Selected Works of Delarivier Manley

---

General Editors: Rachel Carnell and Ruth Herman
Consulting Editor: W R Owens

The Pickering Masters

This is the first modern scholarly edition of Manley and includes all of her known published works, except for two plays already available in the Pickering & Chatto's Eighteenth-Century Women Playwrights. It also lays the foundations of a much broader appreciation of Manley’s worth as a writer, dramatist, polemicist and pamphleteer. Scholars of women’s writing, the history of the novel, political history, and periodical history will find this edition invaluable.

• Includes all of Manley’s known journalism
• Brings scholarship up to date on The New Atalantis, first republished over ten years ago by Pickering & Chatto

Contents

Volume 1

The Secret History of Queen Zarah (1705)
Queen Zarah is Manley’s first work of scandal fiction. It plots the rise of Zarah (Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough) from favourite of Albania (Queen Anne) to virtual ruler of the kingdom. Zarah emerges as sexually voracious and ungovernably ambitious. The text itself can be positioned as an important step in the development of the novel while also providing valuable insight into the methods by which Tory propagandists demonised Sarah Churchill and used her as a symbol for a pernicious and irremediably corrupt Whig ministry. There is no modern scholarly edition.

Letters Writen by Mrs Manley (1696) This comprises a short set of letters written as a travelogue on a journey from London to Exeter. It is interesting biographically, and also as an early example of epistolary narrative. The style of writing is remarkable for its lightness of touch and its sophisticated commentary on contemporary manners. There is no modern scholarly edition.

Ladies Pacquet Broke Open (1707) This is another example of early epistolary fiction. It is extremely interesting in the light it sheds on Manley’s relationship with Richard Steele. It contains considerable autobiographical material. It also includes the story of the mysterious Beau Wilson, who was later claimed as the murdered homosexual lover of Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland. There is no modern scholarly edition.

Volume 2

The New Atalantis (1709)
This is Manley’s best-known work. It is structured as an allegorised overview of contemporary England as seen by visiting deities, featuring short fictionalized ‘interludes’ and a series of cameos on well-known contemporaries. The attack on the Marlboroughs is continued through a series of short episodes. It is a significant text on many levels, and has already been identified as central to the development of the novel from the Romance and the French roman à clef. In addition to this it shows how popular reading materials could be harnessed to political propaganda. It provided an exemplar that was followed by many other writers. Indeed it is often cited as the prime example of the scandal chronicle genre. Taken in an historical/political context, it has been identified as contributory to the downfall of the Whig ministry in 1710, and was considered sufficiently subversive for Manley to have been arrested for seditious libel. Although it has been issued in a modern annotated edition, this was some ten years ago. Recent scholarship and newly discovered material makes a new edition of this important text urgent. There is no modern scholarly edition in print.

Volume 3

Memoirs of Europe (1710)
Contemporaries viewed this as a sequel to The New Atalantis. In terms of the novel it shows a significant development in characterisation and narrative technique. Structured as a series of stories told to an ‘exiled’ British nobleman, Manley’s text is primarily concerned with the continuing story of the fall of the Whig Junto and the Marlboroughs , and the rise of Harley’s Tory Ministry. This story line is frequently dissected by a series of ‘romantic’ European digressions, which are deliberately contrasted with the carefully targeted propaganda. It is also remarkable for the bold trans-gendering of Queen Anne and Abigail Masham. There is no modern scholarly edition and only one facsimile edition, now out-of-print, has ever been produced.
Volume 4

Rivella (1714)
Manley’s fictionalised autobiography. This is a remarkably bold story of a woman who has held her own in an environment often assumed to be overwhelmingly masculine. Within the deliberately multi-layered framework Manley constructs herself as desirable in all ways. The work exudes self-confidence as Manley describes her confident sexuality and her impeccable loyalty and services to the Tory cause. This text is currently only available as a paperback teaching edition.

The Power of Love (1720)
This comprises a series of novellas that are fascinating in their difference to and development from earlier highly politicised Manley texts. The text is of primary interest to scholars working on the development of a feminist consciousness in early modern women’s writing. It demonstrates the crucial link between political propaganda and the development of the early novel. There is no modern scholarly edition.
Volume 5

The Pamphlets (1709–1713)
Manley wrote a series of pamphlets for Robert Harley’s Tory ministry. They demonstrate her remarkable range of styles and her command of propaganda techniques. The pamphlets deal with a variety of topics from the assassination attempt on Harley to attacks on Richard Steele and the Duke of Marlborough. It has previously been suggested Manley obtained her instructions for these pamphlets through Swift. However, recent scholarship has demonstrated that she worked directly for Harley and his ministry, probably the first woman to be professionally employed in this capacity. Indeed, Swift thought very highly of Manley’s skills as a pamphleteer, as is evident through his comments in Journal to Stella. Several of these pamphlets have never been available before. Some have been wrongly ascribed to Swift or Defoe. There are no scholarly editions of these pamphlets.
The Examiner (1711)
It has recently been demonstrated that Manley was directly commissioned by Harley’s ministry to take over the Examiner from Swift. Manley’s Examiners are an excellent illustration of the increasing maturity of the political periodical. They should be seen in the context of Swift’s polemical essays and Addison and Steele’s coyly ‘a-political’ Spectator. Manley’s journalism gives us an excellent and accessible example of the increasing sophistication in the targeting of readers for political purposes. They are therefore important in terms of book history, periodical writing and, along with the pamphlets, the direct entry of women into the sphere of overt political writing. Manley’s Examiners are not available in any modern edition.

Almyna: or The Vow (1707)
This is a fascinating play which can be read on a variety of levels. It is loosely based on Scheherezade and the Arabian Nights, with the story tellingly translated into a direct confrontation on women’s rights. It has been convincingly interpreted as a proto-feminist text, with Manley placing herself as the central character. However, it can also be seen as a discussion of the significance of words and oath-taking in the context of political loyalties. As such it allegorises the conflicts felt by Hanoverian Tories and their loyalties to the exiled Stuart monarchy. It is therefore of considerable significance to scholars interested in the growth of the Jacobite movement. The play text is not available in any modern edition.

Lucius, the First Christian King of Britain (1717)
This is another play that can be interpreted as pro-Jacobite, given that it deals with a prince, temporarily in France, who is robbed of his rightful throne by a usurping foreign king. Among other issues the play deals with royal religion and dynastic blood-lines both of which were of supreme importance to pro-Stuart Protestant Tories. Given that the themes of this play are so obviously controversial it is interesting that the play was hugely successful and was revived in 1720. Manley herself is said to have made the enormous sum of 600 guineas from it. The play text is not available in a modern edition.

Reviews

'By far the most thorough edition of Manley's works in print, [this edition] features the detailed contextual and explanatory material that characterizes Pickering & Chatto productions...[It] adds a valuable resource to the expanding canon of British literature.
Summing Up: Highly recommended'
– CHOICE

'an impressive achievement'
– Ros Ballaster, Eighteenth-Century Studies

Related titles

• Eighteenth-Century Women Playwrights

Return to top