New Atalantis

An early example of satirical political writing by a woman. The book, with its blend of politics and sexuality, is based on the public and private lives of prominent politicians and society figures of the time. New Atalantis (1709) is an early and influential example of satirical political writing by a woman. It was suppressed on the grounds of its scandalous nature and Manley (1663-1724) was arrested and tried. Delarivier Manley was in her day as well-known and potent a political satirist as her friend and co-editor Jonathan Swift. A fervent Tory, Manley skilfully interweaves sexual and political allegory in the tradition of the roman a clef in an acerbic vilification of her Whig opponents. The book's publication in 1709, fittingly the year of the collapse of the Whig ministry, caused a scandal which led to the arrest of the author, publisher and printer. The story concerns the return to earth of the goddess of justice, Astrea, to gather information about private and public behaviour on the island of Atalantis. Manley drew on her own experiences as well as on an obsessive observation of her milieu to produce this fast-paced narrative of political and erotic intrigue. The republication of this important early eighteenth-century text is timely because in Manley's concerns, with sexual and political corruption in high places, the power of the propagandist and the role of the woman writer, that we recognise those of today.