Secret Memoirs and Manners of several Persons of Quality, of both Sexes. From the New Atalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean. Written originally in the Italian and translated from the third Edition of the French

1709 [Manley, Delarivier. Name is given variously as Delarivière and Mary de la Rivière] (1660s?-1724). Secret Memoirs and Manners of several Persons of Quality, of both Sexes. From the New Atalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean. Written originally in the Italian and translated from the third Edition of the French [Written in English]. 2 vols. London: Ptd. for John Morphew and J. Woodward. Better known as New Atalantis. Rpt. under that title ed. Ros[alind] Ballaster. London: Pickering & Chatto, 1991 with an “Introduction” (v-xxviii). Rpt. ed. Rosalind Ballaster. London: Penguin, 1992 with the “Introduction” (v-xxviii).  U.S. ed. New York: New York University Press, 1992 with the “Introduction” (v-xxviii). L, PSt

Fairly obvious satire on contemporary English politics and society set in an imaginary country. At the time of publication, the author and her publisher were arrested for libel, and keys to the identity of the individuals portrayed were published in the editions of 1710, 1716, 1720, and 1736 and elsewhere and were used by Ballaster in her editions. A section of vol. 2 describing the “feminist Cabal” has utopian elements, including common property. Female author.