The Turkish Embassy Letters

by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Anita Desai (Introduction)

Overview

The critical and biographical introduction tells of Lady Wortley Montagu's travels through Europe to Turkey in 1716, where her husband had been appointed Ambassador. Her lively letters offer insights into the paradoxical freedoms conferred on Muslim women by the veil, the value of experimental work by Turkish doctors on inoculation, and the beauty of Arab poetry and culture.

The ability to study another culture according to its own values and to see herself through the eyes of others makes Lady Mary one of the most fascinating of early travel writers and commentators

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781853816796
Publisher:	Little, Brown Book Group
Publication date:	01/01/1994
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's connections with poets such as Pope, Congreve and Addison and with Whig politicians through her father and husband provide a fascinating base for the correspondence.

Editorial Reviews

Her letters have an immediacy and vivacity that remains as fresh as the mosaics on the ancient monuments she saw and the eastern gardens that gave her such delight—Anita Desai

One of the best narrative travel books ever written by an Englishwoman—Dervla Murphy

A timely and compelling reminder of the reasons why we should pay attention to the writing of this remarkable woman. They have produced what will no doubt be the definitive teaching edition for years to come—Suvir Paul, University of Pennsylvania

What a treat to see this indispensable and versatile text again available . . . Her idiosyncratic, open-minded, proto-feminist responses to Islamic civilisation are more fascinating today than ever, and the context that the editors supply for them is simply the best yet—Isobel Grundy, University of Alberta

Her letters have an immediacy and vivacity that remains as fresh as the mosiacs on the ancient monuments she saw and the eastern gardens that gave her such delight.—Anita Desai

From the Publisher