Memoirs of a Certain Island Adjacent to the Kingdom of Utopia

Eliza Fowler Haywood (c. 1693-1756) was a prolific writer, widely connected actress and critical philosopher. Besides her contributions to moral philosophy and economics, she provides noteworthy insights into early eighteenth-century English society. Haywood’s precise critique of a government ignoring the needs of its most vulnerable citizens remains compelling today. Her two-volume utopian work Memoirs of a Certain Island Adjacent to the Kingdom of Utopia (1724) is a mythological re-telling of the many problems facing early eighteenth-century England. In the first volume, Haywood discusses the economic and financial crisis brought about by England’s South Sea Bubble and interweaves it with her philosophical argument of genuine love and the corruption wrought by greed and lust. The second volume will be published in 2025.

Sina Menke, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg.