelings, a belief about ambition that today's reader might find just a little hard to swallow. At the same time, she describes love as something both men and women find it impossible to fight against. Her characters constantly succumb to their romantic desires, however unreasonable they may be. If D'Elmont, for instance, falls hard for the daughter of his deceased mentor, who he has sworn to take under his protection as guardian, the narrator does not blame him; his feelings are of the highest nobility and thus cannot be denigrated, especially compared to the behavior of some others who also fall in love with her. And if we of the modern world read Haywood's description of his elevated, though fiery, emotions and suspect that he's just horny, who's to say Haywood is wrong and we're right? At the least, we have to admit that our modern interpretation of that "fire" makes Haywood's narration more funny than she probably intended, and at least she has the grace to admit that women are perfectly capable of feeling the same way, sometimes moreso.
Despite its occasional melodramatic tendencies and its bias toward one social class, "Love In Excess" in its attention to the rights and feelings of women was ahead of its time. I'm not sure it's safe to say that this is because the author is female, but I wouldn't want to discount that possibility either.
Benshlomo says, We haven't yet quite learned that it's worth listening to those that our ancestors ignored, have we?
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