The Turkish Embassy Letters book cover

18th-Century Turkish Insights

Travel Writing

The Turkish Embassy Letters

by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Anita Desai

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.


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About the book

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.

Book details

Published by Little, Brown Book Group

Paperback ISBN: 9781853816796 27 Jan 1994 196 x 132 x 16 (mm) 170g