The works of the right honourable Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, including her correspondence, poems, and essays. Published, by permission, from her genuine papers. The sixth edition

London: printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; John Murray; and Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1817. 5 volumes, 8vo, engraved frontispiece portrait by Watson after Richardson; original drab paper-covered boards, printed paper labels on spines; labels a bit rubbed but generally a very good, sound set. Uncut, and largely unopened. A commanding figure of the 18th century, Lady Montague evinced an admirable style with her intelligence, independence and sense of adventure. She defiantly noted the prevailing attitudes towards women: "There is no part of the world where our sex is treated with so much contempt as England" -- which is perhaps why she settled in Italy, choosing to live apart from her husband for a period of twenty-three years. She maintained "an undisputed supremacy as hostess in the intellectual society of London, and to her assemblies was, apparently for the first time, applied the now accepted epithet of 'blue-stocking'" (DNB).