Mary Davys

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MD was one of the first wave of novelists to follow Aphra Behn during the early eighteenth century. She also wrote plays and poetry, and is known as an Irish writer.
  • BirthName: Mary
    MD 's surname at birth is unknown.
    Bowden, Martha F., and Mary Davys. “Introduction”. The Reform’d Coquet; or, Memoirs of Amoranda; Familiar Letters Betwixt a Gentleman and a Lady; and, The Accomplish’d Rake; or, Modern Fine Gentleman, University Press of Kentucky, 1999, p. ix - xlix.
    ix

  • Married: Davys
  • Indexed: Mrs. Mary D.

Milestones

About 1674

MD was born, probably though not certainly in Ireland.
Her date and place of birth have to be calculated from her somewhat conflicting and sometimes fictional statements.
Bowden, Martha F., and Mary Davys. “Introduction”. The Reform’d Coquet; or, Memoirs of Amoranda; Familiar Letters Betwixt a Gentleman and a Lady; and, The Accomplish’d Rake; or, Modern Fine Gentleman, University Press of Kentucky, 1999, p. ix - xlix.
ix-x
Bowden, Martha F., and Mary Davys. “Introduction”. The Reform’d Coquet; or, Memoirs of Amoranda; Familiar Letters Betwixt a Gentleman and a Lady; and, The Accomplish’d Rake; or, Modern Fine Gentleman, University Press of Kentucky, 1999, p. ix - xlix.
ix-x

1700

MD wrote the novel later called The Lady's Tale, the Effect of my first Flight to the Muses.
qtd. in
Bowden, Martha F., and Mary Davys. “Introduction”. The Reform’d Coquet; or, Memoirs of Amoranda; Familiar Letters Betwixt a Gentleman and a Lady; and, The Accomplish’d Rake; or, Modern Fine Gentleman, University Press of Kentucky, 1999, p. ix - xlix.
xiii

By September 1724

MD published her longest book so far, The Reform'd Coquet, or Memoirs of Amoranda; a novel, by subscription: the first novel by a woman to be issued in this way.
Monthly Catalogue, 1723-1730. Gregg Press.

22 July 1731

The Grub-Street Journal printed MD 's brief but spirited and dignified response to its attack on her.
In print it gave her letter the date 29 July.
Davys, Mary. The Reform’d Coquet; or, Memoirs of Amoranda; Familiar Letters Betwixt a Gentleman and a Lady; and, The Accomplish’d Rake; or, Modern Fine Gentleman. Editor Bowden, Martha F., University Press of Kentucky, 1999.
229

3 July 1732

MD died in Cambridge.
Bowden, Martha F., and Mary Davys. “Introduction”. The Reform’d Coquet; or, Memoirs of Amoranda; Familiar Letters Betwixt a Gentleman and a Lady; and, The Accomplish’d Rake; or, Modern Fine Gentleman, University Press of Kentucky, 1999, p. ix - xlix.
xxiv

Biography

Birth and Early Life

About 1674

MD was born, probably though not certainly in Ireland.
Her date and place of birth have to be calculated from her somewhat conflicting and sometimes fictional statements.
Bowden, Martha F., and Mary Davys. “Introduction”. The Reform’d Coquet; or, Memoirs of Amoranda; Familiar Letters Betwixt a Gentleman and a Lady; and, The Accomplish’d Rake; or, Modern Fine Gentleman, University Press of Kentucky, 1999, p. ix - xlix.
ix-x
Bowden, Martha F., and Mary Davys. “Introduction”. The Reform’d Coquet; or, Memoirs of Amoranda; Familiar Letters Betwixt a Gentleman and a Lady; and, The Accomplish’d Rake; or, Modern Fine Gentleman, University Press of Kentucky, 1999, p. ix - xlix.
ix-x

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