[MONTAGU, Mary Wortley, Lady (1689-1762)]. 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, Men of Letters, &c. in Different Parts of Europe. Which Contain, Among Other Curious Relations, Accounts of the Policy and Manners of the Turks; Drawn From Sources That Have Been Inaccessible to Other Travellers. London: Printed for T.Becket and P.A. De Hondt, in the Strand, MDCCLXIII. [1763].
THIRD EDITION. In three volumes, leather-bound, hardcover, small octavo (16cm x 10cm), pp. I: xii, [3 (advertisement)], [1 (blank)], 165, [7 (blank)]; II: [4 (title, verso blank, half-title, verso blank)], 167, [3 (blank)]; III: [4 (title, verso blank, half-title,verso blank)], 134, [6 (blank)]. English text. Bound in contemporary full calf, boards with gilt-ruled borders, spines with gilt bands and morocco lettering-pieces, red speckled page edges, initial and terminal blanks plus half-titles present. Condition: GOOD. Collated complete. Bindings secure with slight rubbing to extremities. The interiors slightly toned. Previous owner name neatly inked to front endpaper of vol. I. Lacking morocco title-plate to spine of vol. I. Scarce thus.
Notes: Third edition. The celebrated ‘Embassy Letters’ record Lady Mary’s travels in the company of her husband Edward Wortley Montagu, on his ambassadorial mission to Turkey. During the course of the embassy she acquired a wide experience of Turkish culture, studying with an Islamic scholar, as well as winning the confidence of the local women. The letters were rewritten by Lady Mary after her return to England and then circulated in manuscript; following her death – and despite the efforts of her daughter, the Countess of Bute – the letters were published by Becket and de Hondt in 1763 - this third edition appearing in the same year. The preface by Mary Astell (which is signed ‘M.A.’) was written in 1724, and makes the case for the superiority of female travel writers over their male counterparts: ‘I confess, I am malicious enough to desire, that the world should see, to how much better purpose the ladies travel than their lords; and that, whilst it is surfeited with Male-Travels, all in the same tone and stuffed with the same trifles; a lady has the skill to strike out a new path, and to embellish a worn-out subject, with variety of fresh and elegant entertainment’ (I, p. viii). Lady Mary’s success as a letter-writer was instantaneous, and Letters was admired by both Johnson and Voltaire; the latter considered that, ‘[i]l règne surtout dans l’ouvrage de mylady Montague un esprit de philosophie et de liberté qui caractérise sa nation’ (Oeuvres completes (Paris: 1821), vol. XLIII, p. 336). The popularity of Letters continue into the present time, and Robinson comments that, ‘I should not think they have been out of print since [their first publication in 1763]’. Atabey 829; Weber 477; for the 1st ed., cf.: Robinson, Wayward Women, p. 32; Rothschild 1452. ESTC T79460.
