Delarivier Manley is increasingly coming to the fore as a prominent figure in early eighteenth-century fiction, and The Adventures of Rivella in particular has been attracting attention not only as an important example of amatory fiction, but also as an early autobiographical novel. At one level, Sir Charles Lovemore tells the story of Rivella’s life to his friend, the Chevalier d’Aumont; at another, Manley uses the male persona to portray herself as an unrivalled literary goddess of love, repudiating conventional equations of woman, writer, and whore, and refusing to confuse chastity with moral integrity.

(Mary) Delarivier Manley's profile page

Katherine Zelinsky's profile page

Katherine Zelinsky currently teaches English at The University of Calgary and has published in the area of eighteenth-century fiction.

“The Adventures of Rivella is important not only as fiction, as a proto-novel, but also as veiled autobiography and is especially valuable for the light it throws on a woman author’s relations with publishers and other writers, both male and female. This edition makes this overlooked early eighteenth-century text widely available; furthermore, Zelinsky’s thorough, judicious editorial apparatus allows the reader to understand the book’s complex and fascinating contexts.” —Bruce Stovel, University of Alberta