The Adventures of Eovaai: A Pre-Adamitical History by Eliza Haywood (review)

humanities 385 consideration. (CHRISTOPHER KELLY) Eliza Haywood. The Adventures of Eovaai: A Pre-Adamitical History. Edited by Earla Wilputte Broadview. 248. $15.95 Eovaai is a distinctive addition to the growing number of Haywood's texts available in modern editions. Neither romance, secret history, political satire, nor moral fable, it is a mixture of all these genres with traits of the fairy tale and the fantasy thrown in. The novel describes how Eovaai, princess of the ancient land of Ijaveo, loses and regains her kingdom and the perils she encounters in the process. She has a magic jewel, given to her by her father, whose sexual symbolism scarcely needs annotation, and a magic telescope; she takes a ride in a flying vehicle that looks like a giant lantern; she is turned into a dove, and another unfortunate woman is turned into a monkey. Ochihatou, the villain, is an evil magician who wants two things: ultimate power, and every beautiful woman he lays eyes on. Since Eovaai possesses both incredible beauty and a kingdom, she is inevitably his prey. The magician, however, is not just a combination of fairy tale wizard and romance rake: he is a satire on Sir Robert Walpole, and thus the complexities of the novel increase. There are many pleasures in this novel, not least of which are the names (Hahehihotu the Historian being my own favourite). The interpolated tales fold into each other and lead out into the rest of the tale, without being so lengthy or involved that we lose our way entirely. And while it shares features of all the genres to which Wilputte, in her very useful introduction, draws our attention, it is finally something different from all of them. It takes the standard `secret history' approach of demolishing a public figure through sexual slander, and there is sufficient correlation between its characters and English and European political figures to allow it to be read as allegory or roman à clef, but the final events point the way towards fantasy. Ochihatou/Walpole is revealed as the vile creature he truly is, and, stripped of all power, he commits suicide. The king of Hypotofa, whom Ochihatou has enchanted with a feather, awakes from sleep and takes over the reins of government, and rightful rulers are restored on every side. If there is a genre called `political fantasy,' here is a fine example. Wilputte's introduction is excellent, especially for the novice, and she provides an old spelling edition, clear textual notes, and reproductions of the title pages of the first and second editions and a frontispiece. The appendices include more literary portraits by Haywood, selections from The Country Gentleman, an entire (brief) anonymous novel, The Secret 386 letters in canada 1999 History of Mama Oello, Princess of Peru, based on the life of Princess Anne, daughter of George II, and selections from George Lyttelton's Letters from a Persian in England to his Friend at Ispahan. Together they provide a very full literary context, linking Eovaai to its literary world. I do have some questions about the commentary. It is difficult to argue that, because he is an observer rather than an agent, the Translator is a feminized figure, since in the period so many fictional annotators and editors are male. Surely the note on Leviathan should have some reference to Hobbes, and perhaps also to the Tale of a Tub; likewise, the note on Astrea should point to Dryden's Astrea Redux. I am not quite convinced by the identification of the characters in the Yximilla section; it seems odd to describe James II as exemplar of all monarchical virtues so soon after the supposed tribute to William and Mary, although it does work with the later references to a new branch of the family coming to the throne. And at this date (1736), I expect that lavish praise of the late Queen Anne, if it is she who is indicated, might not sit well with the Duchess of Marlborough, to whom the book is dedicated. The bibliography is useful, but its placement at the back of the book is awkward, since it also functions as a Works Cited for the introduction. Reservations aside...