Lady Mary Wortly Montagu
Born:1689 Died:1762 Life Summary: Born the daughter of an Earl, Lady Montagu led an educated life with access to her father's extensive library. Against her parents' wishes, she married Edward Wortly Montagu in 1712. After a bout with smallpox, she left England when her husband became ambassador to Istanbul. These travels were noted in many letters that she sent home to England. She gave birth to a son and daughter doing her travels. Lady Montagu eventually divorced her husband, traveling the world and writing of her adventures. Major Works: The Turkish Embassy Letters, Nonsense of Common-Sense, Account of the Court of George I. Place in society/context: As an upperclass woman, her social status did not allow her to openly publish her writing. 18th Century Lit. Importance: Her letters during her travels were not published until after her death. They became travel guides for the Orient; the descriptions included a much needed female perspective of the Far East. Her descriptions reveal English stereotypes of foreign cultures, as well as a hunger for learning despite a lack of formal education. Isobel Grundy notes this restriction in her analysis of Montagu's life: "Lady Mary's was a life of struggle in almost all its places, both in the way inevitable for any woman of her time who 'attempt[ed] the pen,' and in a range of unpredictable ways connected with her particular, highly unusual circumstances and associates. The story of her life brings us hard up against the dominance of money matters over family relationships during this period, and the gulf separating those who had either property or access to property from those who did not" (Grundy xxi). The 18th century literature study would not be complete without mention of Lady Montagu, and her female perspective. |
Lady Mary Montagu spent a significant time in Istanbul, with those experiences shaping The Turkish Embassy Letters
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