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The Backstory of Lady Mary Pierrepont's Turkish Embassy Letter

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Lady Mary Pierrepont was coming from an aristocrat family. She was an English writer and she was known for the letters she wrote while she was traveling. She became Lady Mary Wortley Montagu when she elopes against her father's wishes with Edward Wortley Montague, who was named ambassador to Constantinople. Because she contracts the smallpox, she decided to follow her husband in his travels, claiming that the change of climate would be benefic for her health. It wasn’t casual for woman to travel alone and poorly perceived by society. One of the famous one was “The Turkish Embassy Letters”, she wrote this letter while she was traveling to the Ottoman court with her husband. Also, at this time woman were not published but it didn’t stop her …show more content…

She thus played an important role in the fight against smallpox and the development of the vaccine. In her second letter to Sarah Chriswell, she is describing the solution that Turkish people found to the smallpox that made ravages in her country. She declares: “The small pox so fatal and so general amongst us is here entirely harmless by the invention of engrafting.” She also describe so of the process used to that inoculation: “She immediately rips open that you offer to her with a large needle and puts into the vein as much venom can lie upon the head of her needle, and after binds up the little wound with hollow bit of shell, and in this manner opens four or five veins.” (Montagu 179) The last letter is addressed to her sister Lady Mar. At the occasion of a dinner with the Grand Vizier’s lady, she had the opportunity to observe culture and customs which she is describing in her letter. She is narrating this moment, describing the architecture, the guests, her hosts and the magnificence of the dinner. She also insists her admiration for the richest of the scene and the people (even the slaves and maids). In the last part of the letter, she emphasizes the lady:”To say all in a word, our most celebrated English beauties would vanish near her.” (Montagu 181) Lady Montagu as a very large panel of writing; she can write about dress styles and fashion to some correspondents, about antiquities and architecture to others, and exchange verses in

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