Mary Delarivier Manley (1663-1724) is known for her plays, scandalous memoirs and stories with a strong erotic seam. She had a bigamous marriage with her cousin, was lover to the warden of Fleet Prison and fell fowl of the law for libellous articles against the Whigs. In 1711 she took over as editor of the Tory paper the Examiner from Jonathan Swift.
             Discussing Warner's approach and assertions:
             There are various ways in which the reader of Warner's essay is drawn into the view that his critique of the novels rise is founded in Marxism. And yet the fundamentals of a Marxist approach, issues of class and gender, are not the points on which Warner builds his arguments. However, such is the questioning tone of Warner's work, especially when dealing with the accepted literary terminology which either elevates or maintains the elevated position of the "real novelists", that the reader senses the polemic associated with a politic critique. Note how adjectives linked to Richardson and Fielding, like "real" and "masters", are exhibited before the reader in quotation marks. This seems to be Warner clearly questioning their credibility at a very fundamental level. Further we have the specifics of his language. Warner talks about the "antagonism" between the new and old novel forms. The suggestion of struggle here is strongly indicated and the reader naturally draws associations to the foundation of Marxist principle, that of the struggle between the classes. The antagonism he senses is expounded in his terminology when he writes, amongst other sections;
             "The popularity between these earlier novels functions less as
             an "influence" and more of an "influenza" against the ...