Montagu tries to give a new perspective to the readers by introducing the daily activities of the Turkish people, like going to a bathhouse. In one of her letters, she even comments that “Now that I am a little acquainted with their ways I cannot forbear admiring either the exemplary discretion or extreme stupidity of all the writers that have given accounts of them.” (71). In my essay, I shall argue that Montagu is initially an Orientalist, yet as the journey progresses she has changed her perspective and takes on an active role in speaking for the Turkish people.Īs a resident traveller with a genuine curiosity and admiration for the other culture, Lady Montagu is trying to permeate the message that Oriental countries are not as backward and strange as some Western people may view it.

Among most travellers we discussed in the course, Lady Mary Montagu is having the most stable life there as she does not have to explore from place to place like Marco Polo or underwent Nazi War like Charlotte Delbo, she does spend time digging deep in the cultural side of the Turkish people during her visit there. Lady Montagu described her daily activities in her letters and her exploration of a different culture, which was still mysterious to the Western perspective at the time.

Lady Mary Montagu’s The Turkish Embassy Letters, written from Turkey in 1717, described Montagu’s experience in the Ottoman Empire with her husband, who worked as an ambassador there.

Montagu turkish embassy letters