All you need to know about the books you meant to read
THE TURKISH EMBASSY LETTERS by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1763)
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Just before her death, Lady Mary polished these letters for publication. Addressed to various correspondents including Alexander Pope, they detail her observations and reflections of aristocratic life in Hanover, Vienna, Belgrade, and Constantinople during 1716, when her husband was briefly appointed Ambassador to the Turkish Court.
Plot: Lady Mary is the unobtrusive heroine of this epistolary odyssey. Detached yet curious, she probes everything from Virgil to hairstyles, the nature of camels to the causes of warfare. In Turkey, she witnesses smallpox inoculation and, convinced of its efficacy, jabs her own child.
Theme: She appreciates rationality and fears mankind's espousal of brutality and prejudice. Repeatedly, Lady Mary withholds criticism: "Gallantry and good breeding are as different in different climes as morality and religion. Who have the rightest notions of both we shall never know till the day of judgement." Warfare is "proof of the irrationality of mankind" and she finds herself "inclined to believe Mr Hobbes that the state of nature is a state of war".
Style: Although the prose is superficially elegant and vivacious, there is a constant undertow of melancholy. Lady Mary is an Austen heroine, 100 years early.
Chief Strengths: The purpose of the letters is didactic, but Lady Mary's restless humour and blunt self-appraisal prevent her from becoming a bore.
Chief weaknesses: Lady Mary's tolerance does not always show understanding.
What they thought of it then: When they were published, the Critical Review praised the letters and Lady Mary for "the sprightliness of her wit, the solidity of her judgement and the excellence of her real character".
What we think of it now: Lady Mary is caricatured as a feminist icon, a sort of feisty neo-classical Freya Stark fearlessly toting her independence in exotic locations. This view must be balanced by Lytton Strachey's portrait of her as a tragic heroine who had the honesty "to look into the worthlessness of things".
Responsible for: Popularising inoculation, when British medicine consisted largely of leeches and purges. And provoking the only known area of agreement between Voltaire and Dr Johnson: they both admired Lady Mary's moral dash.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments