LOVE IN EXCESS OR, THE FATAL ENQUIRY, A NOVEL IN THREE PARTS BY ELIZA FOWLER HAYWOOD

Love in Excess is Eliza Haywood's best known novel. It details the amorous escapades of Count D'Elmont, a rake who becomes reformed over the course of the novel. Love in Excess was a huge bestseller in its time, going through multiple reissues in the four years following its initial publication.Love in Excess is a well-crafted novel in which the claims of love and ambition are pursued through multiple storylines until the heroine engineers a melodramatic conclusion. Love in Excess and its reception provide a lively and valuable record of the challenge that female desire posed to social decorum.