The New Atalantis (full title: Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality, of both Sexes, From The New Atalantis) was an influential political satire by Delarivier Manley published at the start of the 18th century. In it a parallel is drawn between exploitation of females and political deception of the public. Sexualising politics The New Atalantis appeared in 1709, the first volume in May and the second in October. The novel was initially suppressed on the grounds of its scandalous nature and Manley was arrested and tried, but it was immediately popular and went into seven editions over the following decade. As a political satire on the behaviour of prominent members of the Whig party, it won the approval of the Tory literary faction, among them Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Richard Steele and Jonathan Swift. There is also a reference to its enduring popularity in Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock (Canto III.165). In the immediate background, and influencing the choice of title, was Sir Francis Bacon's novel New Atlantis (1627). In contrast to its altruistic utopianism, Manley reveals a hypocritical dystopia. There was also Thomas Heyrick's long verse satire, The New Atlantis (1687), attacking the defence of Catholicism as espoused by the Tory Party during the Stuart succession crisis of a previous reign. In this case the show of virtue by their Whig opponents is revealed as a sham. But the work also played its part in the attack on the current political favourite of the Whigs, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, whose wife Sarah was an influential attendant on Queen Anne. Sarah had already served as the target of Manley's earlier satire, The Secret History of Queen Zarah and the Zarazians (1705). Now The New Atalantis was timed to embarrass the Whig party in the coming parliamentary session and was to help the Tories into power in 1710. The relationship between the queen and Sarah Churchill was damaged as a result. The story concerns the return to earth of the goddess of Justice, Astrea, to gather the information about private and public behaviour necessary for the proper moral education of a prince in her charge. Astrea encounters her mother Virtue, dressed in rags and little regarded, and the two benefit from their power of invisibility to make their observations, guided by the earthy Lady Intelligence. Together they encounter a succession of scenes displaying public