From Jacket insert: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is one of the great eighteenth-century letter-writers. In this, the first new edition for over a century, her letters are edited in a complete text based on her manuscripts (most of which survive), accurately transcribed and fully annotated. The first volume, for the years 1708 to 1720, contains three main groups of letters: those to Edward Wortley Montagu during their long courtship and their early married life; the entirely new series of letters to Philippa Mundy, valuable especially for its oblique light on the courtship; and the brilliant virtuoso letters written when Lady Mary accompanied her husband on his Embassy to Constantinople from 1716 to 1718.

The second volume of Lady Mary's Complete Letters includes the brilliant series to her sister Lady Mar, now for the first time edited entirely from the original manuscripts; the long, varied series to Lady Pomfret, from England as well as the Continent; the dutiful letters, many previously unprinted, to her husband about her travels and about her children; and the series to Lady Oxford, annotated from Lady Oxford's own manuscripts. Of the new correspondences, the most significant are her letters to Francesco Algarotti, which reveal new aspects of her personality and of her art as a letter-writer, and me ample series (in French) to Madame Chiara Bragadin Michiel, a Venetian lady, which displays her graciousness sparked with flashes of wit.

The final volume of Lady Mary's Complete Letters contains two major correspondences: the leisurely and diversified series to her daughter Lady Bute, in which she describes her life in Venice, Brescia, and the Italian lake country, and discusses her reading and philosophical economist, and his wife. Among the entirely new correspondences, the volumes add one with James Stuart Mackenzie, Lord Bute's brother, and the conclusions of those with Francesco Algarotti and Chiara (Bragadin) Michiel. In addition it contains summaries of various letters no longer extant; these come form Lady Mary's commonplace book, now in Australia. A detailed index to all three volumes completes the edition.