author
Eliza Fowler Haywood
d. 1756
An early 18th-century English writer, actress, and publisher, she was one of the era’s most prolific literary voices. Best known for popular fiction such as Love in Excess and for The Female Spectator, she helped shape the rise of women’s writing in English.
4 Audiobooks
Love in Excess; or, the Fatal Enquiry A Novel in Three Parts
by Eliza Fowler Haywood
The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless
by Eliza Fowler Haywood
Life's Progress Through the Passions; Or, The Adventures of Natura
by Eliza Fowler Haywood
About the author
Born Elizabeth Fowler around 1693 and dying on February 25, 1756, in London, she built a remarkably varied career as a writer, actress, and publisher. Much about her early life remains uncertain, but scholars and reference works agree that she became a major presence in British literary culture during the first half of the 18th century.
She wrote across an impressive range of forms, including novels, plays, poetry, translations, periodicals, and conduct literature. Her breakthrough came with Love in Excess (1719–1720), and she later became especially notable for The Female Spectator, a pioneering periodical written for women.
Although she was long overshadowed in literary history, modern scholarship has restored her reputation as an important and influential author. Today she is widely recognized not just for her productivity, but for the way her work captured the energy, scandal, and changing social world of her time.