Letters

by Mary Wortley Montagu, Clare Brant (Introduction)

Immensely learned, self-educated in an era when formal schooling was denied to women, Mary Wortley Montagu was an admired poet, a consistently scandalous doyenne of eighteenth-century London society, and, in a period when letter-writing had been elevated to an art form, one of the greatest letter writers in the English language. Her epistles, meant for both public and private consumption, are the product of a mind distinguished by its adventurousness, its indifference to convention, and its eagerness not only to acquire knowledge but to convey it with unmitigated style and grace.

Genres: History

616 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

Poerrepont

The Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was an English aristocrat and writer. Montagu is today chiefly remembered for her letters, particularly her letters from Turkey, which have been described by Billie Melman as “the very first example of a secular work by a woman about the Muslim Orient”.

Reviews

[Eric Byrd]

"She was, like her age, cold and hard; she was infinitely unromantic; she was often cynical, and sometimes gross." --Lytton Strachey on Lady Montagu

Strachey is always recommending books to me from beyond the grave.