Haywood’s novel is the story of the beautiful Princess Eovaai. Groomed for the throne by her father, who teaches her Lockean notions of liberty, she is overthrown, enmeshed in civil war, and then magically transported to a foreign land by an evil man. Part magician, part politician, he plots to marry her for political reasons. The fascinating reflexive structure of The Adventures of Eovaai incorporates argumentative intrusions (by the Translator, an Historian, etc.), interweaves political and amatory storylines, and blends a wild mix of genres.

Haywood's novel is the story of the beautiful Princess Eovaai. Groomed for the throne by her father, who teaches her Lockean notions of liberty, she is overthrown, enmeshed in civil war, and then magically transported to a foreign land by an evil man. Part magician, part politician, he plots to marry her for political reasons. The fascinating reflexive structure of The Adventures of Eovaai incorporates argumentative intrusions (by the Translator, an Historian, etc.), interweaves political and amatory storylines, and blends a wild mix of genres.

While under arrest in 1750 on suspicion of producing a seditious pamphlet Eliza Haywood insisted she ‘never wrote any thing in a political way’. This study of the life and works, the first full-length biography of Haywood in nearly a century, takes the measure of her duplicity.