The Fortunate Foundlings

"The Fortunate Foundlings" is a picaresque novel from 1744 featuring twins Horatio and Louisa, whose journey in the world differs because of their gender. They were both abandoned in infancy and adopted, but soon leave their carer to go off on their one. Whilst Louisa must fight to preserve her virtue in a man’s world, her brother joins the army. This is an eighteenth century rollercoaster - action packed, passionate, melodramatic, and at times unashamedly sentimental. Eliza Haywood (1693– 1756), née Elizabeth Fowler, was a British author, actress and publisher, who was rediscovered in the 1980s. Little is known about the author, who herself left conflicting information about her life, and was extremely secretive about her personal life. She was a prolific author of romances and other novel’s focusing on women’s point of views, status, and rights. Among her most famous works are "Love in Excess; Or, The Fatal Enquiry" (1720), "Fantomina; Or Love in a Maze" (1725) and "The Anti-Pamela; Or Feign’d Innocence Detected" (1741). Haywood is an important figure of 18th century literature.

The Fortunate Foundlings was one of Eliza Haywood’s more successful novels, though it remains one of her lesser known works. Ittells the story of a brother and sister left as babies in the care of a gentleman. Like many another eighteenth-century foundling, the siblings leave their guardian behind and make their own way in the world: Horatio as a soldier and Louisa as a lady’s companion, finding love and adventure in the battlefields and courts of Europe. Haywood uses the Continental setting to explore different customs—especially those that might benefit women—and different political choices. Also published here for the first time is her anonymous pamphlet of 1750, A Letter from H--- G---g, Esq., ostensibly a letter from Charles Edward Stuart’s aide-de-camp, travelling with him after the prince’s expulsion from France. Seemingly a straightforward expression of Jacobite sympathies, it also encodes support for the Patriot cause of the 1740s and ’50s. Both works were translated and adapted, having an extended afterlife in the writings of Crébillon fils, Edward Kimber and Robert Louis Stevenson. They add to our expanding sense of the author’s range, influence and political agenda.

Eliza Haywood (1693-1756) (born Elizabeth Fowler) was an English writer, actress and publisher. Described as "prolific even by the standards of a prolific age," Haywood wrote and published over seventy works during her lifetime including fiction, drama, translations, poetry, conduct literature and periodicals. Haywood is a significant figure of the long 18th century as one of the important founders of the novel in English. Today she is studied primarily as a novelist. The Fortunate Foundlings (1744) is the genuine history of a collection of characters, and contains many wonderful accidents that befel them in their travels. It is a picaresque novel in which two children of opposite sex experience the world differently, according to their gender.

This novels tells the story of orphan siblings left young in the care of a gentleman. When a brother and sister are older they must leave their guardian and make their own way out in the world, Horatio as a soldier and Louisa as a lady's companion. They travel to various battlefields and courts of Europe. They both experience new surprising customs in other lands, new passions, influences, adventures and love. In this novel the author explores different customs in the changing European countries (especially those that might benefit women) and different political views in other lands at that time.

Reproduction of the original: The Fortunate Foundlings by Eliza Fowler Haywood