SOURCE: “The Veil of Romance: Lady Mary's Embassy Letters,” in Eighteenth Century Life, n.s. Vol. 14, No. 1, February 1990, pp. 66-82.

In the following essay, Lowenthal argues that in the Turkish Embassy Letters Montagu romanticizes and aestheticizes Turkish women. “Such strategies,” the critic observes, “while appreciating Turkish women in ways previous travelers had not, also allow [Montagu to gloss over and even to erase the genuine pain experienced by some women in Turkey.”]

In August 1716, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu embarked on an extraordinary odyssey. With her infant son in tow, she accompanied her husband, Edward Wortley Montagu, newly appointed Ambassador to Turkey, through various eastern European states, before stopping to visit the baths in Adrianople and then settling in Constantinople. Taking advantage of her privileged position as the aristocratic wife of an ambassador, Lady Mary gained access to realms entirely uncharted by earlier male travelers: she secured permission to...