"That Friendship Which Is Yet Dearer to Me than Any Other Earthly Good": Female Intimacy in Eliza Haywood's Epistles for the Ladies

This article argues that Eliza Haywood's periodical Epistles for the Ladies is an important contribution to the perennially popular eighteenth-century dialogue about female friendships. Contextualizing this work in other seventeenth- and eighteenth-century writings about women and friendship, this article also makes the case for Haywood's radical vision of female virtue in contrast to didactic and pedagogical literature. Likewise, the article argues that Epistles showcases Haywood's ambitious critical aims by incorporating both amatory pleasures and moral concerns.