The Fortunate Foundlings: Regency Romance Classic

by Eliza Fowler Haywood

This novels tells the story of orphan siblings left young in the care of a gentleman. When a brother and sister are older they must leave their guardian and make their own way out in the world, Horatio as a soldier and Louisa as a lady's companion. They travel to various battlefields and courts of Europe. They both experience new surprising customs in other lands, new passions, influences, adventures and love. In this novel the author explores different customs in the changing European countries (especially those that might benefit women) and different political views in other lands at that time.

Genres: Classics, British Literature, Novels, Fiction

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1744

About the author

Eliza Haywood (1693 – 1756), born Elizabeth Fowler, was an English writer, actress and publisher. Since the 1980s, Eliza Haywood’s literary works have been gaining in recognition and interest. Described as “prolific even by the standards of a prolific age” (Blouch, intro 7), Haywood wrote and published over seventy works during her lifetime including fiction, drama, translations, poetry, conduct literature and periodicals. Haywood is a significant figure of the 18th century as one of the important founders of the novel in English. Today she is studied primarily as a novelist.

Reviews

[D. Dorka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Helen Taylor következő narrálása a LibriVoxon. Csillagos ötös továbbra is, új kedvenc felolvasó, yaay. A regény viszont...szóval...nem?
Érződik rajta természetesen nagyon, hogy 18. század közepi. Ettől függetlenül nagyon furcsa élmény volt. Romantizált kalandregény vagymi. Ahol teljesen normális, ha a kvázi gyámod, aki ~20 évvel idősebb nálad, egyszer csak kitalálja, hogy el akar venni feleségül, és összevissza manipulál a célja elérése érdekében, ezért szerencsétlen lánynak el kell szöknie pénz és bármi nélkül a nagyvilágba. Bár legalább volt lélekjelenléte meglépni, meg utána sem hagyni bármit is a tapogatózó barmoknak. Miközben a a lány ikertesója nem tud semmiről, csak menetel előre a kis katonai pályáján, egészen Svédországig – heh? És végül kiderül, hogy a gyám az igazi apjuk, és nagy egyetértésben és szeretetben egyesül a kiccsalád. WTF? Márbocsánat.
Közben meg persze egyfajta kordokumentum, bár leginkább arról, hogy mit ki nem adtak annak idején. A nyelvezete szép. És igazából hallgatás közben le sem esett, hogy ennyire értelmezhetetlen a cselekménye. Érdekes élmény volt. Határozottan nem pozitív értelemben.

[Yesenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I actually listened to an audiobook read by Helen Taylor.
I am listening to books read by Helen Taylor, you see. And written by women. And old-timey. Because they're free and because they're forgotten.

This one was so silly!!! So, so silly!! But it was a fun read. I enjoyed it enough to finish it as soon as I could, because I wanted to know how the story would be resolved. I knew, of course, the the virtuous would be rewarded and the wicked would be punished, but, ha! Did I expect Dorilaus to be rewarded? No!!! But alas, the author did not seem to think that threatening to rape your fifteen-year old ward, whom you have raised since infancy, if she does not willingly "give in" to your passionate amour, is not something that you should be punished for. And he "tricks" her, to see if she is virtuous, when he finds her years later--after she ran away from home, alone, at 15, penniless, friendless, to save herself from being raped by a man she loved as a father, or being forcibly married to him--to see if she was as she should be. Christ! The sick bastard!

And H. Christ who was this king of Sweden!??! Was there ever such a creature? What a funny, funny book. A soap opera in every way--the poor, who have fallen in love with rich, beautiful folk and of course, are loved back by them, find out that they are not, in fact, poor, but of noble birth (if somewhat besmirched by illegitimacy). Been there, done that, seen that in every Mexican soap opera ever! And the constant melodrama and the narrow escapes from being ravished that our protagonist, between the ages of 15 and 19, endures! And unfair imprisonments for her and her brother, and she walks for 8 months from Bologna to Paris! I mean, this book is nuts!!!!!!!

This book made me laugh often, and it wasn't meant to be funny. But oh, it is often hilarious! That 150 years later you'd get the society described by Anthony Trollope, is quite extraordinary...

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an unexpectedly conservative novel for one with what feels like so much Gothic influence! Or maybe it’s not Gothic, and the “Gothic” isn’t as exceptional as we make it out to be. A tight, enjoyable plot.

[Rebekah Giese Witherspoon · Rating 2 out of 5]

#Georgianuary2020
Reading Georgian era books during the month of January
5 stars for my enjoyment of the free LibriVox audiobook brilliantly narrated by Helen Taylor
2 stars for my enjoyment of the book itself

That hurry of incessant diversion, which at first had seemed so ravishing to her young and unexperienced mind, began, by a more perfect acquaintance with it, to grow tiresome to her, and she rather chose sometimes to retire with a favourite book into her closet, than to go to the most elegant entertainment.

Published in 1744 and set in 1688, this work of historical fiction was written when the English novel was in still its earliest form. The excessive wordiness, melodrama, and moralizing is beyond anything I’ve ever read before but I’m glad that I had the experience and I’m so grateful to Helen Taylor for her beautiful audiobook narration which made this novel come to life for me. I never would have managed to plow through this book in print or on my Kindle because there are no quotation marks to indicate where dialogue starts and ends and that would have driven me crazy. Yay for audiobooks!

It seems to me that the novel’s theme is this: Becoming a Model of Honour, Integrity, and Virtue is infinitely more important than Birth, Rank, and Riches. That’s a bold and powerful message for a novel written in England in 1744. Eliza Haywood was quite ahead of her time in proclaiming through the pages of this story that the foundling twins Horatio and Louisa had as much right to kind treatment and happiness as anyone, as she states in her preface:

The Sons and Daughters of the greatest Families may give additional Lustre to their Nobility, by forming themselves by the Model [of Horatio and Louisa] here presented to them; and those of lower Extraction, attain Qualities to attone for what they want in Birth.

Here are a few more quotes:

Change of place affords but small relief to those whose distempers are in the mind.

P.S. Burn this paper, I conjure you, the moment you have read it; but lay the contents of it up in your heart never to be forgotten.

As mademoiselle Charlotta knew nothing of her story, she had no farther thought about it than of some little qualm, which frequently happens when young ladies are too closely laced.

Recommended for fans of Victorian literature who want to go back farther in time to the Georgian era to experience the English novel in its infancy. The ebook is free on gutenberg.org and Kindle, but I highly recommend listening to the free audiobook.

[Scout · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not as captivating as her other works that I have read. It was just OK.

[Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather a picking up and putting down progress, but I did persist to the end (and some of the issue may have been the rather odd formatting of the ebook).

[Justan Autor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really nice book :) A little less humorous/satirical than her other works. But still a nice read.

[Ellie McCabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miss Haywood was really like we are going to traumatize this girl and gave us a Woody Allen moment in the first chapter.

More fun than I expected.