SOURCE: Introduction to Secret Memoirs from the New Atlantis, by Mary de la Rivière Manley, Garland Publishing, Inc., Vol. I and II, 1972, p. 238.

In the essay reprinted below, Bosse emphasizes the unusual mixture of sensuality and high moral tone in the New Atalantis. Despite the novel's sensationalism, he argues, it is a skillful satire of early-eighteenth-century political figures.

Mary Manley's skill and influence as a Tory propagandist during Queen Anne's reign has been tacitly recognized by the historian Trevelyan, who calls The New Atalantis, which first appeared in 1709, "the publication that did most harm to the Ministry that year."¹ Four years earlier Mrs. Manley had attempted in Queen Zarah to vilify her Whig enemies, especially the Marlboroughs, by describing their wickedness in terms of lust and avarice. In the new and more ambitious work she extended the range of her targets, and by her own admission in...