This selection contains sixteen of Lady Mary's Turkish Embassy Letters, as they came to be known, addressed her sister, Lady Mar (letters 1-5, 8, 9, 13, and 16), to Lady Rich (letters 6, 12 and 14), to the Abbot of _ (letters 7, 10, and 11), and to the Abbé (letter 15). They were praised by Voltaire, and the Scottish author Tobias Smollett opined that they were 'never equaled by any letter-writer of any sex, age or nation'. Anna Secor, ‘Orientalism, Gender and Class in Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s Turkish Embassy Letters: to Persons of Distinction, Men of Letters &C,’Ecumene 6, no.4(1999): 18. The reading of the Letters presented in this paper situates Montagu’s text, including her famous claim that Turkish women have more liberty than British women, within the material and. Their posthumous publication in 1763 presented to the public the first secular work written by a European woman about the Muslim Orient. Lady Montagu’s only work meant for public disseminationThe Turkish Embassy Letterswas, unsurprisingly, her most influential publication. Lady Mary told the story of their voyage in a series of private letters full of vivid descriptions and unconventional commentary. Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M-y W-y M-e: Written during her Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa, to Persons of Distinction. In 1716, she accompanied her husband to Vienna, and thence to Adrianople (Edirne) and Constantinople, where he took up his post as the new British ambassador.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont) was an English aristocrat and woman of letters.

Montagu turkish embassy letters