an
early attempt to use the substance of everyday life as material for
fiction. It has been called with some justice the first domestic novel
in the language. Although the exact definition of a domestic novel
nowhere appears, the term may be understood--by expanding the French
_roman a la tasse de the_--as meaning a realistic piece of fiction in
which the heroine serves as chief protagonist, and which can be read
with a teacup in one hand without danger of spilling the tea. Mrs.
Haywood indeed drew upon her old stock of love scenes tender or
importunate, duels, marital disputes, and elopements to lend interest to
her story, but except for the mock-marriage with a scoundrelly valet
from which the imprudent Betsy is rescued in the nick of time by her
former lover, no passage in the four volumes recommends itself
particularly either to sense or to sensibility. There are few high
lights in "Betsy Thoughtless"; the story keeps the even and loquacious
tenor of its way after a fashion called insipid by the "Monthly Review,"
though the critic finally acknowledges the difficulty of the task, if
not the success of the writer. "In justice to [our author], however,
this may be further observed, that no other hand would, probably, have
more happily finished a work begun on such a plan, as that of the
history of a young inconsiderate girl, whose little foibles, without any
natural vices of the mind, involve her in difficulties and distresses,
which, by correcting, make her wiser, and deservedly happy in the end. A
heroine like this, cannot but lay her historian under much disadvantage;
for tho' such an example may afford lessons of prudence, yet how can we
greatly interest ourselves in the fortune of one, whose character and
conduct are neither amiable nor infamous, and which we can neither
admire, nor love, nor pity, nor be diverted with? Great spirit in the
writer, and uncommon beauties in the expression, are certainly necessary
to supply the deficiency of such a barren foundation."[11] Neither of
the latter qualities was at the command of the "female pen" that
composed "Betsy Thoughtless," but in spite of the handicap imposed by
the plan of her work and the deficiencies of her genius, she produced a
novel at once realistic and readable. Without resorting to the dramatic
but inherently improbable plots by which Richardson made his writings at
once "the joy of the chambermaids of all nations"[12] and something of a
laughing stock to