The Invisible Spy

by Carol Stewart

Published 1 January 2014
Interest in the work of Eliza Haywood has increased greatly over the last two decades. Though much scholarship is focused on her 'scandalous' early career, this critical edition of The Invisible Spy (1755) adds to the canon of her later, more sophisticated work.

Eliza Haywood was one of the most popular and versatile writers of the eighteenth century. The two novellas in this edition - The Rash Resolve (1724) and Life's Progress (1748) - show her developing and adapting her ideas on the subject of passion and romance. Though superficially presented as cautionary tales, Haywood introduces a feminist slant.