Bluestocking, author and hostess, Elizabeth Montagu (1718 1800) exercised an influence far beyond literary scholarship. Compiled by a relative, Emily Climenson, and published in 1906, this collection of her correspondence provides an excellent introduction to the culture and politics of eighteenth-century polite society. In chapters enriched by portraits of both Elizabeth and her correspondents, readers are invited to witness the public and personal interactions and entertainments of Montagu and her circle. The text contains accounts of operas, masquerades, concerts and marriages, and serious...