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The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood by George Frisbie Whicher
page 84 of 250 (33%)
the standard of nature, and to the manners of the living world." Realism
is, indeed, far to seek in the brief but intricate tissue of incidents
that made the novel of 1728. To a taste accustomed to "Sir Charles
Grandison," and "Peregrine Pickle," and "The Sentimental Journey" the
rehash of Eliza Haywood's novel must have seemed very far even from the
manners of the world of fiction. The judgment of the "Critical Review"
was still more savage in its accuracy.[17] "This is a republication of a
dull, profligate Haywoodian production, in which all the males are
rogues, and all the females whores, without a glimpse of plot, fable, or
sentiment." In its uncompromising literalness the critic's verdict ranks
with the learned Ascham's opinion of the "Morte D'Arthur,"--except that
it has not been superseded. The same animadversion might be urged
against Defoe's "Colonel Jacque" or "The Fortunate Mistress." If Mrs.
Haywood sinned against the standards of the age to come, she was not out
of touch with the spirit of her own generation.

As a writer she knew but one unfailing recipe for popularity: whatever
she touched must be forthwith gilded with passion. The chief _raison
d'ĂȘtre_ for "The Fair Hebrew: or, a True, but Secret History of Two
Jewish Ladies, Who lately resided in London" (1729) was to gratify the
prejudices of anti-Semitic readers, yet it is hardly distinguishable
from her sentimental love stories.

The young and gay Dorante, going to the synagogue for a lark, is tempted
by the sight of a fair hand to break into the woman's apartment and to
expose himself to the charms of the beautiful Kesiah. He engages her in
a correspondence, but at their first interview she gives him clearly to
understand that he can gain nothing from her but by marriage. Driven by
his unhappy passion, he complies with her demand, and she becomes a
Church of England woman. But once married, Kesiah is too proud to permit
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