The Adventures of Rivella
[1] The narrator Sir Lovemore recounts his incursions with the young woman named Rivella who he describes as irresistible and charming, as well as detailing her career as a political writer, defendant in two separate trials, and ultimately her search for love and companionship.
Through these two characters, Manley addresses literary questions regarding conventional notions of female writers in England during the eighteenth century, as well as the distinction between sexual abstinence and moral virtue.
The novel begins with a conventional exchange between with the fictive characters of Chevalier D'Aumont and Sir Charles Lovemore who are parlaying in conversation within the garden of the Somerset House.
[9] The narrative is made further complex when characters and their respective schemes are revealed, which continually allude to similar real-world incidents such as the deposition of James II (1688).
[7] Following this, Lovemore narrates Rivella's part in a major lawsuit, where she defends her personal ethics nature against individuals who are identified as unethical.
In Rivella's recovery, she begins using her wit and reputation to write for the stage, which stood out as the clear outlet for expression at the time for the female writer.
[12] In order to present her autobiography as a fictional narrative, Manley drew on a number of key events in her life, and references to her other literature to write her novel.
[14] These characteristics have also been credited to her satirical chastising of Whig party figures, including Sarah Churchill, who was known as Lady Marlborough at the time of Rivella's publication.
[13] Manley surrendered herself to the authorities on 29 October 1709 after the State's Secretary issued a warrant for her arrest, as well as one for her publishers and printers, who by this stage had already been remanded into custody.
[17] The not guilty verdict was founded on the fact that all of Manley's publications that were being used as evidence against her during the trial were prefaced as fictional works, and therefore did not carry any realistic implications of statements that could be seen as professionally detrimental to the party in government.
a faction who were busy to enslave their sovereign and overturn the constitution, that she was proud of having more courage than had any of our sex and of throwing the first stone, which might give a hint for other persons of more capacity to examine the defects and vices of some men who took a delight to impose upon the world by the pretence of public good, whilst their true design was only to gratify and advance themselves.
"[1][18] Recent commentators on Manley's political satire such as Catherine Gallagher have stated that these sardonic descriptions of Whig leaders had a remanence of truth about them.
[3] Scholars including Malcolm Bosse, Fidelis Morgan, Benjamin Boyce, and Janet Todd describe The Adventures of Rivella (1714) in terms of Delarivier Manley's complicated use of frame in her narrative, its flirtatious expression of a female voice in the public eye, and its multifaceted relationship to multiple literary genres.
The novel has also been described as a frame-narrative, which presents what Fidelis Morgan (1986) claims is a preeminent source for information about the life of its author Delarivier Manley.
[22] Bosse goes on to highlight that within Manley's fictional autobiography, she avoided defending her conduct as a satirical writer of politics in favour of seeking to justify her behaviour as an eighteenth century woman.
Although this preface exists only in the novel's first addition, with the second edition being published without it in 1717, Manley's claim that her fictional autobiography was a translation shows a distance aesthetically from other eighteenth century writers such as Daniel Defoe.
However, her fictional self-portrait has led particular scholars to stipulate that the character of Rivella illustrates a woman whose difficulties in life have arouse from her own sensuality, or as it is stated in the novel, from "the Greatness of her Prepossession".
[38] In 1714, Roberts printed a complete key with his edition of The Adventures of Rivella that made Manley's narrative into a text that better resembled a memoir of her life.
[10] In The Adventures of Rivella Manley uses a mixture of realism, naturalistic dialogue, and the French style of amatory fiction, which had never been used to such an extent in English novels.
