Manley's present reappreciation began with Patricia Köster's edition of her works. The more accessible edition of "The New Atalantis", which Rosalind Ballaster turned into a Penguin Classic, brought Manley wider recognition among students of early 18th-century literature. Janet Todd, Catherine Gallagher and Ros Ballaster provided the perspective of Manley as a proto-feminist. Fidelis Morgan's, "A Woman of No Character. An Autobiography of Mrs. Manley" (London, 1986) put the (auto-)biographical information into the first more coherent picture. More recent critics such as Rachel Carnell and Ruth Herman have professionalised her biography and provided standardised scholarly editions.