Experiment in Prose: Authority and Experience in Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Letters

Abstract

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was known as an innovator during her lifetime. Voltaire singles her out as ‘one of the most intelligent women in England, and with a powerful intellect into the bargain’ (Voltaire 1980, 55), citing her preparedness to disregard religious superstition to trial smallpox inoculation on her young son while in Turkey, and subsequently to promote the practice in England (by introducing it to the Princess of Wales who then championed the practice). Voltaire identifes Montagu as a supporter of new knowledge and innovation, well positioned in society to ensure that her endorsement had impact beyond her own circle.