Upsetting the Balance: Exposing the Myth of Masculine Virtue and Desire in Eliza Haywood's Philidore and Placentia.

A literary criticism of the novel "Philidore and Placentia: or, L'Amour trop Delicat," by Eliza Haywood, is presented. Topics include the role of the masculinity and virtue of the character Philidore in the novel, Aristotelian aspects of the view of gender in the novel, and the use of the romance genre to depict masculinity, virtue, and desire.