and personal corruption, broken lives, ruined virgins, orgies, seductions, and rapes. The narrative employs the framing device of a conversation between the three allegorical female narrators, who observe, report and reflect upon the patterns of life on the remote Mediterranean island which is the scene of their investigations. The reader's sexual titillation is assisted by the amassing of sensual details in an atmosphere of luxurious accessories, perfumed in the sub-tropical heat, as in the description of the bedroom of Germanicus. Through the windows the scent of jasmine “blew in with a gentle fragrancy. Tuberoses set in pretty gilt and china pots were placed advantageously upon stands; the curtains of the bed drawn back to the canopy, made of yellow velvet, embroidered with white bugles the panels of the chamber looking-glass. Upon the bed were strewed, with a lavish profuseness, plenty of orange and lemon flowers. And to complete the scene, the young Germanicus in a dress and posture not very decent to describe” beguiled the sight of the Duchess who enters and joins him on the bed. A feminist critic observes that one aspect of the satire addresses the invisibility of women in the masculine world of politics and their consequent ability to influence situations through the power of gossip. The author is thus commenting on her own procedures in order to underline the points she makes. A parallel is also implied in the novel between seduction of the helpless in the sexual arena and deception of the public in the political sphere. Feminine marginalisation is made the image of the general public's political marginalisation. Supposed details of the author's personal history appeared integrated in the Atalantic world with the story of "Delia" in Volume two, and this was followed up by her autobiographical Adventures of Rivella (1714). Two volumes published in 1710, The Memoirs of Europe, were (in the early 18th century) often referred to as volumes three and four of the Atalantis, although they did not share the fictional setting. References Anderson, Paul Bunyan, "Delariviere Manley's Prose Fiction", Philological Quarterley, 13 (1934), p. 168-88. Anderson, Paul Bunyan, "Mistress Delarivière Manley's Biography", Modern Philology, 33 (1936), p. 261-78. Carnell, Rachel, A Political Biography of Delarivier Manley (London, 2008). Needham, Gwendolyn, "Mary de la Rivière Manley, Tory Defender", Huntington Library Quarterley, 12 (1948/49), p. 255-89. Needham, Gwendolyn, "Mrs Manley. An Eighteenth-Century Wife of Bath", Huntington Library Quarterley, 14 (1950/51), p.