Most probably, however, the few attempts at analysis of character or interrelation of character and plot were of little concern both to the author of emotional fiction and to her readers.  The romancer’s purpose was not to reveal an accurate picture of life and manners, but to thrill the susceptible bosom by scenes of tender love, amorous rapture, or desperate revenge.  The department of sensationalism especially exploited by women writers and generally allowed to be most suited to their genius is sufficiently indicated by the words typographically emphasized on the title-page of one of Mrs. Haywood’s few essays.  “Reflections on the Various Effects of LOVE, According to the contrary Dispositions of the Persons on whom it operates.  Illustrated with a great many Examples of the good and bad Consequences of that PASSION.  Collected from the best Ancient and Modern HISTORIES.  Intermix’d with the latest AMOURS and INTRIGUES of Persons of the First Rank of both Sexes, of a certain Island adjacent to the Kingdom of Utopia.  Written by the Author of The Mercenary Lover, and the Memoirs of the said Island.  Love is not sin, but where ’tis sinful Love.  Never before made Publick.”  To any contemporary connoisseur of hectic literature such a feast of Love, Passion, Histories, Amours, and Intrigues as this, offered in the shop of N. Dobb in the Strand for the small price of one shilling, must have been irresistible.  No less moving was the appeal of Eliza’s fiction to such Biddy Tipkins and Polly Honeycombes as delighted in a tale of amorous adventure, particularly if it was set in the glittering atmosphere of the court.  A typical story of intrigues among the great is “Lasselia:  or, the Self-Abandoned” (1723).

The heroine, niece of Madame de Montespan, finding herself in danger of becoming her aunt’s rival in the affections of Louis XIV, goes secretly into the country to visit her friends M. and Mme Valier, where she falls in love with De L’Amye, a married gentleman.  Summoned back to court by the amorous monarch, Lasselia chooses rather to flee from the protection of her friends in the disguise of a pilgrim, and led by lucky chance casts herself on the protection of her lover, who conveys her to a country inn and there maintains her for some time to their mutual felicity.  Mile Douxmourie, once affianced to De L’Amye but jilted by him, accidentally discovers the pair and immediately communicates with the gallant’s wife, who with the Valiers soon appears to reclaim the recreants.  The wife rages at her husband, he at the perfidious Douxmourie, while Lasselia offers to stab herself.  By the good offices of her friends, however, the girl is persuaded to enter a nunnery where she becomes a pattern of piety.  De L’Amye is reconciled to his wife.