The Art of Seduction
Our Modest and Chaste heroine is seduced by our wily Villain into the Tuileries. That is a French royal palace notable—as palaces tend to be—for its Romantic architecture and Design. The Dastardly villain is experienced enough to know the Effect such a place can have upon loosening the Heart and Other Parts of women. Imagery makes this clear:
“all Nature seem’d to favour his Design, the pleasantness of the Place, the silence of the Night, the sweetness of the Air, perfum’d with a thousand various Odours, wasted by gentle Breezes from adjacent Gardens, compleated the most delightful Scene that ever was, to offer up a Sacrifice to Love; not a breath but flew wing’d with desire, and sent soft thrilling Wishes to the Soul”
Capitalization
Attentive readers (or even casual ones) may have noticed that some of the letters in the description above were capitalized in the middle of sentences just like in the quoted excerpt. Modern readers especially, but even readers at the time were experienced enough to recognize that a capitalizing a word which didn’t start a sentence or follow any other rule of grammar was done to draw extra attention. Over the course of novels written at the time in this fashion, this unusual capitalization actually comes serve as a form of imagery, intended to appeal to the accumulated sensory experience of learning how to read subtext. Take note of which words are capitalized and analyze why:
“The Count’s secret Passion for Melliora grew stronger by his endeavouring to suppress it, and perceiving that she carefully avoided all Opportunities of being alone with him one Moment, since his Behaviour to her in the Garden, he grew almost Distracted with the continual Restraint he was forc’d to put on all his Words and Actions: He durst not Sigh nor send an amorous Glance, for fear of offending her, and alarming his Wive’s jealousy, so lately lull’d to Sleep”
Sex
How to portray the fact that lovers consummate their desires for each other at a time when anything even remotely close to explicit description of sexuality could get an author tossed into jail? Imagery, of course, comes to the rescue. The author appeals to the reader to put together the code words in their head and let their imagination fill in the gaps. The important thing is to convey that intercourse has taken place:
"they refus’d to stop to take any Refreshment ’till the next Day was almost spent; but when they were come into the House where they were to lye that Night, not all the fatigue they had endur’d, kept the Lovers from giving and receiving all the Testimonies imaginable of mutual Affection."
Cliffhanger
Love in Excess is Haywood’s first novel and she already enjoyed a career as an actress before. She was also a playwright and publisher of stage dramas. The result of this collective experience culminates in Haywood infusing her novel with a theatrical technique not exactly common at this point in the history of the novel, but which would soon become almost a standard element of its design: the cliffhanger. Here, for example, is how Part One comes to a conclusion:
“here was no Gloom now left to Cloud the Gaiety of the happy Day, nothing could be more Grand than the Celebration of it, and Alouisa now thought herself at the end of all her Cares; but the Sequel of this glorious Beginning, and what Effect the Despair and Imprecations of Amena (when she heard of it) produc’d, shall, with the continuance of the Chevalier Brillian’s Adventures, be faithfully related in the next Part.”
