Mary Wortley Montague was a remarkable woman and fully deserves to be better known. She is perhaps mainly remembered today for popularising smallpox inoculation, and her efforts saved untold numbers from this terrible disease. But she was much more than this, although to call her a feminist avant la letter is pushing it a bit. She numbered many friends and acquaintances amongst the great and the good, from politicians to writers and thinkers, although these friendships didn’t always turn out well for her, nor did her many romantic entanglements. Her friendship with Alexander Pope was fractious indeed and later turned very sour. Her marriage was distant, although in theory the couple stayed together, and she wasn’t close to either of her children. Her son in particular was a waste of space. Mary spent much of her adult life travelling around Europe, rarely settling in one place for long – a very restless soul. This is a competent cradle-to-grave biography, somewhat dry in its approach, but thorough and well-researched and a fitting tribute to an unusual, talented and very interesting woman.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this book incredibly interesting the author really kept me hooked until the end. very well written I highly recommend.

This is a biography of Mary Wortley Montagu. Mary is a fascinating woman. She is a scientist, writer, and feminist. I had never heard of her before. Yet, this biography gave me an excellent introduction of her. However, the writing style was very dry. Still, this was a very comprehensive biography on an important, but forgotten woman!

I found this a bit too detailed and dry at times, but Mary was a fascinating figure whose achievements have been under-rated. She was open-minded about Turkey, an early feminist, and even lived in Europe on her own, as well as being a writer and mixing with other writers and intellectuals. Her main contribution to society was her introduction of inoculation against smallpox, a Turkish practice which she helped to start in England. She probably even told the Royal family about this. She faced heavy criticism about it from backward-looking doctors, as she knew she would.

Mary had rather a difficult life. Her husband was a 'cold fish' and she fell in love with a young man who she followed to Europe, but he wasn't keen. She managed to remain friends with him, however. She also had problems with her children, especially her son. This book finally does her justice.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

3.5
I have always wanted to learn more about Lady Mary and this book did a decent job of it. I definitely recommend it! Lady Mary indeed was an interesting & strong woman!

Fascinating read…

I had no idea who this person was before picking up this book but I’m so glad her story was told. So many different and fascinating aspects to this woman’s life. She was a mother and a wife. A crusader. A writer. A feminist. A pioneer in so many different ways, a feminist definitely. A lay scientist might be more accurate (in my opinion)…

She pushed and cajoled, so in many ways the diplomat that her husband was. She believed that smallpox was a disease that could be managed if not cured and devoted so much of her life to convincing those around her of the same. And all this in a time where women were still very much in the shadow of their male counterparts. She was of the aristocracy so she was given more leeway than perhaps others may be been given, but I admire her for the many envelopes she pushed. She used that status to her advantage as she mixed and mingled with the important figures of her time. She was not a perfect person and I appreciate the balance the author brought to her story. She wasn’t an unflawed mother or the ideal partner but led a life of truth to herself and her beliefs.

A great read and one that has me looking for more about (for me) this influential person…

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
I first remember learning about Mary Wortley Montagu in a university English course, although I only got a sampling of her work and didn’t think to go deeper into her impact. However, this book provides a great overview of her life and contributions, including the one I didn’t realize she was known for: introducing the smallpox vaccine to Europe. She had a colorful life, including a loveless marriage, a love affair with an Italian, and a writing career that led to her association with other writers of the day, like Alexander Pope. I feel like this serves as a fairly thorough starting point for someone who knows next to nothing like I did, but also will satisfy those who may know a bit more.

I really enjoyed this book and it is well researched however I’m not sure about some of the claims made by the author. Whilst Mary Worley was clearly influential, the influence she had seemed a little overstated, given the practices she advocated were already well established in turkey.
Having said that I really enjoyed the letters and details that were included here. This is one I’ll be buying to keep on my bookshelf.

What a fascinating person Mary Wortley Montagu was! Born in England in 1869 she was always unusual, clever, intellectual and independent. She is particularly known for her advancement of the smallpox inoculation (engrafting) but this book details so much more, too. She was an international traveler, author, women's rights advocate, mother and was associated with the likes of Voltaire, Alexander Pope and Henry Fielding, her cousin.

Mary did not marry for love...she did not marry her "paradise" but instead her "limbo". However, in her mind this enabled her to do whatever she liked. She and her husband spent much of their physical and emotional lives apart. When living in Turkey engrafting was successful and common and Mary was the first to inoculate her child in the West. Understandably, many did not trust it and this resulted in deaths. She would use every tiny drop from smallpox pus and scratch little cuts into skin and introduce the pus into the cuts. About five days later the person got ill but then felt much better and did not get smallpox again.

Mary may have been extremely privileged but her life was not easy. Her two children were basically estranged for years, her sister spent ages in a mental asylum and she had a few rocky relationships, especially with Alexander Pope which ended in disaster. She fell in love with a much younger Italian as well. Her heart swooned when she first saw Venice...I can relate to this as a frequent traveler to Italy. She spent time in France, too.

Nonfiction and History readers, do read this well-written and thoroughly-researched book on a remarkable woman, not always likeable but always interesting. The sheer amount of information is vast! I learned so much and am grateful for this new knowledge base.

My sincere thank you to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this stellar book!

I can't say that I knew much about Mary Wortley Montagu before picking up this book, so I was attracted partly by the overall title and feel like I didn't really get what I was promised. As a biography, the author has clearly done her research, to pull together the life of a woman who was clearly an outstanding writer in her time and a notable figure in literary circles.

However, to classify her either as a scientist or a feminist is stretching matters a bit - there's more argument to be had over the latter, since she clearly did have some feminist ideas and wrote about them frequently. Beyond that, she certainly was a strong advocate for the rights of one of her sisters, standing up for her against all-comers when her sister's mental health was at its most precarious, but again this is very much centred on her own family.

The 'scientist' label? I'm not so convinced. What she did do was introduce an idea into the UK that was already well-known in Turkey, after accompanying her husband there when he was made ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Was she an advocate for this apparently radical idea to prevent the smallpox epidemics that had ravaged Europe? Certainly. Does this allow us to call her a scientist? I'm still not convinced.

Anyway, if you're looking for a well-researched biography of a woman of letters, contemporary of Alexander Pope and Henry Fielding, this is the book for you. If you're looking to discover something else about the woman in question, as I hoped to do, this is possibly not going to leave you as satisfied.

I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher and Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.